OVERVIEW
This page is dedicated to organizing various examples of standardized exam questions whose answer is chikungunya fever. While this may seem a odd practice, it is useful to see multiple examples of how chikungunya fever will be characterized on standardized exams (namely the boards and the shelf exams). This page is not meant to be used as a traditional question bank (as all of the answers will be the same), however seeing the classic “test” characterization for a disease is quite valuable.
QUESTION EXAMPLES
Question # 1
A 40 year old female comes to the clinic because she has been experiencing fever and malaise for the past few days. Her symptoms started soon after she came back from a vacation to he Caribbean islands. For the past day she has also noticed a significant pain in the hand and wrist joints. She denies using tobacco products and does not have any allergies. She works as an office assistant at a local startup company, and is in a monogamous relationship with her fiancé. Her temperature is 103.1°F, blood pressure is 110/70 mm Hg, and pulse is 100/min. A physical exam reveals a macular skin rash on her body and mild cervical lymphadenopathy. There is also marked swelling and tenderness of her hand, wrist, and ankle joints bilaterally. Serum studies are shown below:
- Hematocrit: 39%
- Platelets: 130,000/mm³**
- Leukocytes: 2,600/mm³**
- Creatinine: 0.9 mg/dL
- AST: 30 U/L
- ALT: 22 U/L
What is a possible diagnosis in this patient?
Explanation: fever + recent trip to the Caribbean + polyarthralgias + thrombocytopenia + lymphopenia = chikungunya fever
Page Updated: 02.19.2017