Diphtheria

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Antibodies

Diphtheria

Symptoms:

Sore throat (may range from mild to severe with painful swallowing and hoarseness)
Drooling (suggests airway obstruction is about to occur)
Fever and chills
Bloody, watery (serosanguineous) drainage from nose
Croup-like (barking) cough
Stridor, difficulty breathing, or rapid breathing
Absent breathing (apnea) may occur
Bluish coloration of the skin may be caused by lack of oxygen
Skin lesions can be seen in cutaneous diphtheria (usually seen in the tropics.

Note: There may be no symptoms.
Signs and tests:

text continues below

Physical examination may reveal the characteristic gray membrane (pseudomembrane) in the throat, enlarged lymph glands, and swelling of the neck or larynx. If diphtheria is suspected, treatment should be started immediately, even before the results of bacterial tests are available.

Tests used may include:

Gram stain of membrane or throat culture to identify Corynebacterium diphtheriae.
In individuals with myocarditis, results of an electrocardiogram (ECG) are often abnormal.