Death Wears a Dress

An unusual complication occurring after cardiac radiofrequency ablation: the devil wears DRESS.

A 37-year-old male underwent trans-catheter ablation for symptomatic ventricular ectopia. The focus was interrupted with radio-frequency erogations in the left ventricular mitro-aortic contiguity. The patient was discharged the day after procedure on aspirin 100 mg in/die. Two days later, he was readmitted for malaise and syncope. The ECG (see Supplementary material online, Figure S1) showed si...

Aspirin wears smart

The Truth Wears Off

a few dozen neuroscientists, psychiatrists, and drug-company executives gathered in a hotel conference room in Brussels to hear some startling news. It had to do with a class of drugs known as atypical or second-generation antipsychotics, which came on the market in the early nineties. The drugs, sold under brand names such as Abilify, Seroquel, and Zyprexa, had been tested on schizophrenics in...

A Mysterious DRESS Case: Autoimmune Enteropathy Associated with DRESS Syndrome

Drug Reaction with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms (DRESS) is a rare but potentially life-threatening cutaneous hypersensitivity reaction characterized by extensive mucocutaneous eruption, fever, hematologic abnormalities, and extensive organ involvement. Here, we present a case of a young woman with DRESS syndrome following exposure to vancomycin with renal, cutaneous, and gastrointestinal ...

The Metabolic Syndrome (Emperor) Wears No Clothes

There are several key features of the metabolic syndrome that virtually all interested individuals and organizations agree upon. First, that certain “metabolic” factors tend to associate with each other more often than chance would dictate. Second, these risk factors taken alone or in any possible combination are associated with an elevated risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes. Th...