Lessons of the month: A breathless severe asthmatic in the genomic era: Occam's razor or Hickam's dictum?

Asthma breathlessness cardiomyopathy inhaled-gas MRI myofibrillar myopathy

Journal

Clinical medicine (London, England)
ISSN: 1473-4893
Titre abrégé: Clin Med (Lond)
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101092853

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
11 2020
Historique:
entrez: 17 11 2020
pubmed: 18 11 2020
medline: 13 5 2021
Statut: ppublish

Résumé

Breathlessness is a subjective symptom that may stem from a number of pathological and functional aetiologies. Consequently, clinicians are often faced with the challenge of navigating between the tensions of Occam's razor (parsimonious aetiology) or Hickam's dictum (multiple diagnoses). We report a case of a 36-year-old woman with a lifelong history of episodic breathlessness caused at various times by dysfunctions of lung parenchyma (emphysema) and airway smooth muscle (asthma), skeletal muscle (filamin-C fibrillary myopathy) and cardiac muscle (cardiomyopathy). We illustrate the utility of the modern diagnostic toolbox in the assessment, understanding and management of complex dyspnoea (including the use of inflammometry, inhaled-gas magnetic resonance imaging-guided bronchial thermoplasty, and genetic testing), and also demonstrate the importance of interdisciplinary data interpretation in establishing accurate aetiologic diagnoses.

Identifiants

pubmed: 33199334
pii: 20/6/e264
doi: 10.7861/clinmed.2020-0661
pmc: PMC7687324
doi:

Types de publication

Case Reports Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

e264-e266

Subventions

Organisme : CIHR
Pays : Canada

Informations de copyright

© Royal College of Physicians 2020. All rights reserved.

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Auteurs

Carmen Venegas (C)

St Joseph's Healthcare, Hamilton, Canada and McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.

Sarah Svenningsen (S)

St Joseph's Healthcare, Hamilton, Canada and McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.

Melanie Kjarsgaard (M)

St Joseph's Healthcare, Hamilton, Canada.

Mark Tarnopolsky (M)

neuromuscular disorders and rehabilitation medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.

Kim Anderson (K)

Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.

Sebastian Levesque (S)

Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada.

Benjamin A Raby (BA)

Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, USA and Harvard University, Boston, USA.

Grace Parraga (G)

Western University, London, Canada.

Gerard Cox (G)

St Joseph's Healthcare, Hamilton, Canada and McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.

Parameswaran Nair (P)

St Joseph's Healthcare, Hamilton, Canada and McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada parames@mcmaster.ca.

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