Your Patient Has Been on Antibiotics for 6 Weeks After

question 72

Multiple Choice

Your patient has been on antibiotics for 6 weeks after a case of streptococcal endocarditis, an infection of the inner heart wall. The infection clears up. However, the patient just visited you about a urinary tract infection, and the lab verified that the culprit was E. coli. What do you hypothesize happened in this situation?

• A) The lab has made a mistake in identifying the cause, and, in fact, the UTI was caused by the original Streptococcus.
• B) The lab has made a mistake in identifying the cause, and, in fact, the endocarditis was caused by the E. coli.
• C) Her normal microbiota in the genitourinary tract were killed, allowing E. coli (not killed by the antibiotics) to establish an infection.
• D) The antibiotics damaged her immune system, making her very susceptible to environmental bacteria.

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Definitions:

Otto Loewi

A pharmacologist and psychobiologist who discovered the first neurotransmitter and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1936.

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A progressive neurological disorder characterized by motor symptoms such as tremors, stiffness, and slowed movement, due to the loss of dopamine-producing brain cells.