The American journal of emergency medicine
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Placement of TVPs is a core EM procedure. Despite this, there is no specific outcome data on this procedure in the ED setting. This study examines the success of Emergency Physician (EP) attempted TVPs as well as their hospital courses and survivals. ⋯ EP placed TVPs have a high rate of successful capture and patients undergoing this procedure have a good prognosis.
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Falls among older adults are a public health problem and are multifactorial. We sought to determine whether falls predict more serious conditions in older adult patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with a "nonspecific complaint" (NSC). A secondary objective was to examine what factors predicted serious conditions among older adult patients with a fall. ⋯ Fall patients share many features with nonfall NSC patient. However, falls did not increase the risk of serious conditions. Falls in the elderly could be considered under the broader entity of NSC.
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This study suggests the new concept of liberatory vertigo to facilitate emergency department treatment of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. ⋯ In our sample, liberatory vertigo could predict the effectiveness of the maneuver regardless of the canal involved.
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Right ventricular (RV) dysfunction has proved to be an important predictor of morbidity and mortality in patients with pulmonary embolism (PE). Tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) is one of the parameters that have been validated as predictor of outcomes. The aim of our study was to evaluate the performance (sensitivity and specificity) of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) to predict RV dysfunction defined as TAPSE <16 mm. ⋯ hs-cTnT is a biomarker with good performance to identify RV dysfunction in PE.
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Observational Study
Prospective validation of a biomarker panel to identify pediatric ED patients with abdominal pain who are at low risk for acute appendicitis.
The objective of the study is to prospectively validate the diagnostic accuracy of a biomarker panel consisting of white blood cell, C-reactive protein, and myeloid-related protein 8/14 levels in identifying pediatric patients with abdominal pain who are at low risk for appendicitis. ⋯ This biomarker panel exhibited high sensitivity and negative predictive value for acute appendicitis in this large prospective cohort. This panel may be useful in identifying pediatric patients who are at low risk for appendicitis and might be followed clinically, potentially reducing the dependence on CT in the evaluation for acute appendicitis.