Sunday, July 25, 2010

PACES Case Sharing

The UK trip is very rewarding in terms of learning experience. Here I'd just like to share a few "tricky" cases that I've seen during my attachment/ courses:

#1
In station 5, you're asked to see a lady complained of lethargy and joint pain. This lady has intermittent fever, arthralgia and history suggestive of Raynaud's phenomeon. She also has background history of Hypertension for years. So you suspect this is a case of SLE.
Straightforward? Not really.
Examiner hintingly asked what is the link btw hypertension and SLE.
Further history (only if you specifically asked) revealed that she was treated with Hydralazine for months before symptoms onset. So ya, this is a drug-induced lupus. Did that come into your mind?
Questions discussed were about percentage of anti-histone ab positivity (only about 30% in Hydralazine-induced, as compared to other drugs) and what are slow/ fast acetylators.

#2
Cardiac murmurs!
This is gonna be the best case I've auscultated.
Basically there are full of murmurs: You hear ESM over aortic area to carotid, EDM over LLSE, then also systolic murmur over apex to axilla, with MDM in mitral area as well.
So you thought this is a case of mixed mitral (MS/MR) and mixed aortic valve disease (AS/AR)?
Examiner then said there's no primary mitral valve disease.
The diagnosis is actually mixed aortic valve disease. At mitral area, the systolic murmur you heard is just part of the Gallavardin phenomenon, and diastolic murmur is the Austin Flint murmur due to AR.
Tricky enough?

#3
Station 5 again. You're asked to see a lady presented with seizure, and you should examine her hands.
She has family history of epilepsy. On visual survey you noted she has an AVF at left arm.
ESRF with seizure? Was it due to electrolyte imbalance?
In her hands you noted lesions suggestive of peri-ungual fibroma. So you thought this is a case of Tuberous sclerosis, but there's no facial angiofibroma.
Time's up.

Wanna know the answer? Yes she's a case of tuberous sclerosis with epilepsy. ESRF was because she underwent bilateral nephrectomy due to severe renal angiomyolipoma hemorrhage.
Then why is that she doesn't have the typical facial angiofibroma?

Well, she underwent laser therapy for cosmetic reason!

So these are a few..will share more later!

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