Having mystery medical cases prompted fascination with me as long as I can remember. One of the more recent mysteries involves a symptom as baffling as it is vague.
A middle aged man with history of diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, and hypertension came to me with complaints of night sweats nearly every night that is bothering him. He reports it is consistent and chronic, happening for past year. He denied fevers, but had intermittent chills, but the main thing is that he would nearly soak his bed sheets every night.
Night sweats can point to a number of problems, but the number one major issue is that the immune system is "revved up" for some reason. The immune system is like the police force of the human body. It is constantly trying to keep the body calm, therefore it fights infections or inflammation, cancers, or foreign objects--much like keeping society from rioting.
On examination, he had a chronic back pain in the middle of his back, but not to palpation. He did have a mild discomfort with deep palpation in his epigastric region. His lab findings showed slight elevation in liver enzymes. I ordered the Liver ultrasound, and we found that he had a thickened gallbladder wall, cholecystitis, or inflamed gallbladder.
After he had it removed, his night sweats ceased, and he felt much better.
This is a good example of not assuming "it's just hormones," when you have night sweats.
A middle aged man with history of diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, and hypertension came to me with complaints of night sweats nearly every night that is bothering him. He reports it is consistent and chronic, happening for past year. He denied fevers, but had intermittent chills, but the main thing is that he would nearly soak his bed sheets every night.
Night sweats can point to a number of problems, but the number one major issue is that the immune system is "revved up" for some reason. The immune system is like the police force of the human body. It is constantly trying to keep the body calm, therefore it fights infections or inflammation, cancers, or foreign objects--much like keeping society from rioting.
On examination, he had a chronic back pain in the middle of his back, but not to palpation. He did have a mild discomfort with deep palpation in his epigastric region. His lab findings showed slight elevation in liver enzymes. I ordered the Liver ultrasound, and we found that he had a thickened gallbladder wall, cholecystitis, or inflamed gallbladder.
After he had it removed, his night sweats ceased, and he felt much better.
This is a good example of not assuming "it's just hormones," when you have night sweats.
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