Articles: emergency-medicine.
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The use of point-of-care ultrasound is rapidly increasing in medical practice. This study aims to evaluate the left ventricle systolic function by the bedside focus cardiac ultrasound (FoCUS). We consecutively enrolled n.59 patients of the Emergency Medicine Unit of S. ⋯ The correlations between the bedside FoCUS EF measurements versus standard echocardiography were statistically significant: r = + 0.694 p < 1.9 × 10-6 (Quinones equation, Bland-Altman analysis mean = - 2.3%) and r = + 0.571 p < 0.01 (Lvivo app, Bland-Altman analysis mean = - 13.3%). In conclusion, the present study showed a high accuracy of the bedside FoCUS EF evaluations, which may support the diagnosis of the heart failure in an emergency setting without delaying. The EF measurements by the operational method are more precise than those obtained by the unselected images of the software application.
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Foreign body aspiration accounts for 7% of accidental deaths in children under age 4 (4). Children between the ages of 6 months and 3 years of age, adolescent boys and children with mental health issues are at the highest risk of foreign body ingestion. Coins are the most commonly swallowed foreign body in the United States (US) and in other countries those related food such as fish bones are most common (10). ⋯ The most common complication is esophageal obstruction particularly at the thoracic inlet. However, the object can become lodged anywhere in the gastrointestinal tract. We present an unusual case of small bowel obstruction and bowel ischemia secondary to superabsorbent polymer water bead ingestion in a pediatric patient.