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 31,184 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A geriatric man was admitted to the hospital with left-sided chest pain and subsequently had a full cardiac evaluation by a cardiologist. The workup revealed no cardiac abnormalities, and the patient was discharged on the second hospital day. He returned within 48 hours for recurrence of the left-sided chest pain and the interval development of epigastric and left upper quadrant abdominal pain. He was admitted to the hospital for evaluation and serial examinations. Mild diffuse abdominal tenderness developed overnight, and computed tomography of the abdomen revealed a perforated appendix with suppuration. An appendectomy was done immediately. The diagnosis of appendicitis in the geriatric patient is occasionally difficult because of atypical and sometimes misleading physical findings.
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PMID:Geriatric acute perforated appendicitis: atypical symptoms lead to a difficult diagnosis. 967 42

Coronary artery disease kills more women than all cancers combined, yet the clinical picture in women is different enough from men that the diagnosis can be missed or delayed. A cardiologist highlights these gender-based differences and explains why certain diagnostic tests are better than others at identifying CAD in women. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading killer of women in the US. After menopause, mortality rates from CAD in women nearly equal those of men. Yet the clinical picture in women is different enough from that in men that it can obscure the correct diagnosis. Women are 10 years older than men, on average, when presenting with CAD, possibly due to delayed diagnosis or presentation. Differences in symptomatology between men and women are important to note. For example, other diseases, such as arthritis or osteoporosis, can obscure CAD symptoms. Further, compared with men, women's chest pain is more often associated with abdominal pain, dyspnea, nausea, and fatigue. More women than men with CAD have diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and a family history of CAD. Clinicians need to know how to assess the gender-specific pretest likelihood of CAD in women, starting with a careful review of the patient's chest pain history. Other risk factors, including smoking, abdominal obesity, and certain comorbidities, should be taken into consideration. The diagnostic accuracy of exercise testing is slightly lower for women than men. Certain diagnostic tests, particularly exercise echocardiography and exercise thallium/sestamibi testing, offer more prognostic information than traditional exercise electrocardiographic studies without imaging. Mortality associated with interventional procedures--such as angioplasty and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG)--is slightly higher in women, although long-term survival rates are similar for both sexes. Detection of CAD at an earlier stage in women may result in earlier referrals for CABG, with the benefit of lower associated mortality rates.
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PMID:Coronary artery disease in women: understanding the diagnostic and management pitfalls. 980 15

The aim of this study is to analyse how the mortality risk varies with mild or severe pain in different locations: chest, back and hips, shoulders, the extremities, abdomen, rectum and head. A Swedish nationally representative sample of 1930 persons born 1892-1915 were interviewed in 1968 (ages 53-76). Survivors were also interviewed in 1974 and 1981 if they had not passed the age of 75 years. Proportional hazard regression was used to analyze mortality risk among persons ages 53-98 years for the period 1968-1991. Relationships were found between mortality risk and headache, chest pain, abdominal pain, pain in the extremities and rectal pain. No relationships were found between mortality and pain in back and hips or in shoulders. There was a correlation between chest pain and increased mortality among both men and women, but the association was significantly stronger among men. There was a significant association between severe rectal pain and mortality among men but no similar association among women. Significant associations between mortality and chest pain and abdominal pain were found among persons younger than 80 years, but not among those older than 80 years. Pain is an indicator of the quality of life and a symptom of underlying medical conditions. The finding that there are relationships between mortality risk and pain in the chest, abdomen, rectum, the extremities and head may be of clinical relevance. These results, however, must be further investigated since the relationships between reported pain and mortality do not imply that pain in these locations is necessarily symptomatic of lethal diseases. Abdominal pain, rectal pain and headache may be indicators of diseases but can also be side effects of treatments for other diseases correlated with higher mortality.
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PMID:Pain and mortality risk among elderly persons in Sweden. 980 52

Psittacosis, also referred to as ornithosis, is a disease primarily of birds, which may be transmitted to humans. Psittacosis is caused by Chlamydia psittaci, an obligate intracellular parasite found worldwide. Humans are infected with C. psittaci when the organism enters the blood stream, usually through inhalation of dried excrement from diseased birds or through wound contamination with infected avian secretions. C. psittaci replicates in the liver and spleen and infects the lung and other organs hematogenously.1 The clinical manifestations of human psittacosis range from a mild respiratory infection to a severe systemic illness.1,2 Symptoms are frequently described as flu-like with fever, headache, body aches, and dry or productive cough. Sore throat, chest pain, abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea are variably present. Physical findings may include a pulse-temperature dissociation, localized lung crackles, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, and a pale macular skin rash. Chest radiographs may demonstrate lesions that are atelectatic, patchy, miliary, nodular, or consolidated in one or both lungs. White cell counts, erythrocyte sedimentation rates, and liver function tests are usually normal. In severe illness, signs and symptoms of liver dysfunction, neurological impairment, and respiratory and renal failure may be present. Since 1879 when psittacosis was recognized as a disease entity, cases have been reported in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. However, reports of psittacosis in Africa have been rare. An Ethiopian group, studying community-acquired pneumonia, published what they claimed to be the first report of psittacosis in Africa in 1994.3 The report published here is believed to be the first documented case of human psittacosis in Egypt.
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PMID:Psittacosis in Egypt: A Case Study. 981 79

We report two cases of retroperitoneal functioning paraganglioma. Case 1: A 52-year-old male patient was admitted to our hospital for further examination of pulsating abdominal pain with chest pain and headache. Overfist-size smooth-surfaced hard mass was palpated at the right upper abdominal quadrant. Catecholamine levels in serum and urine showed marked elevation. Computed tomographic (CT) scan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and angiography revealed a large tumor between the right kidney and aorta. He underwent surgical removal of the tumor and histological examination revealed paraganglioma. His chief complaints disappeared postoperatively. Case 2: A 68-year-old female patient was admitted to our hospital for control of diabetes. An abnormal mass was shown ultrasonically at the left renal region by routine screening examination. A marked increase of noradrenaline in serum and urine was observed. Abdominal CT scan, MRI and angiography revealed a retroperitoneal tumor which was located adjoining to the lower pole of the left kidney. The tumor was removed transabdominally. Histopathological studies showed paraganglioma. After the operation her blood sugar and noradrenaline levels decreased to the normal range.
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PMID:[Two cases of retroperitoneal functioning paraganglioma]. 1002 32

Sixty-one children with a median age of 6 years (range 1-16) were given prophylaxis/therapy for 78 courses of treatment with liposomal amphotericin (AmBisome) and were reviewed retrospectively. Thirty-six received allogeneic bone marrow, 22 a liver transplant, 2 kidneys and 1 a liver and kidney. AmBisome was given as prophylaxis in 30 episodes, as treatment for suspected invasive fungal infections (IFI) in 33 and for a verified IFI in 15. AmBisome prophylaxis was given for a median of 14 days in a dose of 1 mg/kg/day. The median dose of AmBisome was 2.1 mg/kg/day (range 0.9-5.0). The median duration of therapy was 10 days in children with suspected IFI and 20 days in children with verified IFI. The total dose ranged from 0.025 g up to a maximum of 3.95 g. Proven and probable side effects of AmBisome were a decrease in the level of serum potassium (30/78 cases), renal toxicity (22), an increase in the alkaline phosphatases (24), back pain (2), fever and abdominal pain (2), anaphylactic reaction (1), an increase in the bilirubin level (1), nausea (1), chest pain (1) and fever (1). Of 31 children with suspected IFI, fever disappeared in 21 (68%). In 14 verified or suspected IFI cases treated for 5 days or more, the clinical cure rate was 12 (86%). Eradication of fungi from a deep site was verified in 8/10 and the survival rate from 1 1/2 years to more than 7 years was 7/12 (58%). We conclude that AmBisome was well tolerated as prophylaxis and therapy in transplanted children, few acute toxic side effects were seen and the cure rate in verified IFI was high.
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PMID:Prophylaxis and therapy using liposomal amphotericin B (AmBisome) for invasive fungal infections in children undergoing organ or allogeneic bone-marrow transplantation. 1008 72

There are inconsistent data on the age/sex prevalence pattern of back pain and on chest pain. However, it is possible that for chest pain, the rates are higher in younger women and older men. Neck pain, joint pain, and fibromyalgia all appear to increase with age in both genders, whereas abdominal pain and tension-type headaches decrease with age, and migraine headache and TMD appear to peak in the reproductive years. A concluding example illustrates how epidemiologic data can be used to enhance our understanding of the causes of pain. A higher prevalence in women and a peak prevalence during the reproductive years as seen in TMD suggest that either biologic or psychosocial factors unique to women in this period of life could increase the risk of developing or maintaining this pain. As female reproductive hormones can play a role in migraine, at least for some women, it would be interesting to examine whether hormones play a role in TMD. The situation that occurs when menopause is followed by hormone replacement therapy (HRT) provides a natural experiment similar to a laboratory experiment in which female animals are deprived of the natural sources of hormones and then hormones are replaced exogenously. In women, of course, the decision to receive HRT may be associated with a number of psychosocial variables that might also influence pain. Recognizing these limitations, data from records of a large health maintenance organization were examined to ascertain whether use of estrogen or progestin (or both) in postmenopausal women might be associated with the occurrence of TMD pain and, thus, whether the hormone hypothesis might be worthy of further investigation. More women with TMD than controls used estrogen replacement therapy, and slightly more patients than controls used progestin. The use of estrogen significantly increased the odds of having TMD. Progestin use showed a weaker association, which did not hold up after other factors were controlled. However, the risk of TMD appears to increase with increasing doses of estrogen. A review of the epidemiologic literature indicates that there are definite age and sex differences in the prevalence of many chronic pain conditions. There is little basic information about the source of these differences, such as different onset rates, different probabilities of recurrence, or different durations of pain, or combinations of these in women and men. Nevertheless, a systematic examination of the existing epidemiologic data may be an important step in helping pain researchers to generate hypotheses in the search for a better understanding of chronic pain in both sexes.
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PMID:Chronic pain conditions in women. 1032 86

To determine the public's perception as to the general definition of an emergency medical condition (EMC), and to compare opinions between the general public and healthcare workers (HCW) on which specific medical conditions require emergency department (ED) care, a survey of people at 12 supermarkets and shopping malls in Northern California was conducted over a 6-month period in 1997. Individuals over age 18 were asked in person to complete a survey sheet. It asked participants to choose one of four definitions of "emergency medical condition." In addition, people were asked to determine which of 30 chief complaints they thought needed care in the ED. Demographic information was also collected. A second set of surveys asking the same questions was conducted among nonemergency healthcare providers at hospitals. Healthcare worker was defined as an MD, RN, LVN, or PA. A total of 1,018 members of the public and 126 healthcare workers completed the survey. EMC definitions selected by the public were: 1) an abbreviated federal EMTALA definition: a condition that may result in death, permanent disability, or severe pain (48.7%); 2) the federal definition plus other conditions preventing work (3.0%); 3) the federal definition plus any other conditions outside business hours (16.5%); and 4) any condition at any time as determined by the patient (31.6%). HCWs selected the following: definition 1 (71%); definitions 2 and 3 (0%); and definition 4 (27%). Definitions 1 and 3 were statistically different when comparisons were made between the public and HCWs. On the question of which of the 30 chief complaints needed care in an ED, agreement was seen between the public and HCWs for severe abdominal pain (94% vs. 99%, respectively) and severe chest pain (96% vs. 99%, respectively). However, the two disagreed on the need for ED care for severe headache (58% vs. 91%, respectively); mild chest pain (51% vs. 79%, respectively); and difficulty breathing (77% vs. 98%, respectively). No significant difference in opinions on the need for ED care was seen for some minor conditions: mild headache, sore throat, cough, flu symptoms, minor foot problems. No significant differences in answers occurred when age groups, occupations, or locations were compared. In conclusion, the public has split views concerning the general definition of an emergency medical condition. Approximately half uses a conservative federal definition, and half uses patient self-determined need as the definition. Data on which specific conditions need ED care provide additional insight on agreement between the public and HCWs on most problems. Both groups agree that many perceived minor medical complaints do not require ED care.
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PMID:How do prudent laypeople define an emergency medical condition? 1033 30

This chapter examines the diagnosis and management of psychosomatic illness in adolescents. Included are case studies and discussions of chronic pain, including chronic abdominal pain, chronic chest pain, and chronic headaches.
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PMID:The Adolescent with Chronic Pains: Basic Principles of Psychosomatic Medicine. 1035 Jul 84

EDS type IV presents a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge to the primary care physician, surgeon, and rheumatologist. In patients for whom the diagnosis is known, avoidance of trauma, contact sports, or strenuous activities, joint bracing and protection, and counseling on contraception are helpful preventive strategies. In patients presenting with vascular, gastrointestinal, or obstetric complications, a history of hypermobility and skin fragility (easy bruising, abnormal scarring, poor wound healing) should lead to a suspicion of this diagnosis, and to caution in the use of certain invasive diagnostic and operative techniques. Efforts should be made to examine family members. Most importantly, when caring for such patients, the acute onset of headaches, chest pain, shortness of breath, and abdominal pain should arouse suspicion of a potentially catastrophic vascular or visceral event.
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PMID:Aneurysms and hypermobility in a 45-year-old woman. 1041 Apr 41


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