Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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Observational Study
Validation of the five-tier Taiwan Triage and Acuity Scale for prehospital use by Emergency Medical Technicians.
This study aimed to determine the inter-rater reliability of the five-level Taiwan Triage and Acuity Scale (TTAS) when used by emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and triage registered nurses (TRNs). Furthermore, it sought to validate the prehospital TTAS scores according to ED hospitalisation rates and medical resource consumption. ⋯ A five-level prehospital triage scale shows good inter-rater reliability and superior discrimination compared with the two-level system for prediction of hospitalisation and medical resource requirements.
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Editorial
Recognising bias in studies of diagnostic tests part 2: interpreting and verifying the index test.
Multiple pitfalls can occur with the conduct and analysis of a study of diagnostic tests, resulting in biased accuracy. Our conceptual model includes three stages: patient selection, interpretation of the index test and disease verification. ⋯ However, there are circumstances when certain choices in study design are unavoidable, and result in biased test characteristics. In this case, the informed reader will better judge the quality of a study by recognising the potential biases and limitations by being methodical in their approach to understanding the methods, and in turn, better apply studies of diagnostic tests into their clinical practice.
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A shortcut review of the literature was carried out to examine the association of sexual dysfunction in the context of new-onset low back pain, with cauda equina syndrome (CES). Five papers were identified as suitable for inclusion using the reported search strategy. ⋯ It is concluded that clinicians appear to be poor at recording this feature during assessment, but between 12% and 96%, patients with confirmed CES will report the presence of new-onset sexual dysfunction at presentation when asked. It appears that this can also be a single isolated red flag feature in the context of low back pain and as such should be a mandatory part of any clinical assessment that seeks to evaluate the risk of impending CES.