Volume 98, Issue 8

To diagnose renal disease earlier and thereby reduce the number of patients with end-stage renal disease, accurate, specific diagnostic tests are necessary. The author explains the benefits of using tests that rely on the glomerular filtration rate measurement rather than on traditional creatinine-based diagnostic tests.

This article describes initiatives undertaken by the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-COM) to develop a continuum of physician training that emphasizes the integration of basic sciences throughout undergraduate and graduate medical education. These initiatives demonstrate the effectiveness of consortia in actually restructuring educational programs, decreasing fragmentation, and promoting continuity.

Pericardial cysts are rare mediastinal cysts occurring with an incidence of 1 in 100,000. Characteristically, they occur along the right border of the heart. Their size varies from 1.0 cm to 15 cm, and they are often asymptomatic. Patients with symptoms usually have atypical chest pain. In the case reported here, a 37-year-old man complained of nonproductive cough. Chest x-ray film revealed a pericardial cyst that appeared as a large echolucent unilocular mass along the left border of the heart. Diagnosis was confirmed with the use of both computed tomography and transthoracic echocardiography.