All News

Cullen Sign in Pancreatitis

A 72-year-old woman with acute abdominal pain and vomiting was brought to the hospital. The patient had no significant medical history and was taking no medications.

Numerous plaques, some with yellow crusting and central scarring, had erupted primarily on the face and neck of a 46-year-old man. A single lesion had developed on his left elbow as well. The lesions were initially diagnosed as impetigo, but they failed to resolve after 2 courses of oral cephalexin.

Breast Ulcer

For several weeks, a 30-year-old woman had a 1 × 2-cm, oval lesion with a rolled border in the inner upper quadrant of the right breast that had progressed in size and ulcerated. Six weeks earlier, she had been bitten by her infant son in the same area. The medical history and physical examination were otherwise normal.

Concerned about the yellow plaque on his upper eyelid, a 45-year-old man sought medical evaluation. The slow-growing, asymptomatic lesion had developed several months earlier.

Liver Abscess

Three weeks after undergoing gastric bypass surgery for obesity, a 64-year-old woman presented with fatigue, chills, and abdominal pain of 2 days' duration. She denied shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, changes in bowel habits, melena, and hematochezia. The patient had no significant past medical history.

Filariasis

A 16-year-old boy was evaluated for elephantiasis in a remote village in the mountains of Kenya. He complained of drainage from his left leg and reported that for the past several months, after the limb swelled, fluid began to weep from the bottom of the foot. He denied pain in his leg or foot and reported no fever, chills, or sweats.

A 32-year-old man presented with a yellow, papular rash on the buttocks and extensor surfaces. His medical history included diabetes mellitus, alcoholism, obesity, and polysubstance abuse. Laboratory results disclosed a serum triglyceride level of 5,793 mg/dL.

Road Rash

Clad only in shorts, T-shirt, and helmet, a 21-year-old man was involved in a motorcycle accident. He sustained “road rash”-diffuse multiple body abrasions, lacerations, and contusions-particularly on the extremities. Abrasions about the chest wall and abdominal region were also noted. Other injuries included a closed right clavicle shaft fracture and a nondisplaced open fracture of the dorsal aspect of the right olecranon.

A 29-year-old man was born with radial clubhands that required several operations during his early weeks of life. In addition to shortened forearms, the patient was left with severe limitation of wrist motion bilaterally.

Hypomelanosis of Ito

A 6-year-old girl with mental retardation was seen for a physical examination. She was being followed by a neurologist for seizures that began in her first year of life. She had no acute health problems.

Ovarian Hernia

This 2-month-old infant was brought to her physician with a 2-week history of intermittent swelling in the right distal inguinal and upper labial area. A palpable solid, nonreducible lump was visualized ultrasonographically as an oval, hypoechoic mass and identified as a herniated ovary. The hernia was repaired surgically, and the ovary remained intact.

Pseudotumor

A 45-year-old man with a history of congestive heart failure presented with cough and dyspnea. A chest roentgenogram showed loculated pleural effusion in the horizontal fissure of the right lung, and a CT scan revealed pleural-based density in that lung.

Mercury Poisoning

A minimally responsive 26-year-old man was brought to the emergency department after being found in his home by a friend. A suicide note lay next to his body. The patient had a history of depression.

Lentigo Senilis

This asymptomatic pigmented lesion on the left posterior jaw of a 52-year-old man had been present for 6 years, with no evidence of recent change. At the patient's request, the lesion was excised.

Blount Disease

A 16-year-old African American boy complained of exertional pain below his left knee that severely limited his ability to participate in sports. The patient had had bilateral bowed legs until his early school years, when the right knee straightened. For the past year, exertional pain had been present below the left knee in the epiphyseal area.

Multiple Lung Neoplasms

For the past 6 weeks, a 72-year-old woman with a history of ovarian cancer had had intensifying dyspnea. Initially, she thought her breathing problem was caused by progressive congestive heart failure.

Neurogenic Pulmonary Edema

A 58-year-old man with a history of a seizure disorder was hospitalized with acute-onset shortness of breath immediately following a tonic-clonic seizure. He was afebrile; in respiratory distress; and hypoxic, with an oxygen saturation of 84% on room air.

A hard, painless lump on a 12-year-old boy's left lower eyelid began to grow rapidly on the inside of the lid. A fleshy, red, sessile conjunctival mass with a palpable rigid, nontender lesion was noted on the eyelid.

Labial Fusion

A 2-year-old girl presented with a 2-day history of urinary frequency and dysuria. Physical examination revealed complete fusion of the labia minora. Urine culture showed Escherichia coli with a colony count of 108/L. The child was treated with a 10-day course of amoxicillin that resulted in complete clearance of the urinary tract infection.