Rapid Hemodynamic Deterioration and Death due to Acute Severe Refractory Septic Shock

Despite emergence of early goal directed therapy, septic shock still carries a high mortality. Gram negative septicemia is notorious for rapid deterioration due to endotoxin release. Multi-organ damage due to septic shock carries poor prognosis, and such patients should be managed aggressively with multidisciplinary approach. We present a fatal case of a patient with gram negative septicemia who rapidly deteriorated, and died due to acute refractory severe septic shock. This patient probably developed urosepsis secondary to severe urinary tract infection. He also had infiltrates on chest radiograph. He expired within fifteen hours of presenting to the emergency department. This case emphasizes the importance of early recognition and management of septic shock. Early goal directed therapy has shown to improve mortality. Broad spectrum antibiotics should be started within one hour depending on local immunity of organisms. This case also highlights the fact that despite optimized treatment, this entity has very high mortality rates

Dermatomyositis and supraventricular tachycardia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Dermatomyositis is an idiopathic inflammatory myopathy, often associated with an underlying malignancy. Its prevalence rate is approximately one per 100,000 in the general population, and is even rarer without evidence of a cancer. Dermatomyositis rarely involves myocardial muscle fibers, but has shown to be associated with cardiac arrhythmias.</p> <p>Case Presentation</p> <p>We present a case of a young female patient with known history of dermatomyositis who presented to hospital with a flare up of her disease. She also complained of paroxysms of palpitation. Telemetry monitoring revealed several episodes of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia with heart rate reaching up to 220 beats per minute.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Cardiac involvement in dermatomyositis is a very rare, but well known entity. Dermatomyositis patients with palpitations should be monitored on a Holter monitor, and appropriate therapy initiated if found to have a significant arrhythmia.</p

Chronic tophaceous gout presenting as acute arthritis during an acute illness: a case report

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Puzzle based teaching versus traditional instruction in electrocardiogram interpretation for medical students – a pilot study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Most medical professionals are expected to possess basic electrocardiogram (EKG) interpretation skills. But, published data suggests that residents' and physicians' EKG interpretation skills are suboptimal. Learning styles differ among medical students; individualization of teaching methods has been shown to be viable and may result in improved learning. Puzzles have been shown to facilitate learning in a relaxed environment. The objective of this study was to assess efficacy of teaching puzzle in EKG interpretation skills among medical students.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This is a reader blinded crossover trial. Third year medical students from College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University participated in this study. Two groups (n = 9) received two traditional EKG interpretation skills lectures followed by a standardized exam and two extra sessions with the teaching puzzle and a different exam. Two other groups (n = 6) received identical courses and exams with the puzzle session first followed by the traditional teaching. EKG interpretation scores on final test were used as main outcome measure.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The average score after only traditional teaching was 4.07 ± 2.08 while after only the puzzle session was 4.04 ± 2.36 (p = 0.97). The average improvement after the traditional session was followed up with a puzzle session was 2.53 ± 1.94 while the average improvement after the puzzle session was followed with the traditional session was 2.08 ± 1.73 (p = 0.67). The final EKG exam score for this cohort (n = 15) was 84.1 compared to 86.6 (p = 0.22) for a comparable sample of medical students (n = 15) at a different campus.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Teaching EKG interpretation with puzzles is comparable to traditional teaching and may be particularly useful for certain subgroups of students. Puzzle session are more interactive and relaxing, and warrant further investigations on larger scale.</p