Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
-
Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2015
Use of a high-sensitivity troponin T assay in the assessment and disposition of patients attending a tertiary Australian emergency department: A cross-sectional pilot study.
We examined the disposition and outcomes of patients presenting to the ED with symptoms suggestive of acute coronary syndrome undergoing measurement of troponin T using a highly sensitive assay. ⋯ Despite high-sensitivity TnT assay having a high sensitivity and specificity for myocardial necrosis, the majority of unselected consecutive patients attending ED in whom TnT levels were elevated did not have an acute coronary syndrome. Our pilot study suggests that a larger study is needed to provide evidence to modify management algorithms.
-
Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2015
Accuracy and interrater reliability of paediatric emergency department triage.
To determine the accuracy and reliability of triage of children in public hospital EDs using the Australasian Triage Scale (ATS). This is the first study to examine these issues in paediatric triage following the 2007 development of the Emergency Triage Education Kit (ETEK) to foster accurate and consistent application of the ATS. ⋯ Our findings demonstrate inconsistencies in the accuracy and reliability in which sick children presenting to EDs receive triage scores both within and across hospitals. These results suggest the need for improvements either in current triage nurse training or training resources. Use of the ETEK alone has not resulted in high levels of paediatric triage accuracy or reliability.