Internal and emergency medicine
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Patients presenting with seizure at the emergency department (ED) may have morbidity and mortality. Serum lactate has been shown to be a predictor of diagnosis of seizure versus syncope and mortality in patients presenting with seizure at the ED. There is limited data on using serum lactate as a predictor of the intensive care unit (ICU) admission in patients presenting with seizure at the ED. ⋯ Both factors had adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of 4.793 (2.119, 10.844) and 1.008 (1.001, 1.016), respectively. Serum lactate of over 63 mg/dL had specificity of 80.25% and sensitivity of 35.56% with the area under ROC curve of 63.30% (95% confidence interval of 54.77%, 71.84%). Serum lactate and convulsive status epilepticus were two predictors of ICU admission in patients presenting with seizure at the ED.
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Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has been shown to be beneficial in facilitating patient care, but its adoption is variable among emergency medicine (EM) clinicians. We identified the patterns of POCUS use and gaps in POCUS integration in a tertiary care emergency department (ED). These data provide a user-centered platform for subsequent development of a tele-ultrasound (tele-US) consultation program. ⋯ APPs were less comfortable with POCUS image interpretation and clinical integration of POCUS findings compared to residents (χ2: 16.3, p < 0.0001 and χ2: 5.1, p = 0.02, respectively). 65% (54/83) of clinicians would use POCUS more if real-time supervision via tele-US was available for image acquisition and image interpretation. EM clinicians indicated a substantial need for further real-time POCUS training and supervision, especially for image interpretation. A clinician-centered strategy, such as tele-US, has potential to increase proficient use of POCUS.
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Lactose intolerance (LI) is a very common condition but, despite many efforts of the Italian National Health Service to reduce diagnostic delay of chronic disorders and provide prompt treatments, its early diagnosis remains an unmet need. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this problem, due to the conversion of many public health services to COVID centers. This study aims to analyze the diagnostic journey of patients suffering from LI, taking into account the duration of the process, associated costs, and impact on quality of life. ⋯ The data were analyzed to determine the time required for a reliable LI diagnosis and average costs. Diagnostic delay of LI proved to be longer than 2 years, its impact on quality of life proved to be moderate to high in most of participants, especially in their psychosocial domain, and average costs proved to be high. Further investigations are needed to determine the economic burden of maintaining an asymptomatic status in patients with LI.