The Medical Media Review
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An Internal Medicine Approach to Abnormal Liver Chemistry Studies
Causes of liver damage include: Toxic Acute alcoholic hepatitis (fever, leukocytosis, abnormal liver chemistry studies) acetaminophen Amanita poisoning (history of mushroom ingestion) Other drugs Infectious Viruses HAV (food-related outbreak with a relatively short incubation period) HBV HCV HEV (Pregnant patient from Southeast Asia with oro-fecally transmitted fulminant hepatitis with a very long (8 week) incubation period) CMV (teenager…
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Electrocardiography: A Curriculum for Self-Guided Learners
“If you think there’s another specialist who has all the answers, someone else who’s going to bail you out of trouble every time you have a question about ECGs, you are mistaken. That person may just as likely be wrong, so YOU must strive to become THE expert.” Amal Mattu MD, ECG Interpretation of STEMI:…
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Teach Yourself Radiology!
Radiology is by far the most challenging specialty in all of modern medicine in terms of the sheer quantity and breadth of information one needs to acquire in order to become competent at it. You can, however, teach yourself radiology by focusing on the highest yield items: Step 1 Master radiographic anatomy. Radiologists need to know least four…
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How to distinguish pericarditis from STEMI
The Problem Diffuse, convex (up) ST segment elevations with or without PR-segment depressions can be seen in both pericarditis or ST-segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI), particularly if the patient has a wraparound LAD which supplies the inferior wall. So how can one reliably distinguish pericarditis from STEMI? The Solution If any of the following are present, a STEMI…
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“Jail Medicine” and other cool medical blogs and feeds
I recently published a list of cool medical blogs and feeds. You might have heard of some of them, such the famous Dr. Smith’s ECG Blog. Others, probably not so much. For example, Dr. Mark Crislip’s infectious diseases blog Rubor, Dolor, Calor, Tumor (http://feedity.com/medscape-com/V1FUW1pV.rss) is really good, but is really hard to get as a feed. The feed provided by the…
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One of the most important images in all of clinical medicine: anatomy of the PA and lateral chest radiograph
The image below, an artistic superimposition of a drawing of chest cardio-vasculature onto a normal PA and lateral chest radiograph is, in my view, one of the most important images in all of clinical medicine. Source PowerPoint presentation by Dr. Gillian Lieberman on radiographic chest anatomy and from the Medicine Explained blog.
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A Definitive Acid-Base Disorders Worksheet
This Acid-Base Disorders Worksheet is one of the best acid-base algorithms I have ever seen. It is an adaptation from Joshua Steinberg MD, sent to me today by Dr. Dontu, academic hospitalist at York Hospital, York PA.
Got any book recommendations?