need help with your account or subscription? click here to email us (or see the contact page)
join telegramNEW! discord
jump to exam page:
search for anything ⋅ score predictor (โ€œpredict me!โ€)

NBME 17 Answers

nbme17/Block 0/Question#0 (reveal difficulty score)
45-year-old man with poorly controlled type 2 ...
Enterococcus faecalis ๐Ÿ” / ๐Ÿ“บ / ๐ŸŒณ / ๐Ÿ“–
tags:

 Login (or register) to see more


 +5  upvote downvote
submitted by โˆ—cassdawg(1780)
get full access to all contentpick a username

First step to approach this problem is to eliminate Listeria monocytogenes (it is a gram positive ROD) and both staphylococcal species (Staph is always catalase positive), which leaves us with Streptococcus pneumoniae and Enterococcus faecalis.

Strep pneumoniae is an alpha hemolytic strep while enterococcus is typically gamma hemolytic, so seeing as there is no hemolysis on blood agar (meaning gamma hemolytic), Enterococcus is the correct answer. VRE (vancomycin resistant enterococcus) are also an important cause of nosocomial infections such as from his venous catheter.

Here is a good algorithm/flow chart for gram positive identification!

get full access to all contentpick a username

Gamma-hemolytic designation for Enterococcus (group D strep) just means no hemolysis.

+2/- dentist(94)


Must-See Comments from nbme17

cassdawg on Membrane lipid peroxidation
cassdawg on Haemophilus influenzae type b
cassdawg on Pelvic Splanchnic
cassdawg on Actinic keratosis
cassdawg on Early septic shock
cassdawg on Epinephrine
flapjacks on Placebo effect
cassdawg on 0.9% Saline
waitingonprometric on Tubular adenoma
bingcentipede on Surface kappa:surface lambda ratio
cassdawg on Free T4
tinyhorse on 25%
cassdawg on Absence of functional LDL receptors in ...
bingcentipede on Residual volume: โ†‘; Arterial PO2: โ†“; ...

search for anything NEW!