Hyponatremia in the Context of Liver Disease.

Hyponatremia is common in patients with liver disease and is associated with increased mortality, morbidity, and a reduced quality of life. In liver transplantation, the inclusion of hyponatremia in organ allocation scores has reduced waitlist mortality. Portal hypertension and the resulting lowering of the effective arterial blood volume are important pathogenetic factors, but in most patients with liver disease, hyponatremia is multifactorial. Treatment requires a multifaceted approach that tries to reduce electrolyte-free water intake, restore urinary dilution, and increase nonelectrolyte solute excretion. Albumin therapy for hyponatremia is a peculiarity of advanced liver disease. Its use appears to be increasing, while the vaptans are currently only given in selected cases. Osmotic demyelination is a special concern in patients with liver disease. Serial checks of serum sodium concentrations and urine volume monitoring are mandatory.

Lactic acidosis in a patient with cancer.

Lactic acidosis is commonly associated with tissue hypoperfusion and gives rise to concern regarding hypoxia or underlying hypotension. In the cancer patient, especially one undergoing chemotherapy, there is always concern for sepsis; however, in the otherwise clincially stable patient with cancer, type B lactic acidosis can also be related to their underlying malignancy. It is considered a haematological emergency given its high mortality rate. However, despite the urgency to treat type B lactic acidosis in these circumstances, treatment options beyond treatment of the malignancy are limited, and its presence portends a poor prognosis. This case highlights our current understanding of type B lactic acidosis and an approach to lactic acidosis evaluation in the cancer patient.

The Physician Leader: Teaching Leadership in Medicine.

An integral part of a physician's practice includes being a leader, especially as there is a strong need for skilled leaders to advocate and navigate patient-centered and organizational outcomes. Nephrologists undertake multiple leadership roles, but dedicated leadership training is lacking in medical and postgraduate education. Given the growing need for physician leaders, practitioners in nephrology and beyond must become better equipped in understanding the role of leadership skills in medical practice. Nephrology and the medical community as a whole should focus on intentional and dedicated leadership in medical education training to better groom physicians for leadership roles. In this paper, we define and discuss the components and styles of leadership. We further propose cognitive models that allow one to apply leadership theory in common practice.

Native BK virus nephropathy in lung transplant: a case report and literature review.

Classically described in renal allografts, BK virus nephropathy is increasingly recognized in native kidneys of other non-renal solid organ transplants. We discuss a 68-year-old woman with a history of bilateral lung transplant referred for worsening renal function, confirmed to have BK virus nephropathy by biopsy with a serum BK virus polymerase chain reaction of over 59 million copies/mL. She was managed with a reduction in immunosuppression and intravenous cidofovir with no improvement in her clinical parameters. The seven prior reported cases of polyoma virus nephropathy in lung transplant recipients are reviewed, and the challenges of screening and management are discussed.

Natural language processing of electronic health records is superior to billing codes to identify symptom burden in hemodialysis patients.

Symptoms are common in patients on maintenance hemodialysis but identification is challenging. New informatics approaches including natural language processing (NLP) can be utilized to identify symptoms from narrative clinical documentation. Here we utilized NLP to identify seven patient symptoms from notes of maintenance hemodialysis patients of the BioMe Biobank and validated our findings using a separate cohort and the MIMIC-III database. NLP performance was compared for symptom detection with International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9/10 codes and the performance of both methods were validated against manual chart review. From 1034 and 519 hemodialysis patients within BioMe and MIMIC-III databases, respectively, the most frequently identified symptoms by NLP were fatigue, pain, and nausea/vomiting. In BioMe, sensitivity for NLP (0.85 - 0.99) was higher than for ICD codes (0.09 - 0.59) for all symptoms with similar results in the BioMe validation cohort and MIMIC-III. ICD codes were significantly more specific for nausea/vomiting in BioMe and more specific for fatigue, depression, and pain in the MIMIC-III database. A majority of patients in both cohorts had four or more symptoms. Patients with more symptoms identified by NLP, ICD, and chart review had more clinical encounters. NLP had higher specificity in inpatient notes but higher sensitivity in outpatient notes and performed similarly across pain severity subgroups. Thus, NLP had higher sensitivity compared to ICD codes for identification of seven common hemodialysis-related symptoms, with comparable specificity between the two methods. Hence, NLP may be useful for the high-throughput identification of patient-centered outcomes when using electronic health records.

Severe hypercalcemia preceding a diagnosis of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia in a liver transplant recipient.

BACKGROUND: Incidence of the opportunistic infection Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) in solid organ transplant patients ranges from 5 to 15% with a mortality of up to 38%. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a liver transplant recipient who developed hypoxemic respiratory failure related to PJP soon after treatment for allograft rejection. His presentation was preceded by severe hypercalcemia of 14.6 mg/dL and an ionized calcium of 1.7 mmol/L which remained elevated despite usual medical management and eventually required renal replacement therapy. As approximately 5% of PJP cases have granulomas, here we review the role of pulmonary macrophages and inflammatory cytokines in the pathophysiology of granuloma-mediated hypercalcemia. We also discuss the interpretation of our patient's laboratory studies, response to medical therapy, and clinical risk factors which predisposed him to PJP. CONCLUSIONS: It is important for clinicians to consider PJP as an etiology of granulomatous pneumonia and non-parathyroid hormone mediated hypercalcemia in chronically immunosuppressed organ transplant recipients for timely diagnosis and management.

The HEART Pathway and Hospital Cost Savings.

Chest pain is a common complaint in emergency departments. Several guidelines and tools exist to help the clinician determine need for hospitalization. For low-risk patients, clinical judgment can underestimate a patient's risk of major adverse cardiac event. Implementation of an advanced diagnostic protocol with the HEART Pathway can reduce hospital cost. For our academic institution, we saw an approximate $1 million in total savings during the initial implementation year along with increased outpatient visits. In addition, an increase in outpatient visits confirmed previous estimates that implementation of the HEART Pathway results in >20% reduction of hospital costs. We also identify challenges and considerations for facilities looking to repeat our successes.

Risk Factors and Epidemiology of Coccidioidomycosis Demonstrated by a Case of Spontaneous Pulmonary Rupture of Cavitary Coccidioidomycosis.

A 31-year-old Hispanic male with no medical history was admitted for fevers, pleurisy, and cough after recent oral surgery and completing demolition and construction work in Juarez, Mexico. Imaging showed a 4.4 cm cavitary lesion and bilateral tree-in-bud opacities. Initial suspicion of bacterial infection confirmed with clinical improvement on culture specific antibiotics, but after discharge he returned with progression of symptoms and new dyspnea. Radiograph showed a pyopneumothorax. Chest computed tomography after thoracostomy showed worsening infiltrates and another cavitary lesion. Symptoms persisted despite addition of broad spectrum antibiotics. Surgical repair for persistent air leak was required. Weeks after discharge, cultures and serologies returned positive for Coccidioidomycosis immitis. Coccidioides species cause up to 30% of community-acquired pneumonia and incidental cavitary lesions in endemic regions. Symptoms are nonspecific yet usually involve fatigue, cough, and pleurisy. Most hosts have spontaneous resolution; however, certain demographics such as Hispanics and diabetics, later diagnosed in our patient, have higher morbidity. As seen with our patient, cavitary rupture and bronchopleural fistulas are rare occurring in 2.6% of cavitary lesions. High suspicion based on symptoms and host demographics is important to assist in early diagnosis and treatment to avoid and treat this common pathogen's presentations.