Postgraduate medical journal
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A 35 year old man presented to his general practitioner with severe right shoulder pain and subsequent weakness and wasting of the muscles in the affected shoulder girdle three weeks after a dental filling. His symptoms persisted despite standard treatment. He developed malaise, night sweats, weight loss, a petechial rash and a microcytic anaemia. ⋯ Investigations confirmed the diagnoses of infective endocarditis and neuralgic amyotrophy. In this case neuralgic amyotrophy appears to have been the presenting feature of infective endocarditis. This association has not previously been described.
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It has been suggested that gallstone disease is now commoner, and that this might explain an increase in cholecystectomy rates, though conclusive evidence has been lacking. ⋯ Gallstones were definitely more common in both sexes at all ages over 40 in the last 25 years. Changes in the cholecystectomy rates are only partly explained by changes in gallstone prevalence, and are more determined by surgical practice.