Several decades ago, two patients arrived in my emergency department with intense vomiting, bronchorrhea, and seizure-like activity. Their symptoms started about 30 minutes after consuming a mushroom stew. The wife considered herself to be an expert in mushroom identification and had picked several species of mushrooms, including a few very large ones with bright red tops. Both patients required intubation and several milligrams of atropine to handle their bronchial secretions. Several hours before, they had eaten a mushroom stew containing mushrooms they had picked that morning.
Shah et al used an administrative database, the California State Inpatient Database from the Healthcare Utilization Project, to analyze the short and intermediate success and complication rates associated with catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF).
Wider use of noninvasive ventilation in managing severe COPD exacerbations has improved overall outcomes, but this study of a large nationwide database shows that increasing numbers of patients fail NIV and require intubation. This subset of patients has substantially higher mortality and hospital costs.
28 surgical specimens from patients with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) were examined using multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to detect gastrointestinal pathogens. Infectious enteritis pathogens were not detected in any specimens.
