Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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The national morbidity and mortality associated with falls from a height is incompletely described. The authors estimated the rates of injury, hospitalization, and mortality due to these falls for subgroups of the U.S. population. ⋯ Ladder and structure falls by elders are a substantial emergency department problem warranting thorough clinical evaluation and injury prevention efforts.
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To determine the sensitivity of the venous lactate level at presentation for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in emergency department (ED) patients with chest pain. ⋯ Venous lactate level at presentation is highly sensitive for the diagnosis of AMI, particularly in patients with more than two hours of chest pain. Given its limitations in specificity and ability to detect creatine kinase-MB-negative/troponin-positive microinfarcts, further research is needed to determine how lactate can complement other cardiac enzymes in risk-stratifying all acute coronary syndromes.