Catamenial pneumothorax is one of the most common extra-pelvic presentations of endometriosis, with the gastrointestinal tract being the most common location. Catamenial pneumothorax is defined as spontaneous recurrent pneumothorax occurring in women of reproductive age in a temporal relationship with menses. Symptoms include dyspnea, sharp chest pain, and hypoxemia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Emergency physicians commonly encounter low-probability/high-morbidity decisions, and chest pain is a prime example. Negative outcomes are improbable but feared, resulting in substantially more patients admitted for chest pain than have important disease. The literature gives little guidance on patient preferences for decision-making when the negative outcomes are unlikely but potentially severe.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cerebral hyperperfusion syndrome (HPS) results from autoregulatory failure of cerebral blood flow following carotid endarterectomy (CEA) or carotid artery stenting (CAS) and encompasses a range of neurological findings including headache, seizure, intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), altered mental status and focal neurological changes. This report is the largest single-operator series evaluating the incidence and predictors of HPS following CAS.
Methods: A retrospective review was conducted on 482 consecutive patients who underwent CAS between August 1999 and December 2007 at Baptist Medical Center--Princeton, Birmingham, Alabama.