Internal and emergency medicine
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Letter Case Reports
A case of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma with exceptional growth.
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Multicenter Study
A prospective study on survival in cancer patients with and without venous thromboembolism.
Retrospective population-based studies showed that in cancer patients venous thromboembolism (VTE) is associated with reduced survival. Master Oncology is a multicenter study in patients with solid advanced cancer aimed at assessing (1) risk factors for VTE using a case-control design, and (2) survival in cases (patients with VTE) and controls (patients without VTE). Survival data were prospectively collected for at least 10 months. ⋯ Median survival time was reduced for both patients with symptomatic (Wilcoxon = 35.22, p < 0.001) and asymptomatic VTE (Wilcoxon = 4.63, p = 0.031). Patients with advanced solid cancer, high BMI, high ECOG score, and recent diagnosis of cancer are associated with an increased risk for VTE. Patients with both symptomatic and asymptomatic VTE have a reduced survival compared to those without VTE.
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Utility of point-of-care biliary ultrasound in the evaluation of emergency patients with isolated acute non-traumatic epigastric pain.
To determine the utility of emergency physician-performed point-of-care biliary ultrasound in the evaluation of emergency department (ED) patients with isolated acute non-traumatic epigastric pain. This was a multi-center prospective observational study of adult patients presenting to the ED with isolated acute non-traumatic epigastric pain. Patients with abdominal tenderness at any site other than the epigastric region, or with a history of gall stones, cholecystectomy, gastrointestinal bleeding, chronic abdominal pain, trauma, or altered mental status were excluded. ⋯ Point-of-care biliary ultrasound detected gall stones in more than one-third of ED patients with isolated acute non-traumatic epigastric pain. All patients presenting to the ED with non-traumatic epigastric pain should be evaluated for biliary disease with an ultrasound imaging study. Bedside ultrasound can avoid misdiagnosis and expedite management in these patients.
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Several studies have evaluated the prognostic impact of atrial fibrillation (AF) in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients, but scarce data are available on the role of AF in non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTE-ACS). The aim of this study was to investigate long-term outcome of NSTE-ACS patients experiencing an episode of AF during in-hospital course. Of 1,147 NSTE-ACS patients, 54.4% for non-STEMI (NSTEMI) and 45.6% for unstable angina, 65 (5.7%) had an episode of AF. ⋯ After propensity score analysis, only patients with AF duration >6 h showed a significantly higher mortality at Cox regression (p = 0.021). Our results suggest that NSTE-ACS patients who develop AF are characterized by a higher clinical complexity. The occurrence of AF, when longer than 6 h, represents an important negative prognostic factor for long-term survival.