European journal of emergency medicine : official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine
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The objective of this study was to assess whether the number of syncope attendances to the Emergency Department is related to daily temperature and humidity, or time of the day, day of the week, month or season of the year. All adult patients presenting with syncope over a 1-year period between 1 March 2007 and 29 February 2008 were enrolled. A circadian pattern of syncope attendances exists, peak attendance was between 10 : 00 and 16 : 00 h, especially in those aged above 65 years (P<0.001). ⋯ A trend was found towards more attendances between December and May. One hypothesis for this is differences between indoor and outdoor temperatures. Public health campaigns could be targeted towards elderly patients to ensure that they are aware of the increased risk of syncope on waking and also on transferring from cold to warm environments.
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Comparative Study
Emergency Medical System response to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Milan, Italy.
The objective of this study was to investigate how rapidly the Emergency Medical System provides life support to patients suffering out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Milan, Italy. The study population included 1426 consecutive participants with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest between January 2007 and October 2008. The mean age was 72.7 years. ⋯ The mean time interval from collapse-to-first shock was 18.67+/-5.37 min. The mean Emergency Medical System unit response time interval was 7.07+/-3.14 min; time elapsed from arrival-to-first CPR was 7.75+/-4.32 min. In conclusions, the dispatch to arrival and dispatch to CPR intervals are comparable with those reported in other large urban areas, but the time from arrival-to-first CPR was longer than recommended by current guidelines.