Travis Smith, DO Profile picture
Jun 11, 2020 30 tweets 34 min read Read on X
Before we begin let’s make sure we focus and highlight some things on #racialbias

A great article on this topic was shared. Racial bias in pain assessment & treatment recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks & whites
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
Let’s start with a problem representation:

A 28 y/o M w/ a h/o hemophilia A presents with lightheadedness, dyspnea, LE bruising 1 week prior and found to have an ⬆️ bill, hypo-proliferative anemia (7.3 g/dL), ⬆️ PTT, low B12 & folate without evidence of bleeding on imaging
My initial thought to focus around the ddx of acute/subacute hemoglobin drop given he had a normal CBC 6 months prior.

The highest concern would be for bleeding.

Any history things that are helpful other than delayed healing vs spontaneous brushing?
DOE and lightheadedness likely related to anemia here, given no other signal for cardiopulmonary disease
who has the coag cascade memorized?

Intrinsic vs extrinsic pathways
For Intrinsic think PTT (play table tennis) like you play that (inside) Factor 12, 11, 9, 8
vs Extrinsic for PT(play tennis) like you play that outside (extrinsic) Factor 7

I like the mixing study idea. I wonder if he has acquired a

Factor 8 antibody given his likely history of frequent transfusion
Part of well-made management scripts - initial resuscitation treatment interwoven with diagnostic evaluation

most hemophiliacs aren't symptomatic until like <5% of normal F8 levels

Bleeding from clotting factors def into deep tissues …
From thrombocytopenia/platelet defects is mucocutaneous

The usual bleeding ROS answers: hemoptysis, nose bleeds, gum bleeding, melena/hematochezia, etc...
lower extremity bruises are usually due to platelets low/platelet dysfunction… But coag fact def does it cause bruising?
Seemingly pointing away from cardiopulmonary cause but if time course was longer, could consider untreated anemia leading to high output CHF

Anyone else thinking Diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH) potentially causing his severe anemia and SOB
repeated
DAH in a patient with hemophilia B, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28202865/

Why the jaundice? Increased hemolysis, Now we need CBC + hemolysis labs + smear

autoimmune vs mechanical hemolysis?

Something like cryoglobulinemia could support the MAHA + vasculitis like the picture.
You can also get an increase in bili from resorption from ecchymosis.

Not sure if that alone could cause the icterus?

if you have a proliferative anemia, think bleeding or hemolysis

Viruses with BM involvement- parovovirus B19, dengue, hepatitis, Epstein-Barr virus, CMV, HIV
Looks like he has a Hypoproliferative anemia with a <2 RPI, so unlikely hemolysis based off these labs

Also, haptoglobin isn’t low, LDH not elevated

Cbc 6 mo ago: hub 15.8, WBC 5.8, plt 275 hmmmm
Any corkscrew hair or perifollicular hemorrhage?
bleed - leukopenia - hypoproliferative anemia. any link?

Lymphoma infiltrating marrow can cause cytopenias and paraneoplastic fact 8 inhibitors

thinking of an EBV-driven B cell lymphoma —> acquired factor VIII inhibitor
immunological alterations induced by continuous antigenic stimulate derived from plasma concentrate could cause leukopenia

HLH explains bicytopenia but most of the time you have fevers, only 50% of HLH is due to cancer
Glanzmann is a rare autosomal recessive bleeding syndrome affecting the megakaryocyte lineage and characterized by lack of platelet aggregation....can look for GP IIB/IIIA activity, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

SLE can cause ab's against factor VIII, it also can cause
Antibody's against RBC's causing a hemolytic anemia
SLE also can cause leukopenia cuz of Ab's

acquired vWF deficiency can manifest at any time.. even aspirin use can trigger subclinical vWF issues

B12 and folate are super needed for bone marrow production of cells.
So maybe his low levels are the explanation?
fascinating that vitamin deficiency would present so acutely so likely suggests chronic, progressive process with tip over

There are causes of ‘Pseudo-petechiae’
vitamin c can also cause perifollocular and mucosal bleeding
It's rare to see b12 deficiency because the human body stores take months-years to deplete.

Folate and B12 are absorbed in the terminal ileum if I remember correctly, so maybe there's an issue there.

An MMA level would be great
If MMA & homocysteine are⬆️& the vitamin B12 level is mildly🔽then an early/mild B12 deficiency may be present.

This may indicate a 🔽in available B12 at the tissue level. If only homocysteine level is ⬆️& not MMA, then the person may have a folate def ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
B12 absorbed in ileum and folate in jejunum
a chronic hemolytic anemia can deplete b12 and folate stores, what was his diet?

Usually to get scurvy you have to have very, very low fruit and veggie intake.

it takes months for folate def and 4-5 years to develop b12 def
What is a pirates favorite letter? 10 of them...I, I, R, and the seven Cs

Recent image in clinical medicine case on scurvy in NEJM: nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…

There were a lot of twists and turns (corkscrew hairs) in this case, lol
Think factor deficiencies/quantitive plt problems/qualitative platelet problems/vascular wall integrity (vasculitis/scurvy, etc)

Some Still see scurvy in populations with food insecurity
food faddists or malabsorption. this is where we see scurvy nowadays
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P… Image
@Elizabe19893579 @Gurleen_Kaur96 @AshleyGWallace @Vandylism @RWBonner91 @abhiappukutty @PeguyTelusma @3owllearning

Disclaimer. The work from this thread is solely from those individuals tagged. Bravo!

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Travis Smith, DO

Travis Smith, DO Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @RosenelliEM

May 30, 2021
Some cool #Syphilis Pearls from an article that @k_vaishnani shared ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P… Primary syphilis first manifests into a painless chancre at the site of inoculation 1 to 6 weeks later…
Hematogenous dissemination then can occur typically 4 to 10 weeks later, giving rise to secondary syphilis. <40% of pts w/ syphilis have primary syphilis diagnosed. These “Secondary” lesions last for several weeks before spontaneously resolving. Coined “early, latent infection”
What does late infection mean? When syphilitic lesions recur after 1 year from the initial eruption, or seropositivity is detected more than 1 year after the initial eruption, it is termed late latent syphilis.
Read 5 tweets
May 29, 2021
Some optics neuritis pearls in a short #Medtweetorial 🧵…. We all know that optic neuritis is frequently associated with multiple sclerosis (MS). But optic nerve inflammation can exist from autoimmunity, infection, granulomatous disease, paraneoplastic disorders, & demyelination Image
Classical ON from MS is unilateral, moderate, painful color vision loss with an afferent pupillary defect & normal fundus examination.
In those with ON, 95% of patients showed unilateral vision loss & 92% had associated retroorbital pain that frequently worsened w/ eye movement.
Read 14 tweets
Oct 1, 2020
If you have not listened to the @CuriousClinPod most recent podcast (Episode 10: Why does metronidazole treat both bacterial and parasitic infections?) then I suggest you tune in.

curiousclinicians.com/2020/09/30/why…

I'll summarize their show notes here in short #medtweetorial
First a question:

Was metronidazole first used as an antibiotic or as an antiparasitic?
If you guessed antiparasitic, then you would be correct!

It was developed in the 1950s to treat the parasite trichomonas & then was used in the 1960s to treat other parasitic infections, like giardia and amoebiasis.
Read 14 tweets
Oct 1, 2020
When you order a serum alcohol level, what does the lab measure? An answer and a quick #Medtweetorial on false elevations in #ETOH
If you guessed NADH, you would be correct.
Most lab assays for serum alcohol utilize a reagent containing alcohol dehydrogenase & NAD+

This is used to convert all present ethanol to acetaldehyde

Thereby reducing present NAD+ to NADH.
Read 11 tweets
Sep 26, 2020
A Teal pain in the neck:

Follow along for a short #medtweetorial on #CervicalArteryDissection

or see the full handout here emboardbombs.com/s/Cervical-Art…

from @EMBoardBombs @blakebriggsMD @IltifatMD
This review will focus on spontaneous dissections, not traumatic, as well as the pathophys, risk factors, presentation, diagnosis, and management.

Cervical artery dissections are a common cause of stroke in young(<50 years )w/ some reports of up to 20% being from dissections
Much like aortic dissections, there is some loss of structure along the wall of either the internal carotid artery or vertebral artery

This allows blood to collect within the intima.

In patients <50 years old, cervical artery dissections account for 20% of ischemic strokes.
Read 24 tweets
Sep 26, 2020
Time for some #SpacedRepetition from @CPSolvers @DxRxEdu @rabihmgeha

Some chat recap #ClinicalPearls and bonus pearls from #VirtualMorningReport on Friday Sept 25th clinicalproblemsolving.com/morning-report…

Case by the brilliant @Rafameed Image
A 31-year-old M born and raised in Brazil w/ no PMH presented with a 3 mon history of worsening DOE, orthopnea, 7kg weight loss, abdominal distention, dry cough, and syncope

Base rate of disease for an ID case with @k_vaishnani and @Rafameed is very high
An interesting fact from @3owllearning : Depending on the clinical problems, the studies of disease probability for differential diagnosis often show 10 - 25% of cases are unexplained, even after careful examination and testing.
Read 17 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(