Background: There is literature to suggest there is a subtype of COPD patients in which eosinophils may play an important role. Data suggests that this subset of patient are more prone to develop exacerbations, but also have a higher likelihood of responding to inhaled corticosteroid therapy. The objective of this study is to determine if […]

Background: On the nonteaching service at a large metropolitan teaching hospital, hospitalists were frustrated by inefficient pager‐based communication from nurses frequently consisting of “call back number only” pages in which no other information was communicated such as the person calling, the patient name, the reason for call, or the urgency of the issue at hand. […]

Background: Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) is an opportunistic infection associated with lymphopenic conditions including HIV/AIDS, hematologic malignancy1, organ transplantation2, and lymphocyte-suppressive therapies such as high dose glucocorticoids3,4. PJP prophylaxis, which is highly effective, is indicated when the incidence of PJP exceeds the rate of adverse events due to prophylaxis.4,7 Guidelines from the American Thoracic Society […]

Case Presentation: A 71‐year‐old man with stage IV chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), hypertension, and diabetes mellitus was admitted to the hospital medicine service for the evaluation of 2 weeks of generalized weakness, anorexia, and mild abdominal pain. He was found to have a lactate level of 10.4. The medical team began to investigate the etiology […]

Case Presentation: A 78-year-old woman with severe persistent asthma on a maximum dose of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) was admitted for lethargy and skin nodules on her thighs. She had three hospital admissions in the past two months for reported pneumonia. She was found to have fever, left basilar crackles, and multiple violaceous, firm, tender subcutaneous […]

Case Presentation: A 78-year-old woman with severe persistent asthma on a maximum dose of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) was admitted for lethargy and skin nodules on her thighs. She had three hospital admissions in the past two months for reported pneumonia. She was found to have fever, left basilar crackles, and multiple violaceous, firm, tender subcutaneous […]

Case Presentation: A 63-year-old man with lung adenocarcinoma with multiple rib metastases and lytic spinal lesions was receiving palliative radiation treatment when computed tomography (CT) incidentally revealed a fluid collection along the anterior cecum with pneumatosis. Cultures taken during CT-guided abscess drainage were positive for piperacillin-tazobactam-sensitive enterococcus, and the patient was started on antibiotics. His […]

Case Presentation: The prevalence of thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is rare (1%). Recognizing TMA in patients with SLE is difficult because these diseases have many overlapping features. We present a case of a 28‐year‐old woman with SLE who presented with confusion, thrombocytopenia and acute kidney injury. The patient had […]

Case Presentation: 54-year-old male patient diabetes mellitus type II presented with pain and swelling involving small joints of bilateral hands with wrists. Synovitis involving bilateral interphalangeal, metacarpo-phalangeal were noted.Labs revealed leukocytosis to 15.7K/microL. Hemoglobin was 7.7 g/dL. Anemia work up revealed low serum iron level of 23 µg/dL, low TIBC at 167ug/dL with saturation of […]

Case Presentation:      A 6 yr old female presented with 14 days of fever to 105. She had 11 days of right flank pain and was sleeping more. Outpatient work-up revealed negative urine cx, Monospot, tick panel, CXR, chest CT and re-assuring CBC and BMP. She received 2 days of SMZ-TMP while the urine […]