Internal and emergency medicine
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Review Meta Analysis
Internal jugular vein ultrasound for the diagnosis of hypovolemia and hypervolemia in acutely ill adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Accurate volume status assessments allow physicians to rapidly implement therapeutic measures in acutely unwell patients. However, existing bedside diagnostic tools are often unreliable for assessing intravascular volume. We searched PUBMED, EMBASE, CENTRAL, and Web of Science for English language articles without date restrictions on January 20, 2022. ⋯ For the diagnosis of hypervolemia, IJV-US had a pooled sensitivity of 0.84 (95% CI 0.70 to 0.92; moderate-certainty evidence) and specificity of 0.70 (95% CI 0.55 to 0.82; very low-certainty evidence). IJV-US has moderate sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of hypervolemia and hypovolemia. Randomized controlled trials are needed to determine the role of IJV-US for guiding therapeutic interventions aimed at optimizing volume status.
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Platelets are multifunctional cells that ensure the integrity of the vascular wall and modulate the immune response at the blood/vascular interface. Their pathological activation results in both thrombosis and inflammation and implicates them in the pathogenesis of vascular disease. ⋯ We here provide an overview of what is known about the role of platelets in the initiation and progression of vascular diseases and summarize what is known about the sex differences in platelet reactivity and in the thromboinflammatory mechanisms that drive these diseases, with a particular focus on atherosclerosis, obstructive and non-obstructive coronary artery disease, and ischemic stroke. Understanding the sex differences at the platelet-vascular interface is clinically relevant as it will enable: (1) to design new therapeutic strategies that prevent the detrimental effects of the immune-modulatory function of platelets taking sex into account, and (2) to evaluate if sex-specific anti-platelet drug regimens should be used to reduce the risk not only of thrombosis but also of vascular disease progression.
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Among nonagenarians admitted to our emergency department (ED) for ground-level falls, we assessed the impact of pre-injury antithrombotic (AT) treatment on the post-traumatic consequences, and identified risk factors for 1-month mortality. All eligible patients were consecutively included over an 18-month period. Head trauma was attested by reliable medical history, witnesses or recent external signs. ⋯ At 1 month, 103 patients (10.2%) had died. The independent risk factors for 1-month mortality were: ICH associated with head trauma (OR = 5.9, 95% CI 2.5-14), Glasgow coma score ≤ 12 at admission (OR = 10; 95% CI 2.2-46), atrial fibrillation (OR = 2.2, 95% CI 1.4-3.4) and age ≥ 95 years (OR = 1.6, 95% CI 1.0-2.5). Our results support accurate and regular assessment of the benefit/risk ratio for antithrombotic treatment among elderly people at high risk for falls.
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Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is a hereditary, autoinflammatory disease characterized by recurrent fever and serositis attacks. The disease onset occurs before 20 years of age in 90% of patients and rarely after the 4th decade. The aim of this study is to screen our FMF patient pool for patients with disease onset after age of 40 and to compare them to patients with early onset with regard to clinical and genetic features. ⋯ The mean colchicine dose in the last 6 months was 1.38 ± 0.64 mg in group 1, and 1.61 ± 0.47 mg in group 2. FMF may start after 40 years of age in approximately 2% of the patients. Lower frequency of fever, lower daily colchicine dose and lower prevalence of exon 10 mutations point out that FMF patients with a disease onset after 40 years of age experience a milder disease compared to those with an onset before the second decade of life.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Drug-related emergency department visits: prevalence and risk factors.
The study aimed to investigate the prevalence of drug-related emergency department (ED) visits and associated risk factors. This retrospective cohort study was conducted in the ED, Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway. From April 2017 to May 2018, 402 patients allocated to the intervention group in a randomized controlled trial were included in this sub-study. ⋯ In the investigated population, 19.7% had a drug-related ED visit, indicating that drug-related ED visits are a major concern. If not recognized and handled, this could be a threat against patient safety. Identified risk factors can be used to identify patients in need of additional attention regarding their drug list during the ED visit.