1. A 71-year-old man has had headaches for several months. He has a palpable right temporal artery that is painful to touch. He has an erythrocyte sedimentation rate of 104 mm/hr:
ANSWER: E - The increased blood proteins, particularly fibrinogen, with acute inflammation lead to rouleaux formation with RBC's that elevates the sed rate.
2. A 79-year-old woman has had malaise and fatigue for the past year. Her CBC shows a WBC count of 6905/microliter, Hgb 10.5 g/dL, Hct 30.3%, and platelet count 181,000/microliter. She as a serum iron of 25 microgram/dL with iron binding capacity of 478/microgram/dL and serum ferritin of 6 ng/mL:
ANSWER: K - Iron deficiency anemia is a microcytic and hypochromic anemia.
3. A 38-year-old woman has the onset of fever with mental confusion over the past two days. Her serum creatinine and urea nitrogen are both rising. Her condition improves with plasmapheresis:
ANSWER: B or F - Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura leads to consumption of platelets, and there is fragmentation of RBC's.
4. A 42-year-old woman has been on long-term corticosteroid therapy:
ANSWER: G - Corticosteroids tend to decrease the number of lymphocytes.
5. A 29-year-old woman has an acute exacerbation of extrinsic asthma:
ANSWER: A - Allergic reactions can be accompanied by eosinophilia.