The obesity paradox and cardiovascular disease.

Obesity is increasingly recognized as a global pandemic that threatens the health of millions of people. Obesity is considered to be an important cardiovascular risk factor, but there is increasing evidence that patients with elevated body mass index may be better off than others if they develop cardiovascular or renal disease. This phenomenon has been described as the "obesity paradox" or "reverse epidemiology." This article reviews some recent publications that have studied this phenomenon as it relates to heart failure, coronary artery disease, peripheral arterial disease, kidney disease, and a cohort of patients undergoing nonbariatric surgery.

Cardiac Dysrhythmia Associated With Opioid Toxicity.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal disorder involving abnormal motility. The patients are commonly started on symptom control management for IBS - diarrhea subtype by prescribing antimotility agents, usually having opioid agonist activity, and newer medications have been emerging for this as well. Patients sometimes self-medicate themselves to exceedingly high doses of these medications to achieve symptoms control. There are only a few cases of opioid-induced arrhythmia in the literature, primarily loperamide being used as a drug substitute by substance abusers. Still, it has been rarely reported to cause arrhythmia in a patient with IBS. We present a case of a 33-year-old female with a past medical history of hypertension and depression who presented to the emergency department for evaluation of syncope. She had wide complex tachycardia on electrocardiogram (EKG) with prolonged rate-corrected QT interval (QTc). Her medications, including eluxadoline, Lomotil, and loperamide, were held and she was discharged on mexiletine with normal QTc. She did not have any more incidences of arrhythmia. This case highlights the importance of not overdosing on opioid agonist medications prescribed to treat IBS as these can lead to potentially fatal complications. Physicians have to be judicious in promptly determining that the cause of arrhythmia can also be over-the-counter (OTC) medications.

Elevated Factor VIII Level Associated with Transverse Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis.

BACKGROUND Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) is an uncommon cause of stroke. CVST can be caused by systemic conditions as well as mechanical factors that reduce blood flow to promote thrombosis. These can include hormonal therapies, pregnancy, malignancy, genetic conditions. trauma, neurosurgical procedures, and adjacent infections (mostly mastoiditis). This case report describes a patient with right transverse sinus thrombosis with no prior risk factors. CASE REPORT A 50-year-old female with no risk factors presented with complaints of headache associated with diplopia for 2 weeks. She did not have any other neurologic signs or symptoms. The patient initially underwent a cerebral magnetic resonance imaging that revealed right transverse sinus thrombosis. She underwent an extensive procoagulant workup and was found to have an increased factor VIII level. All other workups were negative. The patient was started on heparin infusion and bridged to coumadin to achieve a therapeutic international normalized ratio. The patient had improvement in her headache symptoms and was discharged to be followed as an outpatient. CONCLUSIONS We report a case of right transverse sinus thrombosis in a patient with increased factor VIII levels. It is prudent to promptly diagnose cerebral sinus venous thrombosis and start antithrombotic treatment for complete resolution of symptoms.