A College Student Is Examined at the Emergency Department; He $\times$

question 6

Multiple Choice

A college student is examined at the emergency department; he is disoriented with a fever, intense headache, stiff neck, vomiting, and sensitivity to light. His friends say that he has been sick for about 2 days and that his condition worsened over the last 3 hours. The serum electrolytes are normal, but the patient's white blood count is 12,000 cells/L. What test should the physician order next?

• A) Urinalysis and urine culture
• B) Stool Gram stain and culture
• C) CSF Gram stain and culture
• D) Blood cultures \(\times\) 3

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Definitions:

Constructive Dilemma (CD)

A logical argument asserting that if P implies Q and R implies S, and either P or R is true, then either Q or S must be true.

Atomic Sentences

The simplest type of sentence that cannot be broken down into smaller components while still expressing a complete proposition.

Truth Table

A mathematical table used in logic to determine whether a compound statement is true or false, depending on the truth values of its components.

Modus Tollens (MT)

A form of logical argument that concludes the inverse of an antecedent from the negation of its consequent in a conditional statement.