Infectious Mononucleosis? Measure that spleen!
Enlarged Spleen
A reminder that POCUS can improve your sensitivity for diagnosing diseases, even in your low acuity patients. We all know the Monspot test can be negative for Mono patients depending on when they present to us. Don’t forget to have a quick look at the spleen if the rest of the clinical presentation points towards this etiology.
Dr. Gordon:
I remembered Steve’s post about Inf. Mono. This young man had a classical clinical picture and a + Monospot. I checked his spleen and it was above the cutoff of 14 cm. It was helpful because I had some good evidence to convince him to be careful about trauma.
I saw the same patient a few weeks later (he worked at the hospital). I recheck his spleen and it was normal size, so I told him he could go back to sports. Of course he had already done so as soon as he felt better.