WesElyMD Profile picture
Mar 11 11 tweets 6 min read
1/🧵 Let’s learn about Ace inh-induced angioedema
 
His lips & tongue swelled up hours after taking a blood pressure med he’d been on 10 years - lisinopril.

📍What’s the treatment?
📍Is it an allergy?
📍What’s a common thought error?

(Pic w Perm - trigger warning tweets 2 & 4)
2/ Angioedema is potentially life-threatening
 
It’s very scary to see the tongue & lips swelling up so much and the airway compromised.

The patients are watched in the ICU so that intubation and even tracheostomy can occur emergently if required.

What’s the Dz Mechanism?
3/ Is ACE-inh induced Angioedema an allergy?
 
NO! It’s not an IGE mediated allergic reaction.

💥 Pro Tip:
People can get angioedema from allergies, but they would be very itchy, and my patient was not itching at all.

That's because it's mediated by a buildup of bradykinin.
4/ So why do they nearly always get epinephrine, benadryl & steroids in the ED? @EM_RESUS teach us!
 
Those agents do NOT ⬇️ swelling when angioedema is due to ACE inh.

There's no medical tx for this other than time & possibly the need for an intervention to maintain the airway.
5/ My patient got those meds & did well, but the treatment & outcome we're unrelated.
 
Once he’s safely through the swelling, the main thing is to make sure he never gets an ACE inh for BP again. Switch him to other antihypertensives, even angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs).
6/ Why is the swelling located in the tongue & face?
 
Bradykinin causes leakage of plasma proteins around the throat & lips, which are super thin & easily expandable.

I’m not aware that bradykinin receptors are clustered there?

Teach me if you know more, please.
7/ The science of this was first worked out by Dr. Nancy Brown & colleagues @VUMC_Medicine, which helped us differentiate between IGE mediated & bradykinin mediated edema.

See reference👇
 
bit.ly/3Kpk0a1
8/ Icatibant is an antagonist at bradykinin receptors.

You’d think that this approach would work for this problem, but trials have had poor results.

The mainstay approach is watchful waiting in a monitored setting & prevention of future exposure.
 
bit.ly/3Kitx2v
9/fin
 Because 2/3rds of people w heart Dz get ACE inhs, too many die every year from this problem.

Every patient who is on ACE-inh must be taught to seek help immediately if she or he starts noticing swelling.

Time is of the essence. Stay safe!

bit.ly/34wgOtI
Excellent teaching table and figure…#Angioedema

bit.ly/3MFFJfH
Sending 🧵 to these gurus to see if any of you have added teaching pearls…#allergy #angioedema #allergies

@AllergyEaaci @AAAAI_org @FIT_AAAAI_org @AllergicLiving @AAFANational @allergyheroes

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More from @WesElyMD

Mar 10
1/🧵 Let’s talk Long COVID:

I’m grouping several important & interesting articles about the reality of #LongCOVID.

By studying brain fluid, viral persistence & MRIs, we’re building our understanding of the “how” & “why” of this devastating malady.

A train is coming, read on…
2/ Cerebrospinal Fluid Offers Clues to #BrainFog

Most pts w new “thinking problems” after mild #COVID had abnormalities in fluid from lumbar punctures (image); controls did not.

Delayed #LongCOVID was common in younger people who thought they were safe.

bit.ly/3pS0JWN
3/ Believing those with #LongCOVID complaints is our 1st basic show of support!

“If people tell us they have new thinking & memory issues, I think we should believe them rather than require that they meet certain severity criteria.”
Dr. Apple UCSF

bit.ly/3sUNczF
Read 16 tweets
Mar 9
1/🧵 A sister & two brothers were born into a wonderful family. They led an exciting life. 4 months ago, 2 of them died young of #COVID, unprotected. The surviving sibling decided to get Vaxxed but stopped after 1 shot & is now on ventilator (CT scan) w COVID pneumonia. Read on…
2/ A teaching Point: This CT scan shows “holes” in his lung (red lines above & arrows👇) surrounded by white pneumonia.

The holes are previously damaged lung from smoking.

Millions in society, victims of misinformation, remain unprotected & the vaccine could save their lives.
3/ Let’s all do our part to teach others.

When polio hit, almost everyone wanted to be vaccinated despite the disclosed risk of getting polio from the live attenuated vaccine.

This vaccine is even safer and yet the untruths spewed by many have tainted our uptake.
Read 4 tweets
Mar 3
1/🧵 WAKE UP - #COVID is a Ball & Chain for heart disease & stroke.
 
This 154,000 pt study & others solidify COVID as a PREDICTOR of a variety of CardioVascular Dzs.
 
Translation: #LongCOVID pts suffer heart attacks, strokes & much more.
 
#Vaccinate!
 
go.nature.com/3pxKjmi
2/ SHOCKER: Amazing work scientifically. Every med student is taught to gauge Cardiovascular risk history: Smoking, Obesity, HTN, Cholesterol, Family History…

Add COVID to the list. Solid data from @NatureMedicine of US Veterans used >11M contemporary + historical controls!
3/ Main figure shows both hazard ratios & excess burden per 1,000 persons of highlighted types of problems like strokes, V Tach & #POTS, myocarditis, heart attacks, heart failure & blood clots in 154,000 people 30 days after COVID vs. 5,637,647 contemporary controls.
Read 13 tweets
Feb 28
1/🧵 Are you happy?

My brother w #DownSyndrome is teaching me tons of life lessons.

In medicine & in life, I make big decisions based on guesstimates of other’s Quality of Life #QOL.

I often GET IT WRONG!
 
What do adults w #disability teach me about TRUTH?

Can I learn? Image
2/🎥 How do we “calculate” someone’s #QOL?
 
#Confession: I get it all wrong when I impose MY judgment onto THEIR life.
 
Greg, my 57 y/o brother-in-law with Down Syndrome, has a better QOL than I do.

Why?

Digest this…read on…
 
#DownSyndromeLove
3/ My working definition of QOL is “the ability to give & receive love.”

REREAD THAT👆

Greg understands the Law of the Gift: Treasures GROW when we give them away.

It’s the opposite of hoarding.

Yet, giving ourselves to others can be SCARY. Greg ponders deeply these emotions. Image
Read 16 tweets
Feb 21
1/🧵 Paul Farmer has died.

It is so heartbreaking 💔. Let us collectively mourn his passing - one of the greatest #PublicHealth figures in the history of Medicine.

His @PIH is a tribute to a kinder gentler way to love each other.

More…
2/ Dr. Farmer started his vocation of #SocialJustice by serving the beautiful people of Haiti, the world’s 1st Black republic. He looked in their eyes & saw their needs…HIV, malaria, Tb, hunger, poverty, neglect.

In response he took action…

(paintings below by my daughter)
3/ Paul Farmer is the central figure in Kidder’s 📚 “Mountains Beyond Mountains.” If you haven’t read it, order now.

Through his drive and insights we learned to say “Yes” to bringing modern medicine to the most remote settings of human life on Earth 🌍
Read 6 tweets
Feb 21
1/🧵 Why is COVID hospitalization like 2X sticks of dynamite 🧨?
 
A thread on the ICU portion… #PICS + #LongCOVID.
 
Prevent this w 3 steps:
📌Avoid #COVID by Vax & Mask
📌Avoid severe COVID by Paxlovid & Monoclonal Ab
📌👇 read here about PICS & how to reduce injury in the ICU
2/ Here’s what you must know if you get too sick & land in an ICU.

History Lesson 📝
In the past, too many decisions in #CriticalCare were guided by fear. We oversedated patients for too long out of worry they might self-extubate & pull off restraints.

That’s happening again 🤮
3/ We kept patients immobilized due to an overly conservative approach to fall prevention that precluded us from attempting to walk them early. We kept families away from patients, treating loved ones as visitors rather than members of the healing plan.

That’s happening again.
Read 10 tweets

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