The Journey From Knee to Heart: A Case of Methicillin-Sensitive Staphylococcus aureus Infective Endocarditis Secondary to Septic Prepatellar Bursitis.

Staphylococcus aureus is a cause of life-threatening gram-positive bacteremia and the most common causative organism of septic bursitis. Although there are several case reports of infective endocarditis complicated with septic bursitis and other rheumatic complications, there are very few cases reports of septic bursitis leading to infective endocarditis (IE). We present a patient with a history of recurrent prepatellar bursitis requiring catheter drainage, who presented with sepsis and IE.

Constrictive Pericarditis from an Atraumatic Hemopericardium After Systemic Thrombolysis for a Massive Pulmonary Embolism.

Constrictive pericarditis most commonly results from fibrosis and adhesions of the parietal and visceral pericardium due to long-standing inflammation. Common etiologies include idiopathic, post-surgical, radiation injury and infectious etiologies including tuberculosis. Traumatic hemopericardium is a rare cause of constrictive pericarditis but atraumatic hemopericardium causing constrictive pericarditis has not been reported in the literature to date. We present a case of constrictive pericarditis from an atraumatic hemopericardium after systemic thrombolysis for a massive pulmonary embolism.

A Case of Macrophage Activation Syndrome Manifesting as the Initial Presentation of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) is a potentially fatal complication of an autoimmune rheumatologic disease characterized by overwhelming inflammation, multiorgan failure, and high mortality if untreated. We report a rare case of a 56-year-old man who presented with fever for three weeks and had a constellation of clinical features and laboratory findings, meeting the diagnostic criteria for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and SLE-associated MAS. He was treated with high dose intravenous corticosteroid and hydroxychloroquine, resulting in resolution of fever and dramatic clinical improvement.

Paget-Schroetter Syndrome: A Rare Case of Upper Extremity Deep Vein Thrombosis in a Young Swimmer.

Paget-Schroetter syndrome (PSS) is a rare form of spontaneous upper extremity deep vein thrombosis associated with vigorous activity of the upper extremities. We present a rare case of a young swimmer who presented with a painful right upper extremity swelling, with compression ultrasound (CUS) revealing extensive venous clots in the basilic, axillary, and subclavian veins. Venous duplex revealed extrinsic compression of the subclavian vein, and catheter-based contrast venography confirmed our diagnosis of PSS. The patient was started on a therapeutic dose of subcutaneous enoxaparin and referred to a higher center for further intervention.

Outcomes of the First Episode of STEMI in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients from the National Inpatient Sample Database, 2016-2019.

Patients with Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have a higher burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), but conflicting results were seen regarding in-hospital outcomes of STEMI in patients with RA compared to patients without RA. Our study aimed to compare in-hospital outcomes of the first episode of STEMI between patients with and without RA. The NIS database was used to conduct a retrospective study of U.S. hospitalizations with a primary diagnosis of first-time STEMI from 2016 to 2019. We divided our study population into two cohorts, with diagnosis codes for RA and those without RA and compared baseline demographics, comorbidities, and in-hospital outcomes and finally performed a multivariate logistic regression analysis after adjusting for baseline factors. Our analysis revealed that patients with RA were statistically more likely to be older, white, and female and had more hypertension, cardiomyopathy, CKD stage 3 or greater and heart failure. After adjusting for potential confounders, we found lower inpatient mortality in the first STEMI with RA cohort (adjusted OR: 0.70, 95% CI of 0.56-0.87, p <0.002) compared to the patients without RA. However, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in rates of in-hospital complications, including repeat MI, acute heart failure, arrhythmias, cardiac arrest, cardiogenic shock, and stroke. Further patient-level studies are needed to understand better the impact of newer biologics and the effect of risk factor modification on this patient subset.