Transverse myelitis is an extremely rare neuroinflammatory disorder. About half of the affected patients develop paraplegia associated with urinary and bowel dysfunction. The bowel dysfunction is thought to be benign and is usually managed with dietary management and laxatives. We report a case of a man in his 60s presenting with transverse myelitis and the acute disease course complicated with treatment refractory intestinal dysfunction resulting in intestinal perforation, eventually leading to his death. Thus, this case helps us weigh the fact that intestinal dysfunction in the case of transverse myelitis is not always benign but can lead to deadly outcomes as well.

A 49-years-old female presented with severe persistent headache. Further evaluation unraveled fungating right breast mass and a new diagnosis of poorly differentiated invasive ductal carcinoma with brain metastasis as the cause of the symptoms was made. Diagnosis of breast cancer with large fungating mass and brain metastasis on presentation in this era is still shocking. It makes us question the reasons behind these unfortunate presentations which include but are not limited to: unawareness about the risk factors, symptoms, complications and the available screening guidelines, embarrassment from the site of lesion, or socioeconomic status. Key Clinical MessageDiscussion about breast cancer and screening mammogram at 40-49 years will create awareness about it and encourage females volunteer any abnormalities. Breast examination at every annual physical visit should be encouraged among physicians.

Calciphylaxis is an infrequent yet lethal disease often associated with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). The most common sites include proximal and distal extremities and the trunk, with few reported in the penis and very few as gastrointestinal (GI) disease. We report a case of systemic calciphylaxis in a middle-aged male, presenting with a colostomy leak and parastomal abscess. Workup revealed severe calcification of the intestinal arteries and ischemic colon necrosis. The patient underwent colectomy, antibiotic therapy, regular hemodialysis (HD), and sodium thiosulphate infusion with clinical stability. Histopathology of the colon revealed ischemic necrosis and pericolonic vessel calcification suggestive of calciphylaxis. It is an important differential to be considered in patients with risk factors presenting with symptoms of gastrointestinal hemorrhage and necrosis with perforation.

Protein S deficiency is a form of inherited thrombophilia that occurs due to low levels of or improper function of protein S. The role of protein S is to inactivate procoagulant factors, and a deficiency results in an increased risk of thrombotic events. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection has also been studied to increase the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) due to an interplay of several mechanisms. However, the risk of VTE in patients affected by both of these disease processes simultaneously has not been thoroughly studied, and so recommendations regarding routine screening and prophylaxis of VTE have also not been established. We discuss the case of a 46-year-old woman with a past history of protein S deficiency and a recent COVID-19 infection who presented with complaints of shortness of breath. Upon examination, she was found to be hypoxic and tachycardic. A computed tomography angiography of the chest was done and revealed acute submassive bilateral pulmonary embolism with right heart strain and pulmonary infarcts. She was initially treated with intravenous heparin and later transitioned to oral anticoagulation for a minimum of six months.

IntroductionElectronic medication reconciliation systems are known to reduce medication errors. We hypothesised that refinement of the electronic medical record (EMR) and provider education could improve adherence to completion of admission medication reconciliation, thereby potentially limiting prescribing errors. Our goal was to improve the percentage of patients with medication reconciliation completed within 24 hours of admission to at least 90%.MethodsA prospective interventional study was conducted at a university-affiliated community hospital between 1 January 2017 and 30 September 2018. We determined the baseline percentage of medication reconciliations performed within 24 hours of admission, and those completed at any time prior to discharge from the hospital. Three plan-do-study-act cycles were then performed, with interventions including live and email reminders to complete medication reconciliation and addition of a column to EMR patient lists indicating whether reconciliation had been completed.ResultsThe percentage of medication reconciliations completed within 24 hours of admission was lowest for the pre-intervention cycle (62.4%) and was highest for Cycle 3 (80.9%). The percentage of reconciliations completed any time prior to discharge was higher and increased in a similar stepwise fashion from 71.1% to 88.4% through Cycle 3. There was a post-intervention trend toward a higher rate of reconciliation completion for patients aged 18–40. Male patients were also more likely to have their admission medication reconciliations completed prior to discharge.ConclusionOur interventions resulted in a statistically significant 18.5% increase in the rate of admission reconciliation completion. Though this increase fell short of our goal, this study demonstrates that provider education and optimisation of the EMR can sustainably improve adherence with medication reconciliation, thereby fostering improved patient care. Further improvement could be achieved by focusing on the medication lists of our older patients and female patients.