The American journal of medicine
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"Weekend warriors" are recreational athletes who compress their physical activity into 1-2 weekly exercise sessions. These individuals are generally older than the conventionally discussed athlete, and can live otherwise sedentary lifestyles that contribute to limited opportunities for regular exercise. The combination of high-energy physical activity with relative deconditioning, as well as older age and a potential history of competitive athletic play, can predispose these weekend warriors to a plethora of sports injuries. ⋯ Inconsistency in physical activity can minimize the prominence of symptoms, leading patients to delayed presentations with injuries that severely impact their ability to engage in their exercise of choice, and therefore remain active at all. This narrative review aims to present the etiology, presentation, and management of common shoulder and elbow injuries that may afflict this patient population. Prevention strategies will also be discussed.
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Clinicians make a medical diagnosis by recognizing diagnostic possibilities, often using memories of prior examples. These memories, called "exemplars," reflect specific symptom combinations in individual patients, yet most clinical studies report how symptoms aggregate in populations. We studied how symptoms of acute myocardial infarction combine in individuals as symptom phenotypes and how symptom phenotypes are distributed in women and men. ⋯ Older patients with acute myocardial infarction have enormous variation in symptom phenotypes. Women reported more symptoms and had significantly more symptom phenotypes than men. Appreciation of the diversity of symptom phenotypes may help clinicians recognize the less common phenotypes that occur more often in women.
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Mitral regurgitation is the most common form of valvular heart disease worldwide, however, there is an incomplete understanding of predictors of mortality in this population. This study sought to identify risk factors of mortality in a real-world population with mitral regurgitation. ⋯ In this retrospective, pragmatic analysis of patients with moderate or severe mitral regurgitation, admission for heart failure exacerbation, elevated right atrial pressure, renal dysfunction, anemia, and lack of mitral valve intervention were independently associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality. Whether these risk factors may better identify select patients who may benefit from more intensive monitoring or earlier intervention should be considered in future studies.
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We introduced an inpatient pancreatitis consultative service aimed to 1) provide guideline-based recommendations to acute pancreatitis inpatients and 2) educate inpatient teams on best practices for acute pancreatitis management. We assessed the impact of pancreatitis service on acute pancreatitis outcomes. ⋯ Implementation of an inpatient pancreatitis service was associated with improved outcomes in mild acute pancreatitis. Guideline-based educational interventions have a beneficial impact on management of mild acute pancreatitis by admitting teams even without pancreatitis consultation.