Phantom Shocks Associated With a Wearable Cardioverter Defibrillator.

Wearable cardioverter defibrillators (WCDs) are external devices capable of continuous cardiac rhythm monitoring as well as automatic detection and defibrillation of potentially life-threatening arrhythmias such as ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation (VF). They are an alternative approach for patients when an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is not appropriate. Although treatment with ICD is considered highly effective for the primary and secondary prevention of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in high-risk patients susceptible to VT and VF, patients may still experience psychological difficulties such as fear of shock, avoidance of normal behaviors and reduced quality of life. One of these phenomena is phantom shock (PS), which is defined as a perception of having received a shock with no evidence of recorded defibrillation upon device interrogation. While PS has been reported in the ICD literature, to the best of our knowledge, we present the first known case of WCD-related PS. We also present a review of the current literature to explore the prevalence of PS, the factors associated with its pathogenesis and interventional studies aimed at reducing its occurrence. We highlight this case because PS is considered a phenomenon that few recognize, which should be discriminated from real device shocks before clinicians initiate treatment, device reprogramming or device discontinuation. We describe the psychosocial factors associated with PS to emphasize the importance of managing any associated psychiatric disorders and psychosocial factors both before and after initiation of device treatment.

A Rare Presentation of Poorly Differentiated Lung Carcinoma with Duodenal Metastasis and Literature Review.

Lung cancer is a common malignancy which is frequently found to metastasize to distant sites including bone, liver, and adrenal glands. There are rare reports of metastases to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, with the duodenum being the most uncommon. We present a rare case of a poorly differentiated lung carcinoma metastasizing to the duodenum. This case enhances the medical literature as it provides additional distinct features to the clinical and histological presentation of metastatic lung carcinoma to the GI tract. A 61-year-old male with a history of poorly differentiated lung carcinoma presented with worsening dizziness, fatigue, and early satiety. He had extensive workup done in the past for hemoptysis including a computerized tomography scan of the chest which showed a new lobulated, apical lesion and hilar lymphadenopathy. He ultimately had a transthoracic fine-needle aspiration (FNA) of the mass and was later diagnosed with poorly differentiated lung carcinoma. On examination, the patient was noted to be pale, tachycardic, and hypotensive. The patient was noted to have an acute drop in his hemoglobin requiring fluid resuscitation, multiple blood transfusions, and evaluation with an esophagogastroduodenoscopy. He was found to have an oozing ulcer in the third portion of the duodenum whose biopsies showed poorly differentiated carcinoma with areas of neuroendocrine differentiation, similar to his lung biopsy results, which was consistent with metastatic lung carcinoma.