Fever, abdominal pain, and leukopenia in a 13-year-old: a case-based review of meningococcemia.
The presenting symptoms of meningococcemia are protean, and the illness is rapidly progressive and often fatal, making it simultaneously one of the most dangerous and most important illnesses the Emergency Physician can encounter. It attacks the young and it is highly contagious. This report uses one of the many unusual presentations of meningococcemia as a framework for discussing the epidemiology, presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of meningococcal disease.
Hsia
Renee Yuen-Jan
RY
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California, USA.
Wang
Ewen
E
Thanassi
Wendy T
WT
D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000209:etiology; D000293:Adolescent; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D005334:Fever / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007970:Leukopenia / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008589:Meningococcal Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*