Case Study: The Case of the Itchy Bottom
You are a physician assistant working in a pediatrician’s office. It is a busy morning, and you receive a medical update for your next patient from the nursing intern assisting in the office. Your patient is a 6-month-old infant with a presenting complaint of an itchy bottom and fussiness with diaper changes. The patient weighs 7.5 g and is 67.6 m long. She has a head circumference of 44.32 m, a heart rate of 120 beats/min, a temperature of 38 degrees Celsius (°C) and has been drinking 180-240 L of milk every four to five hours. During the physical exam she noted inflamed skin (dermatitis) with red, raised bumps on the infant’s pubic and gluteal areas. The red bumps are about 1m diameter. Her mom reported that she had given her child 2.5 L of acetaminophen to relieve the pain.
You ask the nurse if she is confident about her measurements, as they do not seem accurate for an average female six-month old. Please briefly describe the patient’s symptoms and write down any follow-up questions you have for the patient under the question in your workbook. In most of the world and in all scientific fields, the metric system is the standard system of measurement. In the case study, the vital values are provided in metric units. We thus need to have a basic understanding of the metric system. Are these measurements within a normal range for a baby of this size and weight? Did the mother give a reasonable dose of acetaminophen? In this lab, you are going to learn the different units of scientific measurement, and practice converting among the different measurements. Then, we will compare the values obtained from this infant with measurements you make of an infant model in lab to see whether these measurements are accurate and reasonable.
Objectives
1. Convert measurements between different metric units.
2. Determine what metric units to use when describing mass, volume, temperature, and length.
3. Define body temperature, typical room temperature, and freezing and boiling points (in Celsius).
Terminology Checklist
- Metric System
- base units: meter (m), liter (L), gram (g)
- celsius (°C) Metric Prefixes
- kilo (k) = 1000 x base unit
- hecto (h) = 100 x base unit
- deca (da) = 10 x base unit
- deci (d) = .1 x base unit
- centi (c) = .01 x base unit
- milli (m) = .001 x base unit
- micro (μ) = .000001 x base unit
- nano (n) – .000000001 x base unit
Ready to try the Lab?
Additional Resources (pre- and post-lab)
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