The Mount Sinai journal of medicine, New York
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Body fluid volume regulation is critically important in maintaining life. In this paper, we review our unifying hypothesis of body fluid volume regulation, which maintains arterial circulatory integrity in health and disease. The integrity of the arterial circulation, as determined by cardiac output and peripheral vascular resistance, is the predominant determinant of renal sodium and water retention. ⋯ However, over the long term, these adaptive responses may have detrimental effects, such as pulmonary congestion, increased myocardial demand, increased cardiac afterload, ascites and hyponatremia. The intensity of the neurohumoral responses correlates with the progression and severity of both cardiac failure and cirrhosis. The understanding of the pathogenesis of sodium and water retention in cardiac failure and cirrhosis has led to therapies that favorably affect the morbidity and mortality of these patients.
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Review Case Reports
Childhood longitudinal melanonychia: case reports and review of the literature.
"Longitudinal melanonychia" refers to a brown or brown-black longitudinal band on a fingernail or toenail. A number of conditions can cause longitudinal melanonychia, but its main importance is that, in some patients, it may indicate the presence of a subungual malignant melanoma. Hyperpigmented nail bands are not uncommon in African-American, Latino and Asian patients, especially those over sixty years of age, and are often multiple in these groups. ⋯ Such findings are considered to be a strong indication for biopsy of the nail matrix to rule out melanoma. Since nail matrix biopsy sometimes results in permanent nail deformity, and since the incidence of malignant melanoma is quite small in the pediatric age group, there is some controversy as to whether this procedure should routinely be performed in children. We report two cases of dramatic longitudinal melanonychia in toddlers and review the current literature on the management of this striking condition in the pediatric age group.
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Review Case Reports
Necrotizing fasciitis: a plea for early diagnosis and treatment.
Necrotizing fasciitis is an uncommon infectious entity that poses difficult diagnostic and therapeutic management decisions. ⋯ Necrotizing fasciitis is an infectious entity that requires rapid diagnosis, surgical debridement, and tissue coverage if the patient is to survive.
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Wernicke's encephalopathy, a serious neurological disorder caused by thiamine deficiency, is most commonly found in chronic alcoholics. We present a typical case of Wernicke's encephalopathy in a non-alcoholic man. ⋯ An infectious etiology of the symptoms was ruled out by spinal fluid cultures. The patient improved dramatically within 24 hours of administration of thiamine.
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Patients with opioid dependency experience trauma, acute medical illness and chronic diseases, and may have to undergo surgery to the same extent as other individuals. They need to be treated for relief of symptoms, including pain. ⋯ The guiding principles governing treatment of these patients are to maintain the methadone treatment and to use short-acting narcotics administered at higher doses, and to do so as often as necessary, preferably on a fixed schedule, to relieve the pain. Supplemental analgesic medication may also be employed, except that opiate antagonists must be avoided.