The American journal of emergency medicine
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Comparative Study Observational Study
Video screen viewing and first intubation attempt success with standard geometry video laryngoscope use.
Direct laryngoscopy (DL) is the traditional approach for emergency intubation but video laryngoscopy (VL) is gaining popularity. Some studies have demonstrated higher first-attempt success with VL, particularly in difficult airways. In real-world settings, physicians choose whether or not to view the video screen when utilizing VL devices for tracheal intubation. Therefore, we sought to determine whether screen viewing is associated with higher intubation first-attempt success in clinical practice. ⋯ In this study of orotracheal intubations performed by emergency physicians with Macintosh-style VL, the first-attempt success rate was high. The success rate was similar whether or not the intubating physician chose to view the video screen.
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Use of an age-adjusted D-dimer for the evaluation of acute pulmonary embolus (PE) has been prospectively validated in the literature and has become a practice recommendation from major medical societies. Most research on this subject involves the most common D-dimer assays reporting in Fibrinogen Equivalent Units (FEU) with a non-age-adjusted manufacturer-recommended cutoff of 500 ng/ml FEU. Limited research to date has evaluated age-adjustment in assays that report in D-Dimer Units (D-DU), which use a manufacturer-recommended cutoff of 230 ng/ml D-DU. Despite scant evidence, an age-adjusted formula using D-DU has been recently endorsed by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). This formula seems arbitrary in its derivation and unnecessarily deviates from existing thresholds, thus prompting the creation of our novel-age adjustment formula. The goal of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the test characteristics of our novel age-adjusted D-dimer formula using the D-DU assay in comparison to existing traditional and age-adjusted D-dimer thresholds for the evaluation of acute PE in the ED. ⋯ Use of an age-adjusted D-dimer on appropriately selected patients being evaluated for acute PE in the ED with a D-DU assay increases specificity while maintaining a high sensitivity and NPV. Both our novel formula and the ACEP-endorsed age-adjusted formula performed well, with our novel formula showing a trend towards improved testing characteristics.
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Well recognized guidelines are available for the use of cranial computed tomography (CCT) in traumatic patients, while no definitely accepted standards exists to for CCT in patients without history of head injury. The aim of this study is to propose an easy clinical score to stratify the need of CCT in emergency department (ED) patients with suspect non-traumatic intracranial pathology. ⋯ A score for risk stratification of patients with suspect of intra-cranial pathology could reduce CT request in ED, avoiding a significant number of CCT while minimizing the risk of missing positive results.
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Observational Study
Pre-hospital qSOFA as a predictor of sepsis and mortality.
The quick sequential organ failure assessment score (qSOFA) has been proposed as a simple tool to identify patients with sepsis who are at risk for poor outcomes. Its utility in the pre-hospital setting has not been fully elucidated. ⋯ Pre-hospital qSOFA is specific, but poorly sensitive, for sepsis and sepsis outcomes, especially among patients with an ED diagnosis of infection. Higher qSOFA score was associated with worse outcomes.
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Although sacroiliitis is not uncommon in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), bacterial infection of the sacroiliac joint is rare. The diagnosis is often delayed because of low clinical suspicion, a vague clinical picture and poorly defined localization of symptoms. We report a case of pyogenic sacroiliitis in a patient with Crohn's disease caused by Clostridia spp. and discuss key clinical components and protocol for the successful evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of this uncommon illness.