A Rare Case of Candida Epiglottitis in an Immunocompetent Child.

We present a case of acute Candida epiglottitis in an otherwise healthy and Haemophilus influenzae type B-immunized 4-year-old child. A query of the literature reveals this disease to be commonly found in patients who are immunocompromised by problems including human immunodeficiency virus disease and lymphoma and leukemia. However, there are no published reports of acute Candida epiglottitis in immunocompetent and vaccinated patients.

A Rare Central Nervous System Fungal Infection Resulting from Brown Heroin Use.

Background: Fungal nervous system infection can be a difficult diagnosis to make, due to the fact that there are no specific manifestations of the disease and laboratory confirmation is difficult to confirm.

Case Report: We report a young male who presented to our emergency department with a variety of unilateral visual field complaints. While he initially denied recent IV drug abuse, his physical examination was highly suggestive of a fungal infection known to result from brown heroin use.

Emergency medicine resident involvement in EMS.

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) activities are a required component of Emergency Medicine (EM) residency training. To determine resident involvement with EMS, all 135 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited and 34 American Osteopathic Association-accredited EM residencies were surveyed in June 2005 regarding the EMS activities required of their residents. One hundred twelve surveys were completed (66% response rate).

Traumatic dissection of the internal carotid artery.

We present the case of an 11-year-old male who had a dissection of his left internal carotid artery following a rather innocuous mechanism of injury. Although this phenomenon is documented in the medical literature, it remains a relatively rare event following blunt injury to the head and neck (0.3% occurrence rate in 1 study spanning 7 years).

Automated external defibrillators appropriately recognize ventricular fibrillation in electromagnetic fields.

Objectives: Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are increasingly available in industrial settings, but many industries have high electromagnetic fields (EMFs), which can interfere with the function of electronic devices. This study evaluated the performance of several AEDs when exposed to high EMFs.

Methods: Three commercially available AEDs were evaluated in the setting of a public utility coal-fired electrical generation plant.