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In this Journal feature, information about a real patient is presented in stages (boldface type) to an expert clinician, who responds to the information, sharing his or her reasoning with the reader (regular type). The authors' commentary follows.
A 72-year-old man presented with a 3-month history of watery diarrhea. This condition was associated with intermittent fevers, abdominal pain, and weight loss of 15 lb (6.8 kg).
This patient's symptoms may be due to a number of infectious or noninfectious causes, including persistent intestinal infections, inflammatory enteropathies, and neoplastic disorders. More details regarding the frequency and volume of diarrhea would be
Discussion
Source Information
From the Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine (E.F.) and the Department of Medicine (E.F., K.C.K., A.S.D.), the McLaughlin–Rotman Centre for Global Health (K.C.K.), the McLaughlin Centre for Molecular Medicine (K.C.K.), and the Department of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation (A.S.D.), University of Toronto; the Ontario Provincial Health Laboratory (K.C.K.) and the Department of Medicine (K.C.K., A.S.D.), Mount Sinai Hospital and University Health Network — all in Toronto; and the Department of Medicine, William Osler Health Centre, Etobicoke, ON, Canada (C.S.).
Address reprint requests to Dr. Detsky at Mount Sinai Hospital, 600 University Ave., Suite 427, Toronto, ON M5G 1X5, Canada, or at allan.detsky@uhn.on.ca.
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