Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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Occupational, social and recreational routines follow temporal patterns, as does the onset of certain acute medical diseases and injuries. It is not known if the temporal nature of injury and disease transfers into patterns that can be observed in ambulance demand. This review examines eligible study findings that reported temporal (time of day, day of week and seasonal) patterns in ambulance demand. ⋯ Temporal patterns are present in ambulance demand and importantly these populations are distinct from those found in hospital datasets suggesting that variation in ambulance demand should not be inferred from hospital data alone. Case types seem to have similar temporal patterns across jurisdictions; thus, research where demand is broken down into case types would be generalisable to many ambulance services. This type of research can lead to improvements in ambulance service deliverables.
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A short-cut review was carried out to establish whether doctors know how to use autoinjectors (for anaphylaxis). Three hundred and twenty-four papers were found of which five presented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these best papers are shown in table 3. The clinical bottom line is that the majority of doctors studied are unable to use autoinjectors correctly and may therefore be unable to teach patients or parents effectively.
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Patients with suspected acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and stroke commonly present first to the ambulance service. Little is known about experiences of prehospital care which are important for measuring the quality of services for patients with AMI or stroke. ⋯ Factors that contribute to better patient experience are not necessarily understood in the same way by patients and clinicians. Our findings can contribute to the development of patient experience measures for prehospital care.
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The authors report a case of a 10-year-old boy who presented to the emergency department following an episode of syncope. While on telemetry, the child was found to have runs biventricular tachycardia. Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia was diagnosed, and the case report discusses this rare but important diagnosis that should be considered in children presenting with syncope.
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To determine the diagnostic accuracy of copeptin in patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and its correlation with obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) on coronary CT angiography (CTA). ⋯ Copeptin seems to be elevated in patients with ACS while there is no strong correlation with obstructive coronary disease on CTA.