Normative Hand Strength Values for the Healthy Adult Trinbagonian Population and Comparison to International Data.

Introduction: It has been well established that grip strength measurements can be useful as a benchmark for comparing the efficacy of different treatment modalities as well as an aid in the assessment of the progress of disease and rehabilitation. Grip strength has also been shown to be a representative marker for sociodemographic factors.

Methods: Participants were selected from five different regions in a cross-sectional manner from the streets of Trinidad and Tobago, and a Jamar hand dynamometer was used to assess the metrics of hand grip, palmar grip, tip pinch, and key pinch across both hands.

Endovascular Biopsy of an Inferior Vena Cava Mass: A Case Report.

We describe the case of an 82-year-old female referred to the vascular clinic for further evaluation and management of suspected inferior vena cava (IVC) thrombosis. She had previously presented to the general practitioner with a one-week history of vague abdominal pain in the right and left loins. Contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the abdomen and magnetic resonance angiography/magnetic resonance venography (MRA/MRV) revealed a 10 cm filling defect in the IVC, with the inferior margin of ≈5.

Conservative therapy significantly reduces patients' chronic venous disease symptoms: A Caribbean insight into the VEIN Act Program.

Objectives: We sought to determine the baseline demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with Chronic Venous Disease (CVD) across the Caribbean, and to evaluate patients' compliance to conservative therapy and the effectiveness of such therapy in reducing patients' CVD symptoms.

Method: Patients were enrolled into the VEIN Act Program, and their demographic data, CVD symptoms (and their intensity) and CEAP C-classification was recorded at the first visit. Patients were prescribed conservative therapy, and symptom intensity and patient compliance and satisfaction evaluated at a follow-up visit.

An "Occult" Popliteal Vein Aneurysm Causing Pulmonary Embolism.

Popliteal vein aneurysm (PVAs), though uncommon, can be a cause of pulmonary emboli. They can also result in pulmonary vein embolism despite the use of anticoagulation therapy. We report the case of an otherwise fit, 64-year-old male who had a history of sudden onset of dyspnea on exercise with near syncope.

Distal-to-Snuffbox Arteriovenous Fistula.

The dogma for optimal arteriovenous fistula (AVF) creation is based on starting as distally as possible on the upper limb and progressing proximally. We herein present our findings of an AVF that is as distal as possible on the hand. To document primary patency rates of the distal-to-snuffbox AVF.