The American journal of emergency medicine
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We sought to assess interrater reliability (IRR) of lung point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) findings among pediatric patients with suspected pneumonia. ⋯ We found moderate interrater reliability of lung POCUS findings for the assessment of pediatric patients with suspected pneumonia. B-lines had the highest reliability. Further assessment of lung POCUS is necessary to guide proper training and optimal scanning techniques to ensure adequate reliability of ultrasound findings in the assessment of pediatric pneumonia.
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Finger injuries are commonly attended to in the emergency department, and digital nerve block is a frequently performed procedure for such injuries. This study compared the efficacy levels of the subcutaneous method according to the different injection sites. ⋯ Injection into the PIP joint showed the same anesthetic effect as injection into the MCP joint, but this effect occurred faster in the former.
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Although there is no consensus on how to use an electrocardiogram (ECG) in patients with hyperkalemia, physicians often obtain it in the acute setting when diagnosing and treating hyperkalemia. The objective of this study is to evaluate if physicians are able to detect hyperkalemia based on the ECG. ⋯ An ECG is not a sensitive method of detecting hyperkalemia and should not be relied upon to rule it out. However, the ECG has a high specificity for detecting hyperkalemia and could be used as a rule in test.
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Tools to measure physical activity, such as pedometers, have become more prevalent and attracted popular interest in recent years. Despite this trend, research has not yet quantified pedometer-measured physical activity among Emergency Physicians. This study aims to provide the first characterization of physical activity among on-duty Emergency Physicians in terms of step count. ⋯ The average emergency physician in this cohort walked roughly half the daily recommended number of steps during their recorded shift. Residents walk significantly more than attending physicians.
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The aim of the study was to assess whether spinal immobilization with long back board (LBB) and semi-rigid cervical collar (CC) at 20° instead of 0° conserves pulmonary functions in obese volunteers, including forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), and FEV1/FVC ratio. ⋯ The present findings confirm that spinal immobilization reduces pulmonary functions in obese volunteers, and that 20-degree immobilization has no conservative effect on these values when compared to the traditional 0-degree immobilization. It may be that 20° is insufficient to decrease the negative effect of abdominal obesity on pulmonary functions.