An 80 yo F presents with worsening fatigue x 1 month, 1 week of DOE, and “dizziness” was found to be anemic, hypercalcemic with an AKI, elevated Gamma Gap with a IgM monoclonal Spike, & increased serum viscosity
Our main focus initially is her Chief Concern:
Lightheadedness and fatigue with SOB on exertion:
Causes include: cardiac/pulmonary/anemia/metabolic
Trigger DOE schema
She is likely not experiencing vertigo causing “dizziness” and she is likely “lightheaded” or presyncope given other complaints.
lightheadedness could mean there is intravascular depletion-near shock
we want to know about LE edema and orthopnea
A significant valvulopathy can cause this too as well as constrictive pericarditis
POCUS of the heart and lungs is very helpful
Seems like a HF presentation, with the age I feel the Ddx would include: Amyloid, ICMP, Aortic stenosis, arrhythmias
Smoker and OSA— 6metre walk test may be helpful to assess pulmonary vasculature functionally
This could be an acute presentation of a chronic condition- say anemia. but, at this juncture, w/ prev medical history, I’d worry about valvular pathology!
And now the PE:
distant BS. is the problem the lungs?
(92% on 3L) hypoxemia w/ nml auscultation -- pulm vasculature
BP 142/86: Pulse pressure indicates pretty good cardiac output
CXR - we are not very good at pulmonary auscultation
when i think of distant breath sounds, i think of a shield between stetho and alveoli
tachycardia, hypoxemia, and normal lung sounds make me think of pulmonary vascular disease whether PE or pHTN
I think moderate risk Well’s - @AnnKumfer brought up PE - at least a D-dimer
MCV is high. b12 or folate def or current alcohol abuse
macrocytic can translate reticulocytosis: hemorrhage or hemolysis
Mild hypercalcemia an 10.7: overdosed on levothyroxine?
U/a consistent with volume contraction (SG 1.021)- so Hgb is probably lower
+protein gap, anemia, renal dysfunction
Back to our favorite gamma gap: ?MM other plasma cell dyscrasias
anemia, protein gap, elevated Cr, hypercalcemia.
We certainly have to consider/evaluate for MM and granulomatous conditions.
Check SPEP, UPEP, FLC
What about her hypoxemia: Her OSA and “emphysema” probably explains hypoxemia
Monoclonal gammopathy, which is often an incidental finding, is found in 3.2–3.5% of individuals aged over 50 years.
The majority of individuals (70%) develop IgG monoclonal gammopathies, followed by IgM gammopathies (10–20%). IgA gammopathies (10–17%) and biclonal (the presence of more than one monoclonal immunoglobulin) gammopathies (3–5%) are rarer
The most frequent differential diagnosis in the presence of a monoclonal IgM paraprotein is monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS). statpearls.com/kb/viewarticle…
IgM MGUS is defined by an IgM serum protein of <3 g/dL, < 10% clonal lymphoplasmacytic cells in bone
...marrow, and the absence of symptoms typical of WM
The risk of MGUS progressing to a malignant lymphoproliferative or related disease is 10% within the first 5 years following diagnosis
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.