A 62-Year-Old Man Comes to the Emergency Department Due to Fever

question 175

Multiple Choice

A 62-year-old man comes to the emergency department due to fever, productive cough, and dyspnea for the past several days.  His symptoms are becoming progressively worse.  The patient has underlying mild chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and has smoked a pack of cigarettes daily for the last 40 years.  On examination, temperature is 38.3 C (100.9 F) , pulse is 110/min, and respirations are 24/min.  Auscultation of the right lung reveals bronchial breath sounds and crackles.  Laboratory evaluation shows leukocytosis.  Chest x-ray is shown below. The mediastinal contour obscured by the lung consolidation on this patient's chest x-ray is primarily formed by which of the following structures?

• A)Coronary sinus
• B)Inferior vena cava
• C)Pulmonary artery
• D)Right atrium
• E)Right ventricle
• F)Superior vena cava

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Definitions:

Last Month

A reference to the calendar month immediately preceding the current one.

Times A Day

A frequency measure indicating the number of times an event occurs within a single day.

Inferential Statistics

A branch of statistics that uses a random sample of data taken from a population to describe and make inferences about that population.

Descriptive Statistics

Statistical methods that summarize and describe the features of a data set, including measures of central tendency and variability.