Case Studies
Confounding Cases
A broken heart, nonstop music, an odd-looking rash. These are just a few of the unusual problems Minnesota physicians have encountered along the way.
In medical school, we learn that most symptoms lead to a diagnosis that’s common in a particular patient population or geographic location. In life, however, we learn that sometimes symptoms don’t add up to what we might think, causing us to scratch our heads and go searching the literature and calling on colleagues to help us solve the mystery.
We asked readers of Minnesota Medicine to tell us about unusual cases they’ve encountered—illnesses rarely seen in Minnesota, red herrings that threw other practitioners off the trail, or cases that they felt were noteworthy for one reason or another. Here are six of their stories.
A Middle-Aged Female with Acute Coronary Symptoms
By Leenhapong Navaravong, M.D., and Robert F. Wilson, M.D.
Ciprofloxacin Failure in Enteric Fever
By Alison M. Bormann, M.D., and David R. Boulware, M.D., M.P.H, DTM&H
High Salicylate Levels and Tinnitus
By James R. Allen, M.D.
A Toddler with an Inflamed Lesion
By Julie K. Anderson, M.D.
A Man with Pretibial Erythema
By Timothy Sielaff, M.D., Ph.D.
A Young Man with Abrupt-Onset Arthritis
By Paul Waytz, M.D.