The American journal of emergency medicine
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Case Reports
Diagnosis of neurofibromatosis type 1 after rupture of aneurysm and consequent fatal hemothorax.
Patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) can develop both benign and malignant tumors throughout their lives. A 49-year-old man was transferred to the emergency department with complaints of sudden right dorsal pain and respiratory discomfort. He was in shock on arrival. ⋯ As his deceased mother was an NF1 patient, we diagnosed him with NF1. Detailed patient history and early-stage examination led to the early diagnosis. NF1 should be considered as an early differential diagnosis to improve the outcome of patients in such cases.
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As the focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST) examination becomes increasingly ubiquitous in the emergency department (ED), a parallel increase in incidental findings can also be expected. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence, documentation, and communication of incidental findings on emergency physician-performed FAST examinations. ⋯ Incidental findings were often encountered in FAST examinations, with cysts of the kidneys and pelvis being the most common findings. A vast majority of incidental findings were not documented or noted to be communicated to patients, which can be a barrier to follow-up care.
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Identification of problematic alcohol use and substance use in the population has been a clinical challenge, especially during the heightened years of the opioid epidemic. Bringing Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) to scale in medical settings, such as hospital emergency departments (EDs) could facilitate broad identification of substance use disorders, timely delivery of brief interventions, and successful linkages to treatment. ⋯ This analysis supports the scalability of SBIRT in hospital EDs and presents an implementation model that can be replicated in EDs nationwide.
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Clinicians use the Modified Centor Score (MCS) to estimate the risk of group A streptococcal (GAS) pharyngitis in children with sore throat. The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) recommends neither testing nor treating patients with specific viral symptoms. The goal of this study is to measure the impact of those symptoms on the yield of GAS testing predicted by the MCS. ⋯ The presence of viral symptoms specified by the IDSA alters the predicted yield of testing by traditional MCS. Clinicians may consider adjusting interpretation of a patient's MCS based on the presence of viral symptoms, but viral symptoms may not always fully obviate the need for GAS testing.
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Diagnostic value of urinalysis specimens contaminated with squamous epithelial cells (SEC) from the genital surfaces is assumed to be limited compared to clean-catch samples. However, no studies have quantified the change in predictive value in the presence of SECs for individual urinalysis markers. ⋯ Analysis of AUC for individual urinalysis markers showed reduced diagnostic accuracy in the presence of SECs. SEC presence also reflected much higher rates of contaminated cultures. These results support the reduced reliance on contaminated UA specimens for ruling in UTI in ED patients.