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The health care provider may find signs of meningeal irritation (similar to meningitis), such as stiff neck or back stiffness with difficulty bending the neck. The person also might have difficulty lifting the head or lifting the legs when lying f...
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Fever and asymmetric flaccid paralysis without sensory loss in a child or young adult almost always indicate poliomyelitis. Using a long, thin needle inserted into the lower back to withdraw spinal fluid (lumbar puncture) will reveal increased whi...
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The diagnosis of poliomyelitis is based on the recovery of the virus from the throat or feces of a person. It is possible to isolate the virus from the cerebrospinal fluid, but this is uncommon. When the virus is recovered, specialized testing can...
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Fever and asymmetric flaccid paralysis without sensory loss in a child or young adult almost always indicate poliomyelitis. Using a long, thin needle inserted into the lower back to withdraw spinal fluid (lumbar puncture) will reveal increased whi...
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During a physical examination, a health care provider studies a patient's body to determine the presence or absence of physical problems. A typical physical examination includes: Inspection (looking at the body; Palpation (feeling the body with ha...
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The health status of populations and of individuals is assessed for many reasons. Assessing needs for care helps guide the allocation of resources— diagnostic assessments guide treatment, prognostic assessments contribute to planning, and assessin...
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A fecal culture is a laboratory test to find organisms in the stool (feces) that can cause gastrointestinal symptoms and disease.
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Stool culture is a test to identify bacteria in patients with a suspected infection of the digestive tract. A sample of the patient's feces is placed in a special medium where bacteria is then grown. The bacteria that grow in the culture are ident...
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A stool culture is a laboratory test used to isolate and identify pathogens in the feces of patients suspected of having digestive tract infections. A sample of the patient's feces is placed on several different types of nutrient media and observe...
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A throat swab culture is a laboratory test done to isolate and identify organisms that may cause infection in the throat.
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A throat culture is a technique for identifying disease bacteria in material taken from the throat. Most throat cultures are done to rule out infections caused by beta-hemolytic streptococci, which cause strep throat . Hemolytic means that these s...
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A throat culture is a microbiological procedure for identifying disease-causing bacterial organisms in material taken from the throat. A throat swab will capture the causative organism in most cases and the culture will allow the specific organism...
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A throat culture is a technique for identifying disease-causing microorganisms in material taken from the throat. Most throat cultures are performed to identify infections caused by Group A beta-hemolytic streptococci, which cause strep throat .
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Antibody titer is a laboratory test that measures the presence and amount of antibodies in blood. The antibody level in the blood is a reflection of past exposure to an antigen or to something that the body does not recognize as belonging to itsel...
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Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis is a group of laboratory tests that measure proteins, sugar (glucose), and other chemicals in the fluid that surrounds and protects the brain and spinal cord.
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A cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) culture is a laboratory test to look for bacteria, fungi, and viruses in the clear fluid that moves in the space surrounding the spinal cord.
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Lumbar puncture (LP) is the technique of using a needle to withdraw cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from the spinal canal. CSF is the clear, watery liquid that protects the central nervous system from injury and cushions it from the surrounding bone str...
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