A 36-year old male presents to the clinic with symptoms of increasing abdominal pain that recently started radiating to his back, nausea and unintentional weight loss (20 pounds) over the past 4 months. He has recently been having oily diarrhea like stools. PMH includes HTN. Surgical Hx: None. Medications: HCTZ 25mg daily. Allergies: None. Family: Father deceased colon cancer at 70 years old, Mother living with HTN. Social: Smokes tobacco-1PPD for 35 years, admits to alcohol use daily- at least 2-3 beers every night for the past 10 years, and prior history of marijuana and IV drug use as a young adult. He is employed full-time as a supervisor at a local construction company. He is divorced and has 2 adult children. He does not exercise regularly.
Diagnostics: CBC, CMP, UA wnl. Abdominal ultrasound reveals enlarged pancreas with calcification.
After thorough evaluation the diagnosis Pancreatitis was made.
1. Discuss Pancreatitis and 3 other differential diagnosis. Provide pertinent positives and negatives.
2. What further history would you like to obtain to inform the diagnosis of pancreatitis? Provide rationale.
3. What additional labs would you order?
4. Discuss risk factors associated with Pancreatitis.
5. Discuss clinical relevance of diagnostics revealed above and discuss additional diagnostics you would like to obtain to establish a diagnosis of pancreatitis?
6. Consider likely stage of the pancreatitis as well as prognosis with and without appropriate treatment.
7. Discuss management options of pancreatitis, along with rationale.
8. Incorporate the Christian worldview in answering this assignment.
Document this assignment in a 3 pages word document, include 4 references published in the last five years.
