Leukocytoclastic Vasculitis in a Patient With Crohn Disease: A Case Report.

Leukocytoclastic vasculitis (LCV) is an idiopathic small vessel vasculitis. Leukocytoclastic vasculitis can be found in a spectrum of diseases and is noted as a rare extraintestinal manifestation of Crohn disease. This case report examines a 55-year-old man with a previous diagnosis of Crohn disease who was admitted after 5 days with a persistent rash. A biopsy confirmed LCV, and the patient followed up with dermatology for outpatient treatment. This study adds to the sparse medical literature on LCV cases relating to Crohn disease.

The Patient Selection Criteria for Veno-arterial Extracorporeal Mechanical Oxygenation.

Veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) plays a crucial role in the management of patients with refractory cardiac and pulmonary dysfunction by providing temporary mechanical hemodynamic and respiratory support. However, the paucity of guidelines on indications for administering it and the failure to timely initiate VA-ECMO often result in a high in-hospital mortality rate and poor six-month outcomes after VA-ECMO deployment. Due to ethical issues, randomized controlled studies with VA-ECMO have not been conducted so that no recommended evidence-based guidelines exist for VA-ECMO patient-selection criteria. Therefore, the indication for administering the device depends solely on expert opinion after reviewing the literature. We conducted a review of the current literature to better understand and classify the need for proper patient selection, including proven indications for VA-ECMO.

Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction along with Zwolle Risk Score for Risk Stratification to Enhance Safe and Early Discharge in STEMI Patients Undergoing Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: A Retrospective Observational Study.

Introduction Zwolle risk score (ZRS) is a validated scoring system to determine the time of discharge in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) also provides prognostic information after ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). We studied that the addition of LVEF to ZRS variable can improve decision making in safe and early discharge in STEMI patients post-primary coronary intervention. Methods Overall, 249 STEMI patients were studied retrospectively. LVEF was considered as an independent variable. The patients having LVEF <50% were under Group A and LVEF ≥50% were under Group B. Groups were analyzed by model comparison for overall hospital length of stay (LOS) and Intensive care unit (ICU) LOS post-primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Results There were 123 patients in Group A and 126 patients in Group B. Comparison for primary outcomes showed significant difference with hospital length of stay (LOS) being 3.1 ± 2.3 days in Group A versus 2.1 ± 0.8 days in Group B (p < 0.001). Similarly, ICU stay was also significantly higher in Group A with 36.5 ± 31.4 hours versus 24.0 ± 11.8 hours for Group B, which led to prolonged hospitalization for patients with LVEF <50%. Model 1 that considers ZRS individually is nested within Model 2 where ZRS and LVEF are considered together. The profile log-likelihood ratio test favors model 2 over model 1 (p < 0.0001). Similarly for ICU LOS, R 2 = 0.12 (Model 1) < R 2 = 0.20 (Model 2). The F test favors model 2 over model 1 (p < 0.0001). Conclusion We concluded that adding LVEF to Zwolle risk score gives a better model for risk stratification in STEMI patients to decide early and safe discharge post-primary PCI.

Patient Safety Morning Report: Innovation in Teaching Core Patient Safety Principles to Third-Year Medical Students.

INTRODUCTION: Patient safety (PS) is one of the most important priorities in modern healthcare systems. Unfortunately, PS education is limited in many medical school curricula. Our objective was to implement an innovative curriculum to introduce third-year medical students on their pediatric clerkship to PS concepts and domains, and to provide a safe environment to discuss lapses in PS that they identified while caring for patients. METHODS: At the start of the pediatric clerkship, students were introduced to the curriculum, instructed to identify a lapse of PS, and to submit a description and analysis of the lapse using the SAFE framework (S = Safety concern, A = Action taken, F = Failure, linked to safety domains, E = Effects on patient outcome). Two sessions, 90-mins each, were conducted every clerkship during which there was a brief didactic presentation, each student presented their case, and the case discussed by students and faculty. RESULTS: Over 19 months, 75 students participated. The most common PS themes identified were Communication (57% of cases), Human factors (39%), and System issues (37%). Anonymous written feedback was obtained; learners reported improved knowledge and ability to identify lapses in PS and to propose potential solutions to prevent similar future events. They expressed a desire for additional PS and quality improvement education. DISCUSSION: Our results show that third-year medical students are able to identify lapses in PS and able to propose solutions. This aligns with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) goals of entrustable professional activities (EPA) 13. We intend to expand the curriculum to other third-year core clerkships.

Breadth of Coverage, Ease of Use, and Quality of Mobile Point-of-Care Tool Information Summaries: An Evaluation.

BACKGROUND: With advances in mobile technology, accessibility of clinical resources at the point of care has increased. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this research was to identify if six selected mobile point-of-care tools meet the needs of clinicians in internal medicine. Point-of-care tools were evaluated for breadth of coverage, ease of use, and quality. METHODS: Six point-of-care tools were evaluated utilizing four different devices (two smartphones and two tablets). Breadth of coverage was measured using select International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, codes if information on summary, etiology, pathophysiology, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis was provided. Quality measures included treatment and diagnostic inline references and individual and application time stamping. Ease of use covered search within topic, table of contents, scrolling, affordance, connectivity, and personal accounts. Analysis of variance based on the rank of score was used. RESULTS: Breadth of coverage was similar among Medscape (mean 6.88), Uptodate (mean 6.51), DynaMedPlus (mean 6.46), and EvidencePlus (mean 6.41) (P>.05) with DynaMed (mean 5.53) and Epocrates (mean 6.12) scoring significantly lower (P<.05). Ease of use had DynaMedPlus with the highest score, and EvidencePlus was lowest (6.0 vs 4.0, respectively, P<.05). For quality, reviewers rated the same score (4.00) for all tools except for Medscape, which was rated lower (P<.05). CONCLUSIONS: For breadth of coverage, most point-of-care tools were similar with the exception of DynaMed. For ease of use, only UpToDate and DynaMedPlus allow for search within a topic. All point-of-care tools have remote access with the exception of UpToDate and Essential Evidence Plus. All tools except Medscape covered criteria for quality evaluation. Overall, there was no significant difference between the point-of-care tools with regard to coverage on common topics used by internal medicine clinicians. Selection of point-of-care tools is highly dependent on individual preference based on ease of use and cost of the application.