ORLANDO – Researchers presenting a case of starving ketoacidosis in a woman who was on a “Paleo” diet while breastfeeding won the Clinical Vignettes competition held Monday at HM18. The announcement capped a flurry of presenting and judging of posters on single cases that were captivating in both the stories they told and the lessons they taught.
The trainee award winner in the competition were presenters of a case of licorice-induced hypokalemia that, clinicians learned, was brought about by the drinking of an obscure kind of tea. The two others that made it into the final round of judging were on cases of syphilitic hepatitis and cardiac amyloidosis.
By chance, both of the winners highlighted dietary triggers, said Stephanie Sherman, MD, chair of the annual meeting’s clinical vignettes committee.
“The common themes in both of these were the importance of dietary history when interviewing patients,” Dr. Sherman said. “And then both had a beautiful review of the physiology that’s normal and how it gets broken in these situations.”
The Clinical Vignettes portion of the RIV competition, which also includes research and innovations categories, was separate this year because of space constraints, Dr. Sherman said.
Judges said they looked not only at how interesting and applicable each case was, but also the quality of the oral presentation and the poster’s visual appeal and clarity.
The ketoacidosis case, presented by Timothy Judson, MD, a resident at University of California, San Francisco, involved a 40-year-old woman who was previously healthy and had given birth 9 weeks earlier. Since the birth, the woman had been on a Paleo diet, a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet. She also was breastfeeding her newborn and continuing to breastfeed her 2-year-old son.
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