Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 086
Just when you thought your brain could unwind on a Friday, you realise that it would rather be challenged with some good old fashioned medical trivia FFFF, introducing the Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 086
Question 1
Can a patient with an ectopic pregnancy have a negative serum BhCG (pregnancy test)?
Reveal the funtabulous answer
Yes – never say never.
It is sufficiently rare that I’ve only been able to find two case reports:
- Grynberg M, Teyssedre J, Andre C, Graesslin O. Rupture of ectopic pregnancy with negative serum beta-hCG leading to hemorrhagic shock. Obstet Gynecol. 2009 Feb;113(2 Pt 2):537-9. PubMed PMID: 19155948.
- Lee JK, Lamaro VP. Ruptured tubal ectopic pregnancy with negative serum beta hCG–a case for ongoing vigilance? N Z Med J. 2009 Jan 23;122(1288):94-9. PubMed PMID: 19182846.
However up to about 3% of patient’s with ectopics can have negative urine pregnancy tests. Not that I’m trying to scare you or anything…
- Aboud E. A five-year review of ectopic pregnancy. Clin Exp Obstet Gynecol. 1997;24(3):127-9. PubMed PMID: 9478294.
Question 2
What did the wife of French philosopher and writer Denis Diderot say to him just before he died?
Reveal the funtabulous answer
Don’t eat that!
Diderot died while eating an apricot.
Simon Critchley has much more on the deaths of philosophers in his talk featured in A Philosophical Death.
Question 3
What is the highest blood alcohol concentration ever measured in a human being?
Reveal the funtabulous answer
1.6% or 1.6g/100mL
According to South Africa’s Sowetan:
“The man was allegedly 32 times over the legal alcohol limit. His blood had an alcohol content of 1.6g/100ml. The legal limit is 0.05g/100ml. He was driving a Mercedes-Benz Vito and was arrested near Queenstown in Eastern Cape… Five boys as well as a woman who were also in the vehicle with 15 sheep, allegedly stolen from nearby farms, were also arrested.”
Why the sheep were arrested is anybody’s guess…
Question 4
What is Pott’s puffy tumor?
Reveal the funtabulous answer
Frontal bone osteomyelitis resulting in a subperiosteal abscess presenting as a fluctuant mass over the forehead and scalp.
Today the condition is rare and only a few dozen cases have been reported in the literature of the postantibiotic era (mostly in adolescents).
The ultimate eitiologies include local trauma, insect bites, sinusitis, hematogenous spread and snorting drugs like cocaine and metamphetamines.
“But the inflammation of the dura mater and the formation of matter between it and the skull, in consequence of contusion, is generally indicated and preceded by one [sign] I have hardly ever known to fail; I mean a puffy, circumscribed, indolent tumor of the scalp and a spontaneous separation of the pericranium, from the skull under such tumor.
Percival Pott
FFFF
Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five
Chris is an Intensivist and ECMO specialist at The Alfred ICU, where he is Deputy Director (Education). He is a Clinical Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University, the Lead for the Clinician Educator Incubator programme, and a CICM First Part Examiner.
He is an internationally recognised Clinician Educator with a passion for helping clinicians learn and for improving the clinical performance of individuals and collectives. He was one of the founders of the FOAM movement (Free Open-Access Medical education) has been recognised for his contributions to education with awards from ANZICS, ANZAHPE, and ACEM.
His one great achievement is being the father of three amazing children.
On Bluesky, he is @precordialthump.bsky.social and on the site that Elon has screwed up, he is @precordialthump.
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