Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2005
Substance misuse, anxiety and depression and urgency of presentation to a public emergency department in Australia.
To establish the prevalence and comorbidity of substance-related problems and anxiety and depression, among ED presentations, and to compare the prevalence of these conditions among more and less urgent presentations. ⋯ Emergency departments in Australia are appropriate settings for the detection of both substance use and mental health problems in the wider community. The prevalence of these problems in ED settings is high and there is a need for the development of systematic screening and referral processes. The evidence of a link between urgency of presentation and these problems needs to be further explored.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2005
Triage nurses validly and reliably estimate emergency department patient complexity.
To access the validity and reliability of triage nurse estimates of ED patient complexity. ⋯ Triage nurses make valid and reliable estimates of patient complexity. This information might be used to guide ED work flow and ED casemix system analysis.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2005
Diagnostic use of C-reactive protein in bacteraemic emergency department patients.
To assess C-reactive protein (CRP) as a marker of bacteraemia in ED patients. ⋯ Although the present study has limitations, it appears to show that CRP has limited diagnostic utility for the detection of bacteraemia in ED patients.
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Emerg Med Australas · Jun 2005
Comparative StudyEmergency weight estimation in Pacific Island and Maori children who are large-for-age.
Methods to estimate weights of children requiring resuscitation appeared to underestimate the weight of Pacific Island and Maori children. This study sought to quantify differences between real and estimated weights, study links with ethnicity and derive a new estimation method for large-for-age children. ⋯ Current emergency methods underestimate weight in Pacific Island and Maori children. We recommend a new chart for these children.
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Recreational use of amphetamines is common in Australia and New Zealand when compared with other developed nations. The clinical effects are variable because of the potential of these drugs to increase the proportion of different biogenic amines in the central nervous system (CNS). The substances affected are adrenaline, noradrenaline, serotonin and dopamine. Movement disorders represent one of the less common presentations of amphetamine toxicity but one that health care workers should be aware of nonetheless.