Day 2
The use of differential diagnoses can be a powerful tool to help students learn critical thinking skills and deductive reasoning. Once a list of possibilities is made (differentials) then additional information is evaluated to either eliminate or reinforce possible diagnoses on the list. So, once you have your initial list of differential diagnoses for this patient, take a look at the patient’s blood work and cognitive/neurological test. Click here for information on reading the cognitive test (starts at page 3). Neurological Examination vision- normal hearing-normal sensation- numbness on right side of the body balance/coordination- patient is unsteady and has issues touching right finger to nose, no issue touching left finger to nose pupillary light reflex-normal Cognitive Examination: Verbal and pattern recognition test-normal Response inhibition test-normal Spatial working memory test-normal Stroop test-normal Spatial working memory test-normal Vitals: Temperature 98.7 F Blood pressure 170/102 CBC: Red blood cell count: 4.4 trillion cells/L Hemoglobin: 132 grams/L Hematocrit: 37.6 % White blood cell count: 5700 cells/mcL Platelet count: 525 billion/L Differential: Neutrophils 57% Eosinophils 3% Lymphocytes 35% Monocytes 4% Basophils 1% Click here for a comparison of normal values for CBC and differential. |
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