Why don’t interstitial lung disease patients typically get increased pCO₂? Early on in medical training, you learn to separate a patient’s oxygen from their carbon dioxide. A COPD patient can be heard wheezing from across the ward with a pCO₂ of 80mmHg and actually have a stable O₂ saturation, while their neighbor with interstitial lung…
Why does an autoimmune antibody stimulate the thyroid in Graves’ disease? When we think of antibodies, such as monoclonal antibodies that target specific diseases, we often think of them as blocking receptor-ligand interactions or binding to pathogens to neutralize them. Yet in Graves’ disease, we actually find the opposite of what we would normally expect:…
Why do patients with active lupus have a low CRP? Although the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) is typically high in active lupus, C-reactive protein (CRP) is often normal. What’s particularly cool about this finding is that it lends insights into the mechanism of lupus and potentially its cause. The earliest report alluding to this discordance…
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Disclaimer: Content does not represent medical advice or the views of any institution with which the authors are affiliated.