Question

Chief Complaint: 74-year-old woman with shortness of breath and swelling.

History: Martha Wilmington, a 74-year-old woman with a history of rheumatic fever while in her twenties, presented to her physician with complaints of increasing shortness of breath ("dyspnea") upon exertion. She also noted that the typical swelling she's had in her ankles for years has started to get worse over the past two months, making it especially difficult to get her shoes on toward the end of the day. In the past week, she's had a decreased appetite, some nausea and vomiting, and tenderness in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen.

On physical examination, Martha's jugular veins were noticeably distended. Auscultation of the heart revealed a low-pitched, rumbling systolic murmur, heard best over the left upper sternal border. In addition, she had an extra, "S₃" heart sound.

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Questions:

1. What is causing this murmur?

2. What is causing her "S₃" heart sound?

3. Is her history of rheumatic fever relevant to her current symptoms? Explain.

4. A chest X-ray reveals a cardiac silhouette that is normal in diameter. Does this rule out a possible problem with Martha's heart? Explain.

5. You examine Martha's abdomen and find that she has an enlarged liver ("hepatomegaly") and a moderate degree of ascites (water in the peritoneal cavity). Explain these findings.

6. Examination of her ankles reveals significant "pitting edema." Explain this finding.

7. She is advised to wear support stockings. Why would this help her?

8. Which term more accurately describes the stress placed upon Martha's heart -- increased pre-load or increased afterload?

9. What is the general term describing Martha's condition?

10. How might Martha's body compensate for the above condition?

11. Martha is started on a medication called digoxin. Why was she given this medication, and how does it work?

12. Two weeks after starting digoxin, Martha returns to the physician's office for a follow-up visit. On physical examination, she still has significant hepatomegaly and pitting edema, and is significantly hypertensive (i.e. she has high blood pressure). Her physician prescribes a diuretic called furosemide (or "Lasix"). Why was she given this

Answer 1

Question no 1

As the murmer us occurring at the time of systole as mentioned in he case study the cause if this would be aortic thickening .

Question no 2

S3 sound is caused by a sudden decrease in the blood that is moving from the left atrial part of heart to the right.

Question no 3

Yes. Rheumatic fever is an important finding in this case as it mainly cause inflammation and damage to the heart muscle in human body . It can cause blockage of blood flow by affecting the valves that guard the valve in body.

Question no 4

No it will not rule out the possibility of the cause but it can only be helpful in avoiding some of the diagnosis that can occur to this patient like cardiomegaly as cardiomegaly will not occur in these patients with normal value of cardiac silhouette.