I just read a Clinical Problem Solving case from the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). It was entitled “Stream of Consciousness“and it told the story of a 65-year-old man who was a patient at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Harvard Medical School, arguably one of the finest medical institutions in the world.

These cases are presented in single paragraphs to a clinical expert physician who then comments about his or her thought processes and discusses how he or she would have handled the situation. In this narrative, the patient presented to a different hospital in New England with kidney failure and a gradual onset of confusion in the setting of very high blood pressure. He was then transferred to the Brigham and Women’s Hospital for further evaluation and treatment. He had lab tests of all color and stripe along with MRI and CT scans of his brain which showed some disconcerting spots. He had a lumbar puncture, and his high blood pressure was treated. Eventually, after 2 or 3 days in the hospital (I can’t tell from the narrative), an ultrasound was done which showed that his bladder had not been emptying properly, which had caused the kidney failure and probably the high blood pressure. A Foley catheter was placed which drained nearly 3 liters (!) of urine after which his blood pressure was much more easily controlled.

The exciting diagnosis was posterior reversible encephalopathic syndrome (PRES) which was first described in a case series in 1996. It is closely related to eclampsia, a condition of women in labor or directly following labor in which the is injured by high blood pressure leading to seizures and sometimes death. The cause is thought to be leakiness of the blood vessels in the brain related to high blood pressure. It is very important to recognize PRES because prompt treatment to lower the blood pressure can prevent long-term brain damage.

This guy had the best of treatment by the best of doctors, but what he really needed was a bedside ultrasound at the first hospital or on arrival at the Brigham. People who read this blog will have noticed that I am a strong proponent (nerd perhaps) of ultrasound performed by a treating physician as part of a physical exam in just about everyone with a significant medical concern. If he had a bedside ultrasound the doctor performing it would have seen that the collecting systems in his kidneys were dilated and that the cause was a massively over-full bladder, likely due to an enlarged prostate. The bladder would have been drained immediately, resulting in correction of his blood pressure and improvement in his kidney function. He might not have needed to be transferred to the larger hospital at all.

Perhaps his physicians at the community hospital did not know how to perform an ultrasound. Still, he would have benefited mightily from prompt point of care ultrasound once he arrived at the Brigham. Head scratching about the cause of his kidney failure might have been curtailed. Blood pressure control would have been more rapidly achieved, benefiting his spotty brain. His very complete and likely very costly evaluation might have been briefer and less expensive. Physicians might have been able to discharge him to home more quickly.

Bedside ultrasound is not yet the standard of care among internal medicine physicians. It should be, and in the fullness of time, it probably will be.

Janice Boughton is a physician who blogs at Why is American health care so expensive?

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