Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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The authors sought to determine the diagnostic test characteristics of bedside emergency physician (EP)-performed ultrasound (US) for cholelithiasis in symptomatic emergency department (ED) patients. ⋯ This study suggests that in patients presenting to the ED with pain consistent with biliary colic, a positive EUS scan may be used to arrange for appropriate outpatient follow-up if symptoms have resolved. In patients with a low pretest probability, a negative EUS scan should prompt the clinician to consider an alternative diagnosis.
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Comparative Study
Effect of two different FDA-approved D-dimer assays on resource utilization in the emergency department.
The D-dimer assay has been shown to be an appropriate test to rule out pulmonary embolism (PE) in low-risk patients in the emergency department (ED). Multiple assays now are approved to measure D-dimer levels. Studies have shown a newer assay, Tina-quant, to have similar diagnostic accuracy to the VIDAS assay. ⋯ Switching D-dimer assays reduced both LOS and number of imaging studies in our patient population.