Challenge your diagnostic acumen: Study the following x-ray images, electrocardiograms, and photographs and consider what your diagnosis might be in each case. While the images presented here are authentic, the patient cases are hypothetical.
79-Year-Old Female With Acute Back Pain
A 79-year-old female presents to urgent care complaining of sharp, severe lower back pain for the past 2 months. The pain began when she was bending over to pick something up from the floor and has not improved. The pain occasionally radiates to her flank area but not down her legs, and she denies any bowel or bladder pattern changes. She tried acetaminophen, cold and warm compresses, and rest without any relief. The pain worsens when she sits for long periods of time with slight improvement with rest. Her main …
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8-Year-Old Male with Facial Rash
An 8-year-old male is brought to urgent care by his mother reporting a widespread, itchy facial rash. The patient says that the rash is severely painful and pruritic, and that he feels tingling and pain in his lips. The facial rash presented 3 days prior, and the mother states that her son repeatedly scratches the legions. The patient and is family are from Honduras; they deny any recent travel. The patient is otherwise well and denies any systemic symptoms. No treatments were tried for symptoms at home. Physical exam reveals normal …
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64-Year-Old With Acute Posterior Ankle Pain
A 64-year-old woman with a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes mellitus, osteoarthritis, and obesity presents to urgent care with acute right posterior ankle pain after stumbling on a curb earlier that day. She says she felt a sudden sharp pain in the back of her ankle and experienced immediate difficulty walking and climbing stairs. She reports 10 days of mild posterior ankle discomfort before this event, which she treated with ice, an elastic wrap, and intermittent crutch use. Approximately 2 weeks prior to presentation, she was treated with …
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83-Year-Old Female With Palpitations
An 83-year-old female with a past medical history of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and hyperlipidemia presents to urgent care with palpitations and dizziness for the past 2 weeks. She does not have any family members present. An ECG is obtained. View the ECG and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is described on the next page. Figure 1: Initial ECG Case presented by Aqeeb Ali, DO, PGY2 at UTHealth Houston …
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28-Year-Old Female With Rolled Right Ankle
Figure 1. Initial X-ray A 28-year-old female presents to urgent care complaining of right ankle pain after awkwardly stepping off a high curb, subsequently rolling her ankle while running outside earlier today. She is unable to bear weight on her ankle. She has no past medical history, takes no medications regularly, and has not tried any treatments since the injury. Physical exam reveals she is afebrile with normal vital signs, and she has marked tender edema to the lateral malleolus. Pain is elicited with all planes of ankle range of …
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