A Diagnosis Hard to Swallow

Case report: a difficult diagnosis to swallow.

A 23 year old woman was referred to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) from Thyolo District Hospital with a 15 year history of persistent post-prandial vomiting. She had associated dysphagia to solids and liquids, heartburn and weight loss, without nausea or change in appetite. Two weeks prior to referral she gave birth to a premature live infant. Her symptoms worsened significantly during...

Switching to the Euro: still hard to swallow.

A Hard Pill to Swallow: Prescribing Stimulants Within the Prison Setting.

In the film The Matrix, the character Neo is offered a choice between a red pill and a blue pill. Choosing the blue pill would allow him to continue his existence in the artificial reality of the Matrix, and therefore, he would continue living the blissful ignorance of illusion. The red pill would mandate a return to the real world and the painful truth of reality. It is apparent that in the mo...

Too hard to swallow: a secret secondary defence of an aposematic insect.

Anti-predator strategies are significant components of adaptation in prey species. Aposematic prey are expected to possess effective defences that have evolved simultaneously with their warning colours. This study tested the hypothesis of the defensive function and ecological significance of the hard body in aposematic Pachyrhynchus weevils pioneered by Alfred Russel Wallace nearly 150 years ag...

A Rare Cause for Acute Chest Pain in the Emergency Setting That Is Hard to Swallow

Intramural esophageal hematoma is a very rare but important cause of chest pain. This condition shares similarity with the diagnosis of other thoracic emergencies and has a high potential for misdiagnosis. The emergency clinician plays a critical role in the early identification and management of these patients. The management of intramural hematomas is typically conservative, and a misdiagnosi...