Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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Emergency Department overcrowding with admitted inpatients is a common international occurrence. We undertook a retrospective review to compare patient admission rates from patients presenting to our Emergency Department with the level of overcrowding with admitted inpatients on that particular day in the Emergency Department. Over the 2-year study period there was no change in the rate or absolute number of admissions per day compared with the level of inpatient overcrowding.
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The increase in detected vitamin D deficiency appears to be multifactorial: an increasingly multicultural society, reduced exposure to sunlight due to concern about skin cancer and a more sedentary lifestyle and dietary changes within the population. ⋯ Vitamin D deficiency should be considered in children with pigmented skin presenting with a range of symptoms. The detected vitamin D deficiency probably represents only a very small proportion of the vitamin D deficiency in children in Birmingham.
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To predict the outcome of stroke at an acute stage is important but still difficult. Vomiting is one of the commonest symptoms in stroke patients. The aim of this study is threefold: first, to examine the percentage of vomiting in each of the three major categories of strokes; second, to investigate the association between vomiting and other characteristics and third, to determine the correlation between vomiting and mortality. ⋯ Compared with patients without vomiting, the risk of death was significantly higher in patients with vomiting at the onset of stroke. Vomiting should be an early predictor of the outcome.