Acute Coronary Syndrome: Diagnostic Evaluation.

Myocardial infarction (MI), a subset of acute coronary syndrome, is damage to the cardiac muscle as evidenced by elevated cardiac troponin levels in the setting of acute ischemia. Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of mortality in the United States. Chest pain is a common presentation in patients with MI; however, there are multiple noncardiac causes of chest pain, and the diagnosis cannot always be made based on initial presentation.

Atypical presentation of ascending aortic dissection diagnosed via transthoracic echocardiogram.

A 62-year-old female presented to the emergency department after sudden onset of epigastric pain. She had no previous medical history to include no history of hypertension or vascular disease. She was admitted to the hospital and her workup revealed an ascending aortic dissection.

Diagnosis of follicular neoplasm in thyroid nodules by fine needle aspiration cytology: does the result, benign vs. suspicious for a malignant process, in these nodules make a difference?

Objective: To address the likelihood of thyroid malignancy for each cytologic interpretation, highly cellular and benign vs. follicular carcinoma, with particular attention to the indeterminate cytologic result, follicular neoplasm.

Study Design: We retrospectively reviewed thyroid nodule cytologic and histologic interpretations from 1994 to 2002 in a tertiary medical center setting.