So we started our study two weeks ago. We have 15 of the new admissions to the
internal medicine service who came for cardiac problems, mostly cardiomyopathy. We only have 1 clinic patient as the
outpatient doctors have spent over 50 days on strike this year (for a number of reasons, now joining
miners in protest of a nationalized mine).
Our nurse consents and draws blood, then we do a questionnaire, focused
physical, and EKG. Our patients
include a taxi driver, a grandmother who shares her house with 10 family
members in 2 bedrooms, a jokester from the neighboring state, a retired baker lady, and a
grown man afraid of needles (nothing new with this one). We’re so
fortunate to have found this clinical project- a million details to sort and a ton of work but I really enjoy working here.
We got the results back from our first 13 inpatients, and a staggering 70% are Chagas (sero)positive, 3 of which are new
diagnoses. So, yes, we certainly are in the
right place to study this disease.
This is exciting! Do you have a limit on how many patients you'll accept? I can see how this might become overwhelming!
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