Med term

Instructions:  Below is a narrative of a complete patient encounter.  Read the passage and answer the 10 questions in your response.  Please number the the answers.  You do not need to reply to other students this week.  Each question is 10 points and points will only be given for complete answers.  

You and your ALS partner are dispatched to Oneida Medical Center on Lake Avenue for a 65-year-old male patient with respiratory distress and palpitations. Dr. Jones, his pulmonologist, meets you at the door to give you some information about the patient, who has several medical problems.

Dr. Jones tells you that the patient has severe cardiomegaly as result of a long history of pulmonary hypertension from arteriosclerosis, and his condition has gotten much worse over the past 2 weeks.

1. Based on your knowledge of medical terminology, what kind of doctor is a pulmonologist, and what does the history of pulmonary hypertension tell you?
2. What are cardiomegaly and arteriosclerosis?

Your partner asks you to turn on the cardiac monitor and open a package of patches to prepare for an ECG. He says that the patient has supraventricular tachycardia but for now is stable.

3.What does ECG stand for?

4.What does it mean to say a patient has supraventricular tachycardia?

The patient’s heart rate is 130 beats/min and irregular, his respirations are 20 breaths/min, and his blood pressure is 156/94 mm Hg. The pulse oximeter shows a SpO2 of 88%, and your partner tells you to start treating the patient’s hypoxia.

You notice that the patient has some cyanosis of his fingers, and is otherwise pale. You remember the doctor telling you that the patient has a low erythrocyte count, and that he has episodes of hemoptysis. 

5. What do the terms oximeter and SpO2 mean? What is hypoxia?
6. What is cyanosis? What does the doctor mean by a low erythrocyte count and hemoptysis?

The paramedic starts an intravenous line in the left antecubital area in case the patient’s condition worsens and an antiarrhythmic drug is needed. Before you leave the office, the nurse hands you some paperwork to bring to the hospital with the patient. Included in this paperwork are reports from the patient’s nephrologist and cardiologist, as well as a copy of his most recent echocardiogram.

7.  What is an IV, and where did the paramedic place it on this patient?

8.What type of doctors are cardiologists and nephrologists?

9.What is an echocardiogram?

You and your partner prepare the patient for transport, and place him in high-Fowler position as he has less dyspnea in this position. Fortunately, the oxygen helps and the patient does not need additional treatment.

After dropping the patient at the hospital, you read the paramedic’s PCR and note the following terms in his notes: PMH, HTN, SVT, and ASHD.

10. What do these abbreviations stand for?