Significance of ictal head turning in frontal and temporal lobe seizure

Hello Awesomites!

Let us begin.

My patient had an episode of seizure. As she was not aware during the episode I asked the one who saw her during the episode. She had head turning to one side.

The patient had other complain also but for time being I am focusing on this sign.

When you begin from symptoms to localization and then lateralization, you will get following answers.

Non versive head turning - Ipsilateral temporal lobe.

Forced (versive) head turning - Contralateral Frontal lobe.

I want to thank my professor.

I hope it will help you to be more observant during history taking.

-Upasana Y. :)

Question: Rhinoscleroma

#Medicowesome
#Ent

Which of the following feature(s) of rhinoscleroma is/are true except:-

1) Atrophy of nasal mucosa
2) Caused by fungus
3) Treatment by antifungal drug
4) Caused by bacteria
5) Causative organism may be cultured from biopsy material

Answer in 24 hours!

So correct options are option 2 and option 3.

Rhinoscleroma is bacterial chronic granulomatous infection caused by Klebsiella rhinoscleromatis or Frisch bacillus.

Mode of transmission: 

Not unknown

Pathology:

Starts in the nose and extend upto naso-pharynx, larynx, trachea and bronchi.

Clinical features:

1) Atrophic stage:

Foul-smelling prurulent nasal discharge and crusting.

2) Granulomatous stage:

"Woody nose" feel is seen in lower part of nose and upper lip. Nodules are painless and non-ulcerative.

3) Cicatrical stage:

Distortion of upper lip, adhesion in the nose, nasopharynx and stenosis of subglottis.

 Diagnosis:

 Presence of Mikulciz cells and Russell bodies 

1) Mikulicz cells: Macrophages containing central nuclues and vacuolated cytoplasm along with bacilli.

2) Russell bodies: Homogeneous eosinophilic inclusion bodies found in plasma cells.

Treatment:

Streptomycin and tetracycline given for 4-6 weeks and repeated.

Question: Rhinosporidiosis.

#Medicowesome
#Ent

In rhinosporidiosis, the following is true:-

1) Fungal granuloma
2) Grayish mass
3) Surgery is the treatment
4) Radiotherapy is treatment

Answer in 24 hours!

Correct option is 3 - Surgery is the treatment.

Let's know more about rhinosporidiosis.

It is a chronic granulomatous disease caused by "Rhinosporidium seeberi" affecting both humans and animals. Earlier it was considered to be fungal in origin but now it is considered to be Aquatic protozoa.

Life cycle: It occurs in three stages.

1) Trophic stage: In this stage, the individual cell is called as trophocyte.

It has following features
-One chitinous wall
-Clear cytoplasm
-Nucleus along with nucleolus

Now trophocyte starts dividing and froms a colony. This colony is packed inside a sac called as "Sporangium". The trophocyte inside is called as "Endospores"

2) Sporangium stage:

Sporangium, unlike earlier stage is lined by two membranes
-Outer Chitinous
-Inner Cellulose layer

3) Endospore release:

The endospores present inside exerts pressure on the sporangium and this leads to rupture of the sporangium. Released endospores acts as trophocyte further.

Mode of transmission:
Water contaminated by diseased animals.

Clinical features:

Most common sites involved: Nose and nasopharynx.

Other sites like lips, palate etc can also get affected.

In nose it is present as - leafy, polypoidal mass, pink to purple in color.
Can extent upto soft palate.
Bleeds easily on touching. So, we can also see blood tinged discharge.

Diagnosis: Biopsy 

Treatment: 

Complete excision with diathermy knife and cauterization of its base.

That's all

-Demotional bloke

Modified Allen test

Hello Awesomites! :D

Hope you guys are doing great. Assuming that you might have heard about ABG analysis I am discussing about Allen's test.

What is Allen's test?

Allen's test is done to assess the circulation of the hand (i.e. Radial and ulnar artery).

Procedure:-

The examiner apply the pressure to the wrist occluding the ulnar and the radial arteries. The patient then make the fist and open and close it several times. The hand should appear blanched by this time because the arteries has been occluded temporarily.

Now remove the pressure from ulnar artery. If the return of color occurs quickly, then test is considered to show a normal circulation.

If it take 5-15sec in flushing of palm then test is positive and ulnar artery is adequate to supply the arch, we can proceed with sample collection in this patient. If it takes >15 sec then choose alternative site. Alternative sites for access are brachial or femoral arteries, but these have several disadvantages.

Repeat the same procedure for radial artery.

Importance in:-

1. Volar wrist ganglion around the radial artery.

2. before doing ABG analysis.

Study more about it. 

-Upasana Y. 

Question: Chicken pox

#Medicowesome
#Microbiology
#PSM

Q) True about chicken pox are all except:

1) Caused by HSV-3
2) SAR is 90%
3) Superficial rash
4) Single stage of rash

Answer in 12 hours 

 Answer is 4) Single stage of rash

So, this post will help you remember manifestation of Chickenpox rash. You can also differentiate between Chickenpox and Smallpox rash using same

So for Chicken pox remember this mnemonic:-

DCP SPAReS Iron man ( Always Marvel fan!)

D= Dew drops appearance

CP= Centripetal appearance

S= Superficial and Uniocular 

P=Pleomorphic

A= Axilla and flexor surface affected

R=Rapid evolution

S=Spares palms and soles 

I=Inflammation around vesicles present

Since we have rapid evolution in chicken pox, scabs are formed after 4-7 days itself.

Smallpox rash appears exactly in an opposite manner of chickenpox rash.

Smallpox rash manifests as follow:-

Centrifugal appearence

Deep and Multilocular appearence

Non-pleomorphic

Axilla is spared and extensor compartment affected 

Slow evolution

Palms and soles are affected

No inflammation around vesicles

Since we have slow evolution in chicken pox, scabs are formed after 10-14 days itself.

-Demotional bloke

Question: Squint manifestations

#Medicowesome
#Ophthalmology

Question)

A patient presented with his head tilted towards right. On examination, he was having Left hypertropia which is increased on looking towards right or medially. The muscle which is mostly likely paralyzed is?
1) Left superior oblique
2) ‎Left inferior oblique
3) ‎Right superior oblique
4) ‎Right inferior oblique

Answer in 24 hours

Answer is 1) Left superior oblique

So, you can see above question is based on Park 3 steps method. I will try to simplify it as much as possible. Let us try to find out what essential information we get from above from above question. So I find three things.

-Left hypertropia.

-Increases on looking towards right.

-Head tilted towards right  (For compensating diplopia)

To proceed further, I want you to take care of two things .

1) Draw clinical eye movement diagram for squint not anatomical diagram

2) In this technique we go with parameters which increases diplopia for patients.

So, hold your horses and let us get started.

Step 1: Left hypertropia= Right hypotropia

So, basically you have to solve now question for two eyes instead of one. This is the same reason option 3 and option 4 could be right as well. So, when you draw clinical diagram for same you have to highlight muscles which are paralyzed leading to above criteria.

So, left hypertropia is caused by paralysis of the inferior muscles - Superior oblique and Inferior rectus.

In right hypotropia, superior muscles are paralyzed -Inferior oblique and Superior rectus. 

So our diagram will be as follow. We need to concentrate on four muscles only

Step 2: Now let us go to second clue. Diplopia increases on looking towards right. So, out of our four selected muscles let us see which muscles moves eyeball towards right.

 In right eye, it is Superior rectus.

In left eye, it is Superior oblique.

Our diagram will be as follow and your muscles will be narrowed down to two. Each from one eye.

Step 3: So this is final step. The End game. (Reminds me Taylor swift!)

  We have one last finding and that is patient's head is tilted towards right. Remember that this is compensatory method of patient for avoiding diplopia which actually suggests that patient is experiencing diplopia maximum when head is tilted towards left.

So in our last step we will be using clue as head tilted towards left! (Remember we go to maximum diplopia.)

So, this time hold your pencil in the centre of our clinical diagram and tilt it towards left. Obviously do this for both eyes individually. Simply like this

Now, this will narrow down your two muscles into one. Let us do it for right eye first. We will get muscle IO which is not among of our selected two muscles so discard it. Now go to left eye, do same over here. You will get answer as SO

Hope that makes your job easy as far as squint is considered.

-Demotional bloke

Transcription : A mnemonic to remember the RNA Polymerases

Here's a short mnemonic post for you!

Transcription is the process by which the DNA is converted into an RNA transcript ( Literally - the DNA is transcribed or written out as an RNA sequence).

The key enzyme needed for this process is RNA Polymerase.

In Eukaryotes , there are 3 different RNA Polymerases subtypes depending on which RNA they help code for. 

We know that Ribo Nucleic Acids or RNA can be mRNA - Messenger RNA , tRNA or Transfer RNA , rRNA - Ribsomal RNA or one of the small nuclear RNAs - micro RNA - miRNA / siRNA.

Here's a mnemonic to memorize which RNA Polymerase codes for which of these -

Mnemonic - R MIS T5 (Read as R Mistify)

RNA Polymerase I = rRNA
RNA Polymerase II = mRNA, miRNAs , siRNAs
RNA Polymerase III = tRNA , 5S rRNA

This form of RNA specificity is not found on the Prokaryotes - and they have just one RNA Polymerase that bears it all , for all types of RNA !

This has been a quick summary of transcription and a helpful mnemonic for you!

Hope was helpful.
Stay awesome !
Happy Studying!

~ A.P.Burkholderia

Question: Dengue and eye

#Medicowesome
#Ophthalmology

Q) In Dengue, all are seen w.r.t eye except:-

1) Cataract
2) Optic neuritis
3) Vitreous hemorrhage
4) Maculopathy

So, you basically cannot solve above problem if you don't know which portion dengue affects in eye.

Dengue affects posterior portion of the eye. So accordingly answer is
Cataract-Option 1

Some basics to cover over here.

Eyeball is divided into two segments or portion.

Anterior segment: Cornea to lens.
Volume - 0.31mL of Aqueous humor.

Posterior segment: Lens to retina.
Volume - 4mL of Vitreous humor.

Anterior segment is divided into two parts:-

Anterior chamber: Cornea to iris.
Volume- 0.25mL of Aqueous humor

Posterior chamber: Iris to lens.
Volume- 0.06mL of Aqueous humor

-Demotional bloke.

Question: Diabetic 3rd nerve palsy

Question:
In Diabetic 3rd nerve palsy all are seen except
A) Pupil dilation
B) Outward and downward gaze
C) Ptosis
D) Impaired pupillary reflex

Let us start with the basic.

Mnemonic for extraocular muscles nerve supply
LR6 SO4 Rest3

Lateral rectus is supplied by 6th nerve or abducence nerve and superior oblique by 4th nerve or trochlear nerve and rest all  muscles including LPS are supplied by 3rd muscle or  occulomotor nerve.

In pupillary reflex,
Afferent nerve: Optic nerve
Efferent nerve: Occulomotor nerve.

So in case of 3rd nerve palsy, we will have less or no actions of all EOM except lateral rectus and superior oblique.
So we will have downward gaze (due to superior oblique) and outward gaze (due to lateral rectus) and Ptosis (because LPS is supplied by 3rd nerve! ).
Pupillary reflex is also disturbed so option 4 is also ruled out.

Here is a trick in this question. In DM and HTN, microangiopathy is seen due to which central fibers are affected.
Central part do not contribute to pupillary reflex.
This leads to no pupil dilation. In case of surgical conditions and trauma, peripheral fibers are affected which causes impaired pupillary reflex or pupil dilation.

-Demotional bloke.

Apgar score in preterm infants

Hello Awesomites!

APGAR score-
This score tells you about the well being by evaluating cardiac,respiratory and nervous system of a newborn.

APGAR score of a preterm infants is always low. Because certain criteria in  APGAR are not met by preterm babies.

In preterm babies respiratory efforts,muscle tone,colour is variable.So your score will come less.

It is something that interests me.
May be in future new components will be added to use this score in evaluation of preterm infants.

-Upasana Y. :)

Timeline in Psychiatry

Hello Medicowesomites! While studying psychiatry, you must have realised diagnosis of any condition requires two parameters:

1. Clinical presentation
2. Time

This post enlists how to make a psychiatric diagnosis in time.

Author's note: This blogpost is intended for an audience having a foundation knowledge of the subject.
It does not explain any concept or review any literature, instead serves as a quick cheat sheet for timeline required to make a psychiatric diagnosis.

[Kindly click on the image to view the table clearly]

Happy studying!

-- Ashish Singh

Hering's law of equal innervation

Now to study this law, we need to know clinical function diagram of eye muscles.

So according to this diagram,

Right SR is responsible for elevating right eye to right side.
Similarly, Left IO is responsible for elevating left eye to right side.

Since both the muscles are performing same action on two different eyes using two different muscles they are called yoke muscles of each other.
This is Hering's law of equal innervation.

Now, here is a trick to solve problem without looking into the diagram:

Right gets converted to Left.
S (Superior) gets converted to I (Inferior)
O (Oblique) gets converted to R (Rectus)

So the mnemonic for remembering muscle change is

ROSI (You can remember it as ROSS from friends!)
R gets converted to O.
S gets converted to I.

-Demotional bloke

Movements of eye muscles.

This post is actually the primary post for squint studies. Just basic post so we can explore squint in easy and simplified manner.

So there are seprate diagrams for anatomical and clinical functions. In this post we will go for former part.

Anatomical functions diagram.

Note: Don't use this diagram when you are studying squint. This diagram is used only for movements of eye muscles.

So every muscle has 3 actions except medial and lateral rectus.
Actions are divided into three types Primary, secondary and tertiary.

We know the basic or primary action of superior and inferior rectus is to elevate and depress the eyeball respectively.

According to the diagram given you also know that superior rectus can intort and adduct. Similarly, inferior rectus can extort and adduct the muscles.

How to remember this?
1) Through diagram.
2) Trick: Recti muscles are adductors

Now comes to SO(Superior oblique) and IO(Inferior oblique). Now this is also basic which we fail to notice often. These muscles are coming to tarsus part of eye obliquely. So, primary action is intortion and extortion respectively. Now go to diagram and you will notice that IO actually corresponds to SR hence it performs elevation and SO corresponds to IR so it performs depression.

Also, both the muscles are "Abductors"

How to remember this?
1) Diagram off course!
2) Trick: Superior muscles are Intorters and inferior muscles are extorters.

To keep the things in apple pie order I have made this chart. Hope it helps.

-Demotional bloke