A 40-year-old man with no known past medical history presented with one week of fatigue and dyspnea on exertion. In the last week, the patient developed significant shortness of breath with only a few steps. The patient reported an unintended weight loss of 25 lbs in the last two months, as well as one month of intermittent epigastric abdominal pain and associated nausea. In the last week, the patient was seen by an outside clinic and diagnosed with H. pylori and started on treatment for H. pylori. He denies any other acute complaints or symptoms including orthopnea or paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea.

Alejandro Ruiz, MD

Picture the following encounter: A 52-year-old male presents with chest pain. He seems comfortable and is slightly hypertensive to 156/83, but the rest of his vital signs are normal. He admits to using cocaine prior to the onset of chest pain. He denies any radiation of pain or other associated symptoms. When you are going through your differential, you consider aortic dissection, and you wonder if there are any tools to help you decide if this patient should get a CT angiography (CTA) study to further evaluate for aortic dissection.

Taylor Wahrenbrock, MD and Kathryn McGregor, MD