Successful treatment of acute renal failure secondary to complicated infective endocarditis by peritoneal dialysis: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Infective endocarditis is one of the most common infections among intravenous drug addicts. Its complications can affect many systems, and these can include acute renal failure. There is a scarcity of cases in the literature related to acute renal failure secondary to infective endocarditis treated with peritoneal dialysis. In this paper, the case of a 48-year-old Saudi male is reported, who presented with features suggestive of infective endocarditis and who developed acute kidney injury that was treated successfully with high tidal volume automated peritoneal dialysis. To our knowledge, this is the second report of such an association in the literature. CASE PRESENTATION: A 48-year-old Saudi gentleman diagnosed to have a glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and hepatitis C infection for the last 9 years, presented to the emergency department with a history of fever of 2 days' duration. On examination: his temperature = 41 °C, there was clubbing of the fingers bilaterally and a pansystolic murmur in the left parasternal area. The results of the blood cultures and echocardiogram were supportive of the diagnosis of infective endocarditis, and the patient subsequently developed acute kidney injury, and his creatinine reached 5.2 mg/dl, a level for which dialysis is essential for the patient to survive. CONCLUSION: High tidal volume automated peritoneal dialysis is highly effective as a renal replacement therapy in acute renal failure secondary to infective endocarditis if no contraindication is present.

The history and epidemiology of Middle East respiratory syndrome corona virus.

Corona viruses cause common cold, and infections caused by corona viruses are generally self-resolving. During the last 4 years, corona viruses have become the most important viruses worldwide because of the occurrence of several recent deaths caused by corona viruses in Saudi Arabia. Spread of the infection occurred worldwide; however, most cases of mortality have occurred in the Middle East. Owing to the predominance of outbreaks in the Middle Eastern countries, the virus was renamed a Middle East respiratory syndrome corona virus (MERS-CoV) by the Corona virus Study Group. The Center for Diseases Control and Prevention and World Health Organization maintain a website that is updated frequently with new cases of MERS-CoV infection. In this review, we describe the history and epidemiology of this novel virus. Studies of the genetics and molecular mechanisms of this virus are expected to facilitate the development of vaccines in the future.

Hodgkin's Lymphoma as a Multiloculated Lung Cavity Lesion.

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary manifestation of Hodgkin's lymphoma is common, and recently, single and/or multiple lung cavities with air-fluid levels has been reported as a primary manifestation of Hodgkin's lymphoma. However, the unusual presentation of the lung cavity itself has not been previously reported for Hodgkin's lymphoma, especially as the first presentation of the disease. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a 16-year-old male who presented to the emergency department with chief complaints of fever, unintentional 10-kilogram weight loss, a productive cough and pulmonary cavity for investigation. The patient's CT scan indicated multiloculated cavity lesions in the middle lobe with an air-fluid level and multiple enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes, which have not been previously reported as a primary presentation for Hodgkin's lymphoma or in the histopathology of the nodular sclerosing type of classical Hodgkin's lymphoma. CONCLUSION: Pulmonary manifestation of Hodgkin's lymphoma has already been reported and must be part of the differential diagnosis of lung cavity lesions, even if the likelihood is low based on previous reports, especially in younger individuals. Multiloculated lung cavities can be the first presentation of Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Is Cronbach's alpha sufficient for assessing the reliability of the OSCE for an internal medicine course?

BACKGROUND: The number of medical students accepted into medical programs is increasing, which has made the traditional long/short case style of examination difficult to conduct. At Dammam University, the program is shifting to the use of the Objective Structural Clinical Examination (OSCE), which may solve some of these difficulties, including issues with reliability, validity index and exam duration. RESULTS: A pilot study was conducted over one semester. A total of 207 examinees in three groups took the OSCE and written exams. The OSCE consisted of 18 clinical stations and required 3-4.3 h/day. The written exam contained 80 multiple-choice questions. The Cronbach's alpha for each group was 0.7, 0.8, and 0.9. Correlations for all stations ranged from 0.7 to 0.8, which indicated good stability and internal consistency with minor differences in the progression of the indexes. The reliability of the written exam was 0.79, and the validity of the OSCE was 0.63, as assessed using Pearson's correlation. CONCLUSION: No single reliability index can be considered a perfect assessment tool to solve this issue. Thus, at least two to three indexes should be used to ensure the reliability of the OSCE.