|
|
|||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In this Journal feature, information about a real patient is presented in stages (boldface type) to an expert clinician, who responds to the information, sharing his or her reasoning with the reader (regular type). The authors' commentary follows.
A 71-year-old retired schoolteacher from rural Ohio presented to his local hospital with a two-week history of malaise, fever, anorexia, chills, and sweats. He had not had a cough or symptoms involving the upper respiratory, gastrointestinal, or urinary tract.
The patient's symptoms are most likely infectious in origin, but they could be due to an inflammatory or neoplastic condition, particularly lymphoma. Elderly
Commentary
Source Information
From the Departments of Internal Medicine (M.-F.B.) and Infectious Disease (C.M.I.), Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland; the Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine (D.R.K.), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Health Services Research and Development Center of Excellence, Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Ann Arbor, Mich. (S.S.); and the Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore (D.J.B.).
Address reprint requests to Dr. Brotman at the Hospitalist Program, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Jefferson 242, 600 N. Wolfe St., Baltimore, MD 21287, or at brotman@jhmi.edu.
HOME | SUBSCRIBE | SEARCH | CURRENT ISSUE | PAST ISSUES | COLLECTIONS | PRIVACY | HELP | beta.nejm.org Comments and questions? Please contact us. The New England Journal of Medicine is owned, published, and copyrighted © 2009 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. |