Annals of emergency medicine
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Review Meta Analysis Comparative Study
Do vasopressors improve outcomes in patients with cardiac arrest?
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Review Comparative Study
Clinical policy: critical issues in the evaluation and management of adult patients in the emergency department with asymptomatic elevated blood pressure.
This clinical policy from the American College of Emergency Physicians is the revision of a 2006 policy on the evaluation and management of adult patients with asymptomatic elevated blood pressure in the emergency department.1 A writing subcommittee reviewed the literature to derive evidence-based recommendations to help clinicians answer the following critical questions: (1) In emergency department patients with asymptomatic elevated blood pressure, does screening for target organ injury reduce rates of adverse outcomes? (2) In patients with asymptomatic markedly elevated blood pressure, does emergency department medical intervention reduce rates of adverse outcomes? A literature search was performed, the evidence was graded, and recommendations were given based on the strength of the available data in the medical literature.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Nontraumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage in the setting of negative cranial computed tomography results: external validation of a clinical and imaging prediction rule.
Clinical variables can reliably exclude a diagnosis of nontraumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage in patients with negative cranial computed tomography (CT) results. We externally validated 2 decision rules with 100% reported sensitivity for a diagnosis of subarachnoid hemorrhage, among patients undergoing lumbar puncture after a negative cranial CT result: (1) clinical rule: presence of any combination of age 40 years and older, neck pain or stiffness, loss of consciousness, or headache onset during exertion; and (2) imaging rule: cranial CT performed within 6 hours of headache onset. ⋯ The clinical rule demonstrated useful Bayesian test characteristics when retrospectively validated against this patient cohort. The imaging rule, however, failed to identify 20% of subarachnoid hemorrhage patients with a negative cranial CT result.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Examining renal impairment as a risk factor for acute coronary syndrome: a prospective observational study.
This study seeks to examine whether the finding of an abnormal estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in the emergency department (ED) was associated with acute coronary syndrome in the population of patients presenting for investigation of chest pain. ⋯ There is an independent association between eGFR and acute coronary syndrome risk in patients presenting to the ED with chest pain; this association is independent of age, traditional cardiac risk factors, medical history, troponin level, and ECG findings. Reduced eGFR should be considered an acute coronary syndrome risk factor, and clinicians should maintain high clinical suspicion for acute coronary syndrome in patients with abnormal renal function results regardless of whether they have known kidney disease, traditional acute coronary syndrome risk factors, or abnormal diagnostic test results. Risk stratification tools should include reduced eGFR as a high-risk feature.