What about this stool, which might be blood or food pigment? Or the self-evacuated black stool of a patient who’s on iron or pepto, and is tachy today?
I’d Guaiac that, and change management if overtly + vs -.
3/
Don’t treat asymptomatic hypertension in the hospital, we preach. #TWDFNR, great article.
But suddenly there are people who are riding 180-200/90-110 for DAYS and they’re not on lisinopril, or amlodipine, or nothin.
Wait, was it “don’t treat” or “treat differently?”
4/
“Elevated lactate does not equal fluid-responsive hypoperfusion” gets reduced to “checking or trending lactate is useless.”
The rolled eyes 🙄 at d-dimers for their non-specificity ignore the fact that if it was negative, it would be very useful, or save a scan.
5/
“Why did this patient get a troponin?!”
Maybe because we miss MIs all the time in folks (especially women) who present with atypical symptoms, and pre-test probability for detecting significant myocardial injury should be << 10%.
6/
Pyuria does not equal UTI!
Asymptomatic bacteremia should not be treated with antibiotics if not pregnant!
We 🙄 hard when we see unnecessary abx.
Then someone brushes off pyuria + bacteriuria + pelvic pain + fever and I’m like hold on hold on UTIs do still exist.
7/
I’d love #medtwitter to share more examples. But to summarize:
Do we overuse many labs and treatments? Yes. But we should teach high-value care with nuance, context, and caveats. To describe optimal use, rather than demonizing or canceling various tools.
8/8
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Op report: “gangrenous cholecystitis with extremely friable tissue. Purulent drainage with manipulation of gallbladder.”
I've seen this many times.
Thread
1/
Like any test, RUQUS is not perfect in detecting cholecystitis.
A systematic review in 2012 put pooled sensitivity at 81%, but as you see in plot of included studies, there's heterogeneity, with sensitivity as low as 50% in some studies.
Press the hypothenar edge of your hand firmly against your own ribcage. You're gonna keep it there the whole time while you say some stuff and feel the amount of vibrations transmitted.
Let's go.
1/5
Experiment # 1:
Compare the amount of fremitus/vibration when you say:
ninety-nine
noy-noy-noy
one-two-three
Feel free to repeat a couple times.
Did any of them cause more vibration than others?
2/5
Experiment #2
Pick any one of the three chants above.
Compare the amount of vibrations when you say the phrase in the lowest (deepest) voice you can muster... vs. a high-pitched (e.g. falsetto-y) voice.
Can upper GI bleeding cause hyperkalemia in predisposed people?
I feel like I’ve gotten that vibe from a couple patients. I can’t find any reports from others.. but I can think of a mechanism...
1/
Blood contains a lot of protein.
When a significant amount of it is introduced into the proximal GI lumen (and some of it absorbed), it can elevate your BUN, or trigger hepatic encephalopathy.
2/
The concentration of potassium in RBCs is ~100 mMol, meaning 100 mEq/L. If you start at a hematocrit of 40 and bleed 20% of your blood volume into your stomach...
That’s ~1 liter blood = 400 cc of red cells = 40 mEq of potassium.
3/