[Kilfer]

So, I'm slightly overjoyed when it comes to medical mysteries. To be honest, I could call it a hobby to read and research various diseases, virus, (fungus grows on the outside so occasionally well, mostly, it's kinda gross :-p and not my favorite).

At first I wanted people to just spout off random conditions they had, so I could look them up, or provide me a list of symptoms, and I'd conceive some kind of diagnosis. But then, I thought that it might actually fit into the game section.

The basic gist of this "game" is to (using some kind of medical knowledge) conceive a feasible diagnosis, based off of predetermined symptoms. It should also be known that (just as in real life) there can be many different possibilities, I'm only looking for something that fits.
Essentially this "game" will satisfy my thirst for random medical knowledge, hopefully.

So to start, I'm going to throw out a random symptom, which, should be pretty easy. In fact, it's the definition of it's disease.

Symptom(s):

- Inflammation of the liver


I'm sure googling that will work just fine. The hope is to get more complicated as we continue.

[karambit]

DX: Acute Liver Poisoning brought on by excessive consumption of alcohol.

Symptom:
Runny nose.

[Kilfer]

This one could either be really simple, or really complicated.

If the "run" is a greenish goop, obviously probably just your common cold.

If it's a clear, watery fluid, it could be brain fluid. Indicating a leak from the nasal passage and the frontal lobes of the brain. This would also cause severe disorientation and headaches however.

Therefore, I vote, common cold.


Alright, a bit more difficult:

symptoms
Fever between 99 - 102
loss of appetite
nausea / vomiting

[karambit]

Flu.

Severe pain in the shoulder.

[Kilfer]

Been sleeping on it?

It could be joint pain. Some kind of arthritis, or if there's a swelling, it may be some kind of infection, in the shoulder.

Yeah best guess is Arthritis.


Symptoms:
- Severe headache
- Occasional bleeding from the right ear

[karambit]

Bleeding from the ear is typical of Brain injury. Either ear damage or something like cerebral hemorrhage.
Unfortunately the severe headache symptom actually isn't that much help. If I could ask a few questions and poke their head a few times I could rule out ear damage.
The brain doesn't have any actual pain receptors, so if it were something like cerebral hemorrhage the patient would probably be dead.

I'm thinking ruptured ear drum, probably because the patient stood too close to a concert speaker or jet engine. It will probably need surgery, bleeding only occurs with major damage. Will refer to ear surgeon and prescribe pain-killers.

[Gunner]

lol. It all actually made sense to me after a couple episodes of House.

[Kilfer]

Karambit! That was very good deducing!

Although the pain doesn't have pain receptors, you can still definitely feel something wrong however. In one example, Chiari syndrome. The main blood vessels that feed blood the brain become constricted, this causes a MASSIVE headache, and loss of balance. It is pain I guess.

Let's say that upon looking in the ear, you can see dried blood, but nothing really out of the ordinary. Patient's also complaining now, that he can feel something moving everytime he moves or shakes his head. His hearing has been getting bad on the right side as well.

Hm?

[tobnameless]

we used to have a med student on the forum!!

[karambit]

One of the middle ear bones is probably broken. We'd probably want an x-ray, but seeing as the mallus incus and stapes are inside the skull we'll have to do an MRI. We'd probably want to do an MRI in that general area anyways, if it's not the middle ear it's the inner ear (cochlea, vestibule, and semi-circular canals). The MRI is a better choice considering the ultrasound option uses sound for imaging and will likely skew the results. The CT Scan is also based on x-rays so we can't use that one as it won't have enough detail.

Symptoms:
Patient complains of frequent nosebleeds.
Patient has bad teeth and skin appears pallor.