Case Presentations

Overview
Questions to Answer
Finding cases
Resources

Overview

During presentations, each of you is asked to bring a case to share with the other students. The goal of these presentations is to research and teach each other about basic and common or life threatening and emergent findings. Don’t choose the squirrel riding on the back of a zebra. Rather pick cases that demonstrate one critical or interesting point that you and your colleagues are likely to encounter in the future. Remember that the goal is to share and learn something useful. The presentations should last 5 minutes or so. A brief summary of clinical information should be given but the primary emphasis should be on the radiologic aspects of the case.

Questions to Answer

In presenting your case, keep asking yourself what the key points that you want to get across are. The seven questions below can serve as a guide although you shouldn’t try to address them all in your 5 minutes.

What are the clinical indications for obtaining the study ?

Given these indications, what exam should have been ordered and why? Was it?

Are there any special features of this exam (e.g. contrast, special view, etc.)

What are the findings? How do these differ from normal? What is their significance?

What differential diagnosis do these findings suggest?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the various ways that this clinical problem can be imaged?

What kind of history on the requisition would help narrow the diagnosis?

Given the history and study in this case, could anything have been done to provide better patient care?

Finding cases

On any given day there are plenty of good teaching cases coming through the reading rooms that you can harvest. You’re pretty much on your own to take the initiative and get them. Just remember that the best teaching case may not have the most interesting findings. The lesson of the day may not even be on the film itself, but may concern the information (or lack of it) on the requisition, the application of a special view, the exam that should have been ordered but wasn’t or even artifacts that appear. Use the CTBs as a resource. There is a pool of good cases available in case you can’t find a good teaching case for the first session, but you’re expected to bring new cases to the subsequent sessions.

Resources

The faculty, fellows and residents within the department may help you in preparing the cases. They can also point you in the right direction if further research if necessary. They are, however, only facilitators. These sessions are your chance to direct your education to those areas that interest you and which you consider important. Choose good lessons that will benefit you collective experience and research them well.

Teach each other.