Author Archives: Tony Breu

The “intern question” for this episode resulted from one of Hannah’s experiences on the wards. She cared for a patient who reported a symptom that was new to her. It was new to all of us. This is a bit unsurprising as it has a relatively limited body of available literature, having been first describedContinue reading “Episode 23: Why does “bendopnea” occur?”

Is there a selective advantage to being heterozygous for a cystic fibrosis gene mutation? If so, what does this mutation protect against? These – and other questions – were discussed in Episode 21 of the podcast. But, before getting into potential answers, some background is in order. Cystic fibrosis is an autosomal recessive genetic disorderContinue reading “Episode 22: Why is cystic fibrosis one of the most common genetic diseases?”

In this episode, we discussed fevers and chills. More specifically, we asked “why do we feel cold when we have a fever?” Shouldn’t we feel hot? We also discussed the dictum “culture if spikes”, meaning if your patient spikes a fever, blood cultures should be ordered. It is certainly one of the most common contingenciesContinue reading “Episode 21: Why do we feel cold when we have a fever?”

In this episode of the podcast we explored why transmural myocardial infarctions cause ST elevations on EKG. While the it seems obvious that STEMIs are associated with ST elevations, the mechanism involved is fascinating and leads to doubts about the name! To begin, recall that the ST segment represents the isoelectric period between depolarization andContinue reading “Episode 20: Why do myocardial infarctions cause ST elevation?”

For this installment of “intern questions” Hannah wondered “Does DIC causes shock”? This question was prompted by an interaction she had when admitting a patient with a diagnosis of shock. When reviewing the possible etiologies, she and a medical student realized that disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) may cause some component of shock. Because DIC mayContinue reading “Episode 19: (Why) does DIC cause shock?”