Education and Communication in an Interprofessional Antimicrobial Stewardship Program.

CONTEXT: Interprofessional education/interprofessional practice (IPE/IPP) is an essential component in medical education and training. A collaborative interprofessional team environment ensures optimal patient-centered care. OBJECTIVE: To describe the implementation of 2 interprofessional antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) teams using IPE/IPP and to assess the acceptance rate by the primary medical and surgical teams of ASP recommendations for antimicrobial interventions. METHODS: A business plan for the ASP was approved at 2 academic medical centers used for the present study. During a 3-year study period, 2 interprofessional ASP teams included an attending physician specializing in infectious disease (ID), an ID physician fellow, an ASP pharmacist, physician residents, medical students, pharmacy residents, and pharmacy students. Educational seminars were presented for all adult-admitting physicians to discuss the need for the ASP and the prospective audit and feedback process. Cases were presented for discussion during ASP/ID rounds and recommendations were agreed upon by the ASP team. A motivational interviewing face-to-face technique was frequently used to convey the ASP team recommendation to the primary medical or surgical team in a noncoercive and educational manner. The ASP team recommendations for ASP interventions were documented in the medical records. RESULTS: The overall acceptance rate of recommendations by the primary medical and surgical teams were greater than 90% (2051 of 2266). The most frequent interventions provided were streamline therapy (601), route of administration change (452), bug-drug mismatch (190), and discontinuation of therapy (179). Route of administration change was also the most frequently accepted intervention (96%). CONCLUSIONS: The motivational face-to-face communication technique was particularly useful in conveying ASP team member recommendations to the primary medical or surgical teams. Communicating recommendations as a multidisciplinary team in an educational manner seems to have resulted in to greater acceptance of recommendations.

CT colonography with computer-aided detection: recognizing the causes of false-positive reader results.

Computed tomography (CT) colonography is a screening modality used to detect colonic polyps before they progress to colorectal cancer. Computer-aided detection (CAD) is designed to decrease errors of detection by finding and displaying polyp candidates for evaluation by the reader. CT colonography CAD false-positive results are common and have numerous causes. The relative frequency of CAD false-positive results and their effect on reader performance on the basis of a 19-reader, 100-case trial shows that the vast majority of CAD false-positive results were dismissed by readers. Many CAD false-positive results are easily disregarded, including those that result from coarse mucosa, reconstruction, peristalsis, motion, streak artifacts, diverticulum, rectal tubes, and lipomas. CAD false-positive results caused by haustral folds, extracolonic candidates, diminutive lesions (<6 mm), anal papillae, internal hemorrhoids, varices, extrinsic compression, and flexural pseudotumors are almost always recognized and disregarded. The ileocecal valve and tagged stool are common sources of CAD false-positive results associated with reader false-positive results. Nondismissable CAD soft-tissue polyp candidates larger than 6 mm are another common cause of reader false-positive results that may lead to further evaluation with follow-up CT colonography or optical colonoscopy. Strategies for correctly evaluating CAD polyp candidates are important to avoid pitfalls from common sources of CAD false-positive results.

Adrenocortical carcinoma presenting as varicocele and renal vein thrombosis: a case report.

INTRODUCTION: Adrenocortical carcinomas are rare aggressive tumors. Their annual incidence is approximately one to two per million among the population of the United States of America. Patients with active endocrine tumors often present with Cushing's syndrome accompanied by virilizing features. Conversely, patients with non-functioning tumors may present with symptoms related to a mass-occupying lesion, such as abdominal pain and flank pain. Although varicoceles and acute kidney injuries are common problems in medicine, they are uncommon presentations of these rare tumors and easy to miss. We report a case of a large adrenocortical carcinoma that presented as testicular pain, varicocele, and acute kidney injury secondary to renal vein thrombosis. CASE PRESENTATION: A 54-year-old Caucasian man with a left-sided varicocele presented to our emergency department with lower abdominal pain and a decrease in urination. Four months previously, he had noticed pain and swelling in his left groin and had been diagnosed with left-sided varicocele. For one week, he began developing left-sided abdominal pain and decreased urination frequency, so he came to our emergency department for evaluation. His physical examination revealed a hard mass occupying the entire left side of his abdomen, crossing the midline, and extending to the pelvic brim. His blood tests showed acute kidney injury and mild anemia. Computed tomography of his abdomen showed a large retroperitoneal mass on the left side, displacing the left kidney inferiorly and the spleen superiorly with thoracic epidural compression. Thrombus was also identified in his left renal vein and inferior vena cava. Computed tomography of his chest showed bilateral pulmonary nodules. A computed tomography-guided abdominal mass biopsy was performed, and the diagnosis of adrenocortical carcinoma was made on the basis of pathology and immunohistochemistry. His hormonal evaluations were normal. His kidney function improved with intravenous hydration and anti-coagulation treatment. Unfortunately, the adrenal mass was unresectable because of the extent of the tumor. Treatment with mitotane, an adrenocorticolytic drug, was started with concomitant with irradiation of a lesion at T5, followed by combination chemotherapy thereafter. CONCLUSION: Unilateral right-sided varicoceles are rare and should alert the clinician to possible underlying pathology causing inferior vena caval obstruction. Left-sided varicoceles, in contrast, are common secondary to the venous anatomy of the left testis; however, the enlargement of the left testicle can be associated with blockage of the left testicular vein by tumor invasion of the left renal vein. Varicoceles could be an early presentation of a non-functioning adrenocortical carcinoma. Acute kidney injury can occur as a result of mass effect or thrombosis of renal vessels. Large tumors can cause abdominal pain as a late manifestation. Physicians should perform a complete abdominal examination in every patient with varicocele or testicular pain.