Background: Prolongation of the QT interval is associated with adverse cardiac events, mainly a distinctive ventricular tachycardia known as Torsades de Pointes. Prolonged QT can be congenital or acquired and is OFTEN measured as a corrected QT interval of >450 msec for men and >470 msec for women. In a world where medical knowledge and […]

Background: Antipsychotics are frequently used in the hospital setting for managing both acute and chronic neuropsychiatric disorders. However, antipsychotics have been associated with higher rates of adverse events, including mortality, due to their association with QT prolongation, which can lead to fatal cardiac arrhythmias such as torsade de pointes, earning a black box warning for use in dementia related psychosis. Yet, […]

Background: Hospital readmissions within 30 days of discharge have gained national attention and account for more than $17 billion in avoidable U.S. Medicare expenditures each year. (1) In 2011 alone, there were approximately 3.3 million adult 30-day all-cause hospital readmissions, costing the US $41.3 billion.(2) As such, efforts have been made to create algorithms to […]

Case Presentation: A 37 year-old woman with a past medical history of depression and chronic knee pain presented with complaints of two day duration non-radiating 8/10 epigastric and lower abdominal pain associated with nausea and vomiting. Vitals sings were normal. Abdomen was soft, non-distended with generalized tenderness, but without masses, rebound, or guarding. Lipase was […]