Background: Depression is considered an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease. Post-myocardial infarction (PMI) depression, is an increasingly recognized clinical entity with a prevalence of 10%. Compared with other ethnic groups, African Americans (AA) are more likely to be depressed and have higher coronary artery disease (CAD) burden. Few studies have evaluated the implications of [...]

Background: Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States. Approximately every 40 seconds, an American will have a myocardial infarction. The aim of this project is to assess the progress of the prevention and management of myocardial infarction by using the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) data. Methods: This is a retrospective [...]

Background: Postmyocardial Infarction Syndrome (PMIS), also called Dressler syndrome or Post-pericardiotomy Syndrome, refers to a heterogeneous group of autoimmune-mediated conditions of pericardial, epicardial and myocardial inflammation following myocardial infarction. Generally considered to be rare in the reperfusion era, the features and risk factors of PMIS are less well characterized in the contemporary era. This study [...]

Case Presentation: A 47-year-old Hispanic female smoker presented with aone-week history of severe, intermittent substernal chest pain radiating tothe left arm. The pain was associated with palpitations and shortness ofbreath. She was afebrile with a heart rate of 100, a blood pressure of119/59, a fine tremor, and brisk reflexes. No lid lag or proptosis wasappreciated. [...]

Case Presentation: 25-year-old male with a past medical history of von Willebrand disease, thrombocytosis presented to an outside hospital (OSH) with acute onset chest pain. An EKG there showed ST-segment elevation in anterior leads after which he was emergently taken to the cardiac catheterization laboratory. He was found to have an left anterior descending (LAD) [...]

Case Presentation: A 39-year-old man with no significant past medical history was hospitalized with a 2-week history of constant burning left upper quadrant pain, headaches, myalgias, and fever/chills. The patient reported camping in Pennsylvania 1 month prior to presentation. In the ED, he was initially found to be febrile to 102.4F and hypotensive to SBP [...]

Case Presentation: A 77-year-old caucasian man with a known history of hypertension, hyperlipidemia and tobacco abuse initially presented to the hospital with chest pain for five days. He was diagnosed with an anterior wall ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). He underwent cardiac catheterization with drug-eluting stent placement to the left anterior descending coronary artery. Subsequent [...]

Case Presentation: 65-year-old male with chronic alcoholism, hepatitis C, prior GI bleed, and coronary disease was found unresponsive for unknown duration and was evaluated in the ED for alcohol intoxication. Patient was admitted to the hospitalist service for acute encephalopathy, acute renal failure, and alcohol withdrawal. Vital signs were stable on admission and laboratory studies [...]

Case Presentation: A 39-year-old woman presented with 15 minutes of sharp, substernal chest pain four days after an uncomplicated vaginal delivery. Blood pressure was 158/84 mmHg, and the rest of the vitals were within normal limits. Labs and physical exam did not meet diagnostic criteria for preeclampsia. EKG and serial troponins were normal. CT scan [...]

Case Presentation: 32-year-old previously healthy man presented with a week of fatigue and five days of low-grade fevers. He reported mild left abdominal pain worsened with inspiration. He denied a sore throat and other upper respiratory symptoms. He recently travelled to northern Wisconsin where he obtained multiple mosquito bites. He had been in contact with [...]