Internal and emergency medicine
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Dyspnea is a common presenting complaint in the emergency department (ED) and a leading cause of hospitalization in intensive care unit (ICU) and medical wards. Ultrasound (US) has traditionally been considered inadequate to explore the aerated lung. However, in the past 15 years LUS gained broader application, at least in part thanks to the interpretation of the artefacts generated by the interaction of US and lung structures/content. ⋯ The most common cause of AIS is the wet lung: the more the congestion burden, the more the extent of the B-lines, which become confluent until the so-called white lung in case of pulmonary edema. Many studies showed a higher accuracy of LUS in diagnosing acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) as compared to chest X-ray As recently shown, the integration of LUS to clinical assessment allow to differentiate cardiogenic dyspnea with sensitivity and specificity greater than 95 %. Moreover, LUS can easily detect pleural effusion -frequently present in ADHF-appearing as an anechoic area in the recumbent area of the thorax, delimited inferiorly by the diaphragmatic dome and superiorly by the aerated lung.
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Acutely hospitalized older patients have an increased risk of mortality, but at the moment of presentation this risk is difficult to assess. Early identification of patients at high risk might increase the awareness of the physician, and enable tailored decision-making. Existing screening instruments mainly use either geriatric factors or severity of disease for prognostication. ⋯ Using this model, 53 % of the patients in the highest risk decile (N = 51) were deceased within 90 days. In conclusion, we are able to predict 90-day mortality in acutely hospitalized older patients using a model with directly available clinical data describing disease severity and geriatric factors. After further validation, such a model might be used in clinical decision making in older patients.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study Observational Study
Study on the priority of coronary arteriography or therapeutic hypothermia after return of spontaneous circulation in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: results from the SOS-KANTO 2012 study.
Many emergency physicians struggle with the clinical question of whether to perform therapeutic hypothermia (TH) or coronary angiography (CAG) first after return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). We analyzed the results of the SOS-KANTO 2012 study, which is a prospective, multicenter (67 emergency hospitals), observational study about OHCA conducted between January 2012 and March 2013 (n = 16,452). We compared two groups: the group in which TH was first performed (TH group), and the group in which CAG was performed first (CAG group) within 24 h after arrival. ⋯ The rates of CPC 1 and 2 were 26.9 % (14 patients) in TH group, and 23.2 % (26 patients) in CAG group. There was no significant difference in 90-day survival between the two groups although it tended to be better in the CAG group than in the TH group. Whether TH or CAG was performed first did not affect the 90-day survival and 30-day neurological situation among patients with ROSC after OHCA.
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Delayed antibiotic treatment for patients in severe sepsis and septic shock decreases the probability of survival. In this survey, medical directors of different emergency medical services (EMS) in Germany were asked if they are prepared for pre-hospital sepsis therapy with antibiotics or special algorithms to evaluate the individual preparations of the different rescue areas for the treatment of patients with this infectious disease. The objective of the survey was to obtain a general picture of the current status of the EMS with respect to rapid antibiotic treatment for sepsis. ⋯ Although the German EMS is an emergency physician-based rescue system, special opportunities in the form of antibiotics on emergency physician vehicles are missing. Simultaneously, only 10.3 % of the rescue districts use a special algorithm for sepsis therapy. Sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock do not appear to be prioritized as highly as these deadly diseases should be in the pre-hospital setting.