By Katherine Husk
Faculty Peer Reviewed
A healthy 40-year-old woman comes into your office for a routine health exam. After you have performed a clinical breast exam, she asks you whether she should be examining her breasts on …
Category: Class Act
Clinical Correlations
Stemming the Tide: The Promise and Pitfalls of HIV Prevention Research
September 28, 2011
By Benjamin Bearnot
Faculty Peer Reviewed
Since the discovery of zidovudine (AZT) in the mid-1980s, advances in antiretroviral (ARV) therapy for patients with chronic human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection have, until recently, outpaced …
They’re all the ‘roid rage: origins and mechanisms of corticosteroid therapy.
September 23, 2011
By Santosh Vardhana, MD
A 36-year-old obese male with hypertension and hyperlipidemia presents to the ER with new knee pain, swelling, and erythema. Joint aspiration reveals negatively birefringent crystals. He is started on oral prednisone.
A 26-year-old woman with lupus presents …
Intercessory Prayer: What Do Sneezes and Prayers Have in Common?
September 21, 2011
By Alon Mass
Faculty Peer Reviewed
The overlap between religion and medicine is ancient. On a recent medical volunteer trip to India I met a medical student who proudly wore a school sweatshirt with the saying: In God we trust. …
Advance Directives: A Move in the Right Direction
September 16, 2011
By Sara-Megumi Naylor
Faculty Peer Reviewed
“Tell me…If you were ever unable to make your own decisions about your medical care, is there someone you would trust to make those decisions for you?”
There is silence.
But then a response. We discuss. …
What is Sister Mary Joseph’s Nodule And Why Is It Significant?
September 15, 2011
By Keri Herzog, MD
Faculty Peer Reviewed
The patient is a 62-year-old male who presented to an outpatient medical clinic complaining of a growing, slightly painful, periumbilical mass, and mild lower gastrointestinal discomfort over the last 4 months. On examination, …
Should My Patient with a Solid Tumor be Anticoagulated in the Absence of Venous Thromboembolism?
September 8, 2011
By David Altszuler, Class of 2012
Faculty Peer Reviewed
An empiric association between occult malignancy and thrombophlebitis has been recognized since Trousseau first reported the syndrome in 1865.[1] The mechanism by which cancer predisposes to thrombophilia has not been fully elucidated; …
Should you Treat a COPD Exacerbation with Antibiotics?
September 3, 2011
By: Aviva Regev
Mr. S is a 68-year old man with longstanding COPD and a 40-pack-year smoking history. He presents to clinic with three days of increasing shortness of breath, and complains that he has been …