Factors affecting patient satisfaction with outpatient rheumatology phone visits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The aim was to evaluate patient satisfaction with virtual care, and identify factors associated with level of satisfaction. Surveys were mailed to all patients who had a phone visit at The Ottawa Hospital Rheumatology division. Patients' satisfaction with various aspects of the phone visits was assessed on a 5-point scale and analyzed according to demographic variables using chi-square and regression analyses.

Characteristics and outcomes in a prospective cohort of patients with histologically diagnosed aortitis.

Objectives: Our aim was to evaluate characteristics and prospective adverse aortic outcomes in a cohort of patients with non-infectious histological aortitis.

Methods: Patients with histological aortitis, diagnosed at the Ottawa Hospital after surgical repair of thoracic aortic aneurysms or dissections, consented to enrolment in a prospective observational cohort. Patients were assessed for an underlying inflammatory condition and followed prospectively with periodic clinical, laboratory and radiographic assessments.

A case of antiphospholipid syndrome presenting cryptogenically as Budd-Chiari syndrome, then fulminantly as Libman-Sacks endocarditis.

A 58 year-old left-handed woman was transferred to our hospital with an evolving left middle cerebral artery stroke, severe thrombocytopenia and elevated inflammatory markers. She had a history of chronic Budd-Chiari syndrome (BCS) 16 months prior, attributed to a calcified web in the inferior vena cava that was stented. No thrombophilia testing was performed at that time.

The Temporal Risk of Heart Failure Associated With Adjuvant Trastuzumab in Breast Cancer Patients: A Population Study.

Background: The late cardiac effect of adjuvant trastuzumab and its potential interaction with anthracycline have not been well-studied on a population level.

Methods: In this retrospective population-based cohort study, female breast cancer patients in Ontario, diagnosed between 2003 and 2009, were identified by the Ontario Cancer Registry and linked to administrative databases to ascertain demographics, cardiac risk factors, comorbidities, and use of adjuvant trastuzumab and other chemotherapy. Patients with pre-existing heart failure (HF) were excluded.