Diarrhea: Clinical (To be retired)
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Diarrhea: Clinical (To be retired)
Medicine and surgery
Allergy and immunology
Antihistamines for allergies
Glucocorticoids
Cardiology, cardiac surgery and vascular surgery
Coronary artery disease: Clinical (To be retired)
Heart failure: Clinical (To be retired)
Syncope: Clinical (To be retired)
Hypertension: Clinical (To be retired)
Hypercholesterolemia: Clinical (To be retired)
Peripheral vascular disease: Clinical (To be retired)
Leg ulcers: Clinical (To be retired)
Adrenergic antagonists: Alpha blockers
Adrenergic antagonists: Beta blockers
ACE inhibitors, ARBs and direct renin inhibitors
Thiazide and thiazide-like diuretics
Calcium channel blockers
Lipid-lowering medications: Statins
Lipid-lowering medications: Fibrates
Miscellaneous lipid-lowering medications
Antiplatelet medications
Dermatology and plastic surgery
Hypersensitivity skin reactions: Clinical (To be retired)
Eczematous rashes: Clinical (To be retired)
Papulosquamous skin disorders: Clinical (To be retired)
Alopecia: Clinical (To be retired)
Hypopigmentation skin disorders: Clinical (To be retired)
Benign hyperpigmented skin lesions: Clinical (To be retired)
Skin cancer: Clinical (To be retired)
Endocrinology and ENT (Otolaryngology)
Diabetes mellitus: Clinical (To be retired)
Hyperthyroidism: Clinical (To be retired)
Hypothyroidism and thyroiditis: Clinical (To be retired)
Dizziness and vertigo: Clinical (To be retired)
Hyperthyroidism medications
Hypothyroidism medications
Insulins
Hypoglycemics: Insulin secretagogues
Miscellaneous hypoglycemics
Gastroenterology and general surgery
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD): Clinical (To be retired)
Peptic ulcers and stomach cancer: Clinical (To be retired)
Diarrhea: Clinical (To be retired)
Malabsorption: Clinical (To be retired)
Colorectal cancer: Clinical (To be retired)
Diverticular disease: Clinical (To be retired)
Anal conditions: Clinical (To be retired)
Cirrhosis: Clinical (To be retired)
Breast cancer: Clinical (To be retired)
Laxatives and cathartics
Antidiarrheals
Acid reducing medications
Hematology and oncology
Anemia: Clinical (To be retired)
Anticoagulants: Warfarin
Anticoagulants: Direct factor inhibitors
Antiplatelet medications
Infectious diseases
Pneumonia: Clinical (To be retired)
Urinary tract infections: Clinical (To be retired)
Skin and soft tissue infections: Clinical (To be retired)
Protein synthesis inhibitors: Aminoglycosides
Antimetabolites: Sulfonamides and trimethoprim
Miscellaneous cell wall synthesis inhibitors
Protein synthesis inhibitors: Tetracyclines
Cell wall synthesis inhibitors: Penicillins
Miscellaneous protein synthesis inhibitors
Cell wall synthesis inhibitors: Cephalosporins
DNA synthesis inhibitors: Metronidazole
DNA synthesis inhibitors: Fluoroquinolones
Herpesvirus medications
Azoles
Echinocandins
Miscellaneous antifungal medications
Anti-mite and louse medications
Nephrology and urology
Chronic kidney disease: Clinical (To be retired)
Kidney stones: Clinical (To be retired)
Urinary incontinence: Pathology review
ACE inhibitors, ARBs and direct renin inhibitors
PDE5 inhibitors
Adrenergic antagonists: Alpha blockers
Neurology and neurosurgery
Stroke: Clinical (To be retired)
Lower back pain: Clinical (To be retired)
Headaches: Clinical (To be retired)
Migraine medications
Pulmonology and thoracic surgery
Asthma: Clinical (To be retired)
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): Clinical (To be retired)
Lung cancer: Clinical (To be retired)
Antihistamines for allergies
Bronchodilators: Beta 2-agonists and muscarinic antagonists
Bronchodilators: Leukotriene antagonists and methylxanthines
Pulmonary corticosteroids and mast cell inhibitors
Rheumatology and orthopedic surgery
Joint pain: Clinical (To be retired)
Rheumatoid arthritis: Clinical (To be retired)
Lower back pain: Clinical (To be retired)
Anatomy clinical correlates: Clavicle and shoulder
Anatomy clinical correlates: Arm, elbow and forearm
Anatomy clinical correlates: Wrist and hand
Anatomy clinical correlates: Median, ulnar and radial nerves
Anatomy clinical correlates: Bones, joints and muscles of the back
Anatomy clinical correlates: Hip, gluteal region and thigh
Anatomy clinical correlates: Knee
Anatomy clinical correlates: Leg and ankle
Anatomy clinical correlates: Foot
Acetaminophen (Paracetamol)
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
Glucocorticoids
Opioid agonists, mixed agonist-antagonists and partial agonists
Antigout medications
Non-biologic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs)
Osteoporosis medications
Assessments
Diarrhea: Clinical (To be retired)
USMLE® Step 2 questions
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USMLE® Step 2 style questions USMLE
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Transcript
Content Reviewers
Rishi Desai, MD, MPHContributors
Anca-Elena Stefan, MD
Sam Gillespie, BSc
Diarrhea is defined as having more than 3 liquidy stools in 24 hours or having a stool weight of over 200 grams per day, but nobody measures stool weight since that can get messy - especially if you’re having diarrhea!
Diarrhea is also classified as acute if it lasts for less than 2 weeks, persistent if it lasts for 2 to 4 weeks, and chronic if it lasts for more than a month.
Diarrhea can also be classified as either inflammatory or non-inflammatory.
Inflammatory diarrhea causes inflammation of the gastrointestinal epithelium and this usually happens with invasive pathogens or as a result of a chronic inflammatory bowel disease, and usually there are systemic symptoms like fever.
In contrast, non-inflammatory diarrhea can be either secretory or osmotic, and neither one usually causes systemic symptoms like fever.
With secretory diarrhea, there’s increased water and electrolyte secretion and decreased absorption.
With osmotic diarrhea, some of the ingested nutrients aren’t fully absorbed, and they remain in the intestinal lumen and pull in water through the process of osmosis!
Now, most cases of acute diarrhea are caused by pathogens, mostly viruses, but also bacteria, protozoa, and parasites that mostly spread through fecal-oral transmission.
The minority of cases of acute diarrhea are due to non-infectious causes like stress, medications, or a toxic ingestion.
Most people with acute diarrhea don’t need to come to the hospital, because symptoms aren’t severe and resolve within 2 weeks. But in terms of figuring out the cause, it’s helpful to ask the right questions - like playing Sherlock Holmes.
With infectious organisms, diarrhea is non-inflammatory and secretory, stools are watery and usually associated with vomiting and this is mostly caused by viruses, such as norovirus and rotavirus.
Watery diarrhea can also be related to the ingestion of contaminated food - food poisoning - and in this case timing offers a clue. If diarrhea occurs within six hours of the ingestion, then the culprit may be Staphylococcus aureus or Bacillus cereus, if diarrhea occurs 8 to 16 hours after the ingestion, then the culprit may be Clostridium perfringens, and if diarrhea occurs more than 16 hours after the ingestion, then the culprit may be enterotoxigenic E. coli.
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