I'm Dr. Joshua Schwimmer, a nephrologist and internal medicine physician in New York City. • Kidney Notes was the first active nephrology blog. (Trivia: Kidney Notes is so old that the National Library of Medicine still uses it as an example of how to formally cite blogs.) • Professionally, you can find me at Kidney.nyc. • Kidney Notes is for educational purposes only, not medical advice. Consult qualified health care professionals. See disclaimer.

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Know Your Patient's Face

A colleague recently picked up an occult pericardial effusion in a dialysis patient which required a pericardial window. The tip-off was the loss of nasolabial folds -- in a previous patient, she had seen facial swelling associated with a pericardial effusion, so she was suspicious enough to check an echocardiogram. Because she knew him well, she was able to pick up the subtle change in her patient's face.