Cat Scratch Disease – Board-Style Questions

What this deck covers

cat scratch disease in 18 board-style clinical cases with worked explanations. Each case gives you a clinical vignette, four options, the correct answer, and an explanation of why each of the other three is wrong, with the guideline or textbook it follows named on the answer.

Board-style teaching questions for paediatricians and trainees preparing for paediatric board, MRCPCH and licensing examinations. Written from published guidelines and standard paediatric textbooks, with the source named on every answer.

The 18 cases, in order

1. A lump in the armpit
2. Which animal carries it
3. The first sign on the skin
4. Confirming it in clinic
5. What the pathologist sees
6. A red eye and a node
7. Sudden blurred vision
8. Fever for three weeks
9. A seizure in a well boy
10. Shrinking the node
11. A fluctuant node
12. Purple papules after a transplant
13. Treating the eye
14. A murmur and a cat
15. Keeping the kitten
16. A sibling at school
17. Why the culture stayed empty
18. The node still there

Diagnoses and management options tested

Across the 18 cases you are asked to choose between options such as: Toxoplasma gondii, The young stray kitten with fleas, A widespread rash appearing the same day as the swelling, Excision biopsy of the whole node under general anaesthetic, Stellate necrotising granulomas with microabscesses, Adenoviral pharyngoconjunctival fever, Central retinal vein occlusion, Hepatitis A with a large tender liver, Bartonella encephalopathy usually recovers fully, Intravenous vancomycin for two weeks, Excision of the whole chain of nodes, Cutaneous leukocytoclastic vasculitis, Doxycycline combined with rifampicin, Streptococcus mutans by routine blood culture.

Clinical pearls from this deck

• Kitten scratch then regional node: Bartonella henselae.
• Kittens with fleas are the usual Bartonella source.
• Papule first, node weeks later in cat scratch disease.
• Confirm cat scratch disease with Bartonella serology.
• Stellate necrotising granulomas: think Bartonella.
• Eye granuloma plus preauricular node: Parinaud syndrome.

Work through the deck once for recognition, then again a week later to test yourself — each question gives the answer and explains why every other option fails.

More from this system: all Infectious Disease case decks · pediatric reference values.