ID

Can Young Patients Get Diverticular Disease?

January 23, 2014
Can Young Patients Get Diverticular Disease?

By Aaron Smith, MD

Peer Reviewed

Case: A 35 year-old, overweight female presents to the emergency room with five days of left lower quadrant abdominal pain. The pain is 10/10 in severity and accompanied by nausea, bloating, and loss of appetite.

Diverticulosis, the presence of small colonic outpouchings thought to occur secondary to high pressure within the colon, is an extremely common condition in elderly patients. Recent data suggests that up to 50% of people over the age of 60 have colonic diverticula. When a …

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Who Should We Screen for Hepatitis C: By Risk Or Birth Cohort?

January 8, 2014
Who Should We Screen for Hepatitis C: By Risk Or Birth Cohort?

By Jung-Eun Ha

Peer Reviewed

Over the last few years major changes have occurred in the diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C. In 2011 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a rapid finger stick antibody test for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection . The FDA also approved the protease inhibitors telapravir (Incivek; Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, New Jersey) and boceprevir (Victrelis; Merck, Whitehouse Station, New Jersey), for the treatment of genotype 1 hepatitis C . In August 2012, …

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Barriers to Translating Evidence into Clinical Care: the Zoster Vaccine

December 13, 2013
Barriers to Translating Evidence into Clinical Care: the Zoster Vaccine

Zachary Elkin

Faculty Peer Reviewed

There are more than a million cases of herpes zoster (HZ) in the US annually . The incidence of HZ, or shingles, has been rising in the US since the 1990s . One third of all people in the US will get HZ, with the highest incidence in people aged 50 to 79 . As a result of the Shingles Prevention Study (SPS), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) approved the Zostavax …

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From The Archives: The Polymyxins: Why am I using them all the time, and what are they?

November 21, 2013
From The Archives: The Polymyxins: Why am I using them all the time, and what are they?

Please enjoy this post from the archives dated December 8, 2010

By Jon-Emile S Kenny

Faculty Peer Reviewed

A 65-year-old female with locally advanced rectal cancer is admitted to the ICU, hypotensive and febrile. Her PICC line is removed and blood cultures drawn. Fourty-eight hours later all cultures return ESBL Klebsiella with susceptibility only to polymyxin.

I sat on the venerable call-room couch staring mindlessly at the cluttered, nauseating walls repeating the word ‘polymyxin’ like an endless antimicrobial mantra. What strange dosing it has, and …

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Barriers to Translating Evidence into Clinical Care: the Zoster Vaccine

October 10, 2013
Barriers to Translating Evidence into Clinical Care: the Zoster Vaccine

By Zachary Elkin

Faculty Peer Reviewed

There are more than a million cases of herpes zoster (HZ) in the US annually . The incidence of HZ, or shingles, has been rising in the US since the 1990s . One third of all people in the US will get HZ, with the highest incidence in people aged 50 to 79 . As a result of the Shingles Prevention Study (SPS), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) approved the …

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Diagnostic Dilemma-Poststreptococcal Reactive Arthritis in a Pregnant Woman

September 18, 2013
Diagnostic Dilemma-Poststreptococcal Reactive Arthritis in a Pregnant Woman

By Bryan Stierman and Todd Cutler, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

Case Presentation

A 35-year-old Hispanic woman presented to the emergency room with severe joint pain and swelling for one week.

The patient had a history of hypothyroidism and hepatitis C which was treated with interferon therapy two years prior. She was recently discovered to be pregnant and, at the time of presentation, was in her tenth week of pregnancy. Three weeks prior to admission she developed a sore throat. She saw an outside care provider …

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Promising New Hepatitis C Medications Raise Hopes, Questions

January 17, 2013
Promising New Hepatitis C Medications Raise Hopes, Questions

By Carl M. Gay, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

A healthy 61-year old man with a history of chronic genotype 1b hepatitis C virus infection of unknown duration arrives for his semiannual appointment in the Hepatology Clinic. The patient has previously been offered treatment with pegylated interferon and ribavirin, which he has declined on the basis of potential side effects and poor reported efficacy. He states that he has read that new treatment options for hepatitis C have recently become available…

Hepatitis C virus (HCV), first …

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Morgellons: Real Disease or Delusion Turned Internet Meme?

October 3, 2012
Morgellons: Real Disease or Delusion Turned Internet Meme?

By Robert Mazgaj

Faculty Peer Reviewed

Morgellons disease is an “unexplained dermopathy” characterized by fibers emerging from skin lesions, and associated with various cutaneous sensations. Inspired by a curious medical condition reported by a 17th century English physician, Morgellons was actually named in 2002 by Mary Leitao, a layperson, to describe the mysterious set of symptoms reportedly suffered by her then 2-year-old son. Leitao then launched the not-for-profit Morgellons Research Foundation (MRF) along with a (no longer active) website, www.morgellons.org. MRF successfully petitioned members of …

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