Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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The shock index (SI), the ratio of heart rate to systolic blood pressure, has been reported to be a useful tool in the evaluation of trauma patients presenting to the emergency department (ED). ⋯ The range of values for SI for patients being evaluated for pain and/or vaginal bleeding within the first trimester of pregnancy, who do not have a ruptured EP, are within the previously reported range of 0.5-0.7 for nonpregnant patients. A SI > 0.85 made the diagnosis of ruptured EP 15.0 (95% CI = 5.6 to 40.4) times more likely. This study suggests that SI could impact directly on the diagnostic and therapeutic course of the patient.