USMLE Question of the Week

How to Understand Shock Physiology in an Infant

Faustine Ramirez
1,241 Less than a minute
In Episode 34 of Med School Question of the Week for USMLE, Faustine Ramirez, MedSchoolCoach expert tutor, answers this medical school question: A 10-month-old boy is brought to the emergency department with one day of fever, irritability, and poor feeding. Temperature is 40 C, heart rate is 190/min, respiratory rate is 60/min, and blood pressure is 60/30. Extremities are warm, pulses are bounding, capillary refill is 4 seconds, and mucous membranes are dry. Blood cultures grow S. Aureus. Which of the following is the most likely mechanism for these findings?
  • Increased hydrostatic pressure
  • Decreased systemic vascular resistance
  • Increased pulmonary vascular resistance
  • Decreased cardiac output
  • Increased pulmonary capillary wedge pressure
  • Decreased oncotic pressure
Click to Reveal the Correct Answer

Decreased systemic vascular resistance

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Faustine Ramirez
1,241 Less than a minute
Photo of Faustine Ramirez

Faustine Ramirez

Faustine graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle with a B.A. in Medical Anthropology and Global Health. She attends medical school at University of California, San Francisco where she designed and taught a course on clinical reasoning skills, developed curriculum materials for the pre-clinical pediatrics course, and led case-based sessions in pediatrics and infectious disease. She received a 253 on Step 1 and a 266 on Step 2 CK, and she scored in the 90th percentiles on all of her shelf exams.

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