ABSTRACT
A 72-years-old woman was admitted to the Emergency Department due to acute stroke in April 2022. Some days later the patient developed acute respiratory failure with oxygen arterial desaturation (SpO2 <80%). Interestingly, she experienced deep hypoxia when she was in the orthostatic position, with partial resolution in the supine position, thus necessitating continuous oxygen therapy. Her pertinent medical history included hypertension for which she was taking valsartan 80 mg daily and bisoprolol 2.5 mg daily, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome under treatment with nocturne continuous positive airway pressure, thyroidectomy for multinodular goiter in replacement therapy with levothyroxine 100 mcg daily, and anxiousdepressive syndrome for which she was taking trazodone 75 mg daily and escitalopram 10 mg daily. Given her presentation, our top differential diagnosis included acute pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, Sars-CoV-2 infection, and platypnea-orthodeoxia syndrome. The patient was then admitted to the Pneumology Department, where she underwent computed tomography angiography, which was negative for acute pulmonary embolism and pneumonia, and two SARS-CoV-2 nasal swabs, which were both negative. The transcranial Doppler showed a high-grade shunt (curtain effect). The transesophageal echocardiography with bubble test showed a lipomatous and aneurismatic interatrial septum with a massive right-to-left shunt through a patent foramen ovale (PFO) during the Valsalva maneuver. In the absence of other obvious cause of the positional desaturation and hypoxia, a diagnosis of platypnea-orthodeoxia syndrome was made. Platypnea-orthodeoxia syndrome is a rare clinical condition difficult to diagnose. However, it represents a potentially reversible cause of positional dyspnea and arterial desaturation. The patient then underwent percutaneous PFO closure with the Gore Septal Occluder 30/30 mm (W.L. Gore and Associates, Inc.) through intracardiac echocardiography guidance without any residual shunt. Although unfavorable anatomical features were present (atrial septal aneurism and lipomatous septum), the procedure was straightforward and without complication. The oxygen saturation on pulse oximeter, which was 91% in supine position with oxygen therapy with FiO2 60% during the procedure, rapidly became 97% soon after the placement of the prosthesis. The patient then experienced relief of the dyspnea and the oxygen therapy was stopped. The clinical follow-up performed three weeks later showed an asymptomatic patient with no limitation of daily physical activity.
ABSTRACT
"Objectives: Assess the effectiveness of social media implementation of an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) milestone-based curriculum during the spring 2020 U.S. COVID-19 surge. The hypothesis is that pre-interns will report improvements in PP regarding multiple ACGME milestone topics. Background(s): Transitioning to residency involves translation of academic knowledge into clinical acumen, and is complicated by variable medical school experiences. The COVID-19 pandemic presented a new challenge by displacing students from clinical rotations. Virtual educational modalities such as the Slack Intern Curriculum (SIC) have increased newly-matched ""pre-intern"" perceived preparedness (PP) for residency in prior years, but the SIC had never been implemented or evaluated in a pandemic with disrupted medical education. Method(s): The SIC was constructed using topics from 8 ACGME milestones in emergency medicine (EM), incorporated into 8 clinical scenarios. Residency recruitment occurred via national EM listservs;of 276 programs, 27 enrolled. Curricular implementation was on Slack workspaces. Cases included stimulus images and clinical questions. Ample discussion time, answers, and resources were provided. Trends in PP were calculated with descriptive statistics and the Wilcoxon Rank Sum test. Result(s): Of 311 total pre-interns contacted, 289 (92.9%) completed a presurvey in April/May 2020, and 240 (77.2%) completed a post-survey in June/July 2020, for an 83.9% follow-through rate. Pre-interns reported statistically significant increases in PP both overall and regarding 14 of 21 milestones. See Table 1. Conclusion(s): Amidst the educational disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, pre-interns participating in the SIC reported statistically significant increases in PP. Limitations include absence of control or pre-pandemic data. Future directions include adapting the SIC to other specialties' ACGME milestones for generalizability across all fields. (Table Presented) ."
ABSTRACT
The pandemic of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is still impacting not only on human health but also all economic activities, especially in those related to tourism. In this study, in order to characterize the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in a hot spring park in Uruguay, swimming pools water, wastewater, and surface water from this area were analyzed by quantitative PCR. Wastewater from Salto city located next to the hydrothermal spring area was also evaluated as well as the presence of Rotavirus (RV). Overall, SARS-CoV-2 was detected in 13% (13/102) of the analyzed samples. Moreover, this virus was not detected in any of the samples from the swimming pools water and was present in 18% (3/17) of wastewater samples from the hotels area showing the same trend between the titer of SARS-CoV-2 and the number of infected people in Salto city. SARS-CoV-2 was also detected in wastewater samples (32% (11/34)) from Salto city, detecting the first positive sample when 105 persons were positive for SARS-CoV-2. Rotavirus was detected only in 10% (2/24) of the wastewater samples analyzed in months when partial lockdown measures were taken, however, this virus was detected in nearly all wastewater samples analyzed when social distancing measures and partial lockdown were relaxed. Wastewater results confirmed the advantages of using the detection and quantification of viruses in this matrix in order to evaluate the presence of these viruses in the population, highlighting the usefulness of this approach to define and apply social distancing. This study suggests that waters from swimming pools are not a source of infection for SARS-CoV-2, although more studies are needed including infectivity assays in order to confirm this statement.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Hot Springs , Rotavirus , Humans , SARS-CoV-2 , Rotavirus/genetics , Wastewater , Water , Communicable Disease ControlABSTRACT
Learning Objectives: Assess the effectiveness of social media implementation of an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) milestone-based curriculum during the spring 2020 US COVID-19 surge. The hypothesis is that pre-interns will report improvements in PP regarding multiple ACGME milestone topics. Background: Transitioning to residency involves translation of academic knowledge into clinical acumen, and is complicated by variable medical school experiences. The COVID-19 pandemic presented a new challenge by displacing students from clinical rotations. Virtual educational modalities such as the Slack Intern Curriculum (SIC) have increased newly-matched “pre-intern” perceived preparedness (PP) for residency in prior years, but the SIC had never been implemented or evaluated in a pandemic with disrupted medical education. Objective: Assess the effectiveness of social media implementation of an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) milestone-based curriculum during the spring 2020 U.S. COVID-19 surge. The hypothesis is that pre-interns will report improvements in PP regarding multiple ACGME milestone topics. Methods: The SIC was constructed using topics from 8 ACGME milestones in emergency medicine (EM), incorporated into 8 clinical scenarios. Residency recruitment occurred via national EM listservs;of 276 programs, 27 enrolled. Curricular implementation was on Slack workspaces. Cases included stimulus images and clinical questions. Ample discussion time, answers, and resources were provided. Trends in PP were calculated with descriptive statistics and the Wilcoxon Rank Sum test. Results: Of 311 total pre-interns contacted, 289 (92.9%) completed a presurvey in April/May 2020, and 240 (77.2%) completed a post-survey in June/July 2020, for an 83.9% followthrough rate. Pre-interns reported statistically significant increases in PP both overall and regarding 14 of 21 milestones. See Table 1. Conclusions: Amidst the educational disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, pre-interns participating in the SIC reported statistically significant increases in PP. Limitations include absence of control or pre-pandemic data. Future directions include adapting the SIC to other specialties' ACGME milestones for generalizability across all fields.