Acta medica Iranica
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Acta medica Iranica · Jan 2013
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyComparison of two nomograms of unfractionated heparin in patients with acute coronary syndrome.
Heparin has an unpredictable pharmacokinetics and the responses of individuals may vary distinctly. Therefore, different dosing nomograms have been proposed. The aim of this study was to compare two prevalent nomograms to adjust heparin doses in hospitalized patients with acute coronary syndrome. One hundred and forty patients received heparin infusions based on one of two nomograms. ⋯ At 48 hours, the proportion of patients in the therapeutic range in group 1 was higher (72.86% vs 45.71%). The time patients stayed at the desired levels was significantly higher in nomogram 1 and they also required fewer heparin rate adjustments (3.41±1.55 vs 4.53±1.63). This study indicated that using nomogram 1 facilitated a more rapid achievement of the therapeutic threshold, higher proportion of patients in the therapeutic range for a longer time, and fewer changes of in the heparin rate.
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Acta medica Iranica · Jan 2013
Evaluation of emergency medical technicians intermediate prediction about their transported patients final disposition in emergency department of Imam Khomeini Hospital.
This was a prospective cross-sectional study of consecutive transported patients by emergency medical service (EMS) to a referral hospital. The goal of this study was the evaluation of emergency medical technician intermediate prediction about their transported patients disposition in Emergency Department of Imam Khomeini Hospital. 2950 patients were transported to this hospital, Questionnaires were submitted in 300 of consecutive patient transports and completed data were obtained and available upon arrival at hospital for 267 of these cases. Emergency medical technicians intermediate (EMT-I) were asked to predict whether the transported patient would require admission to the hospital, and if so, what will be their prediction of patient actual disposition. ⋯ The sensitivity of predicting trauma patients (56.2% of total patients) was 55% with PPV of 38%, specificity of 86% and for Non-trauma patients' sensitivity was 80% with PPV of 40% and specificity of 82%. EMT-I in our emergency medical system have very limited ability in prediction of admission and disposition in transported patients and their prediction were better in Non-trauma patients. So in our EMS, the pre-hospital diversion and necessity of transporting policies should not be based on EMS personnel disposition.
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Acta medica Iranica · Jan 2013
The hemodynamic effects of spinal block with low dose of bupivacaine and sufentanil in patients with low myocardial ejection fraction.
The aim of this study was to assess the effect of spinal block with low dose of bupivacaine and sufentanil on patients with low cardiac output who underwent lower limb surgery. Fifteen patients who had ejection fraction less than 40% (group 1) were compared with 65 cases with ejection fraction more than 40% (group 2) in our study. Our subjects underwent spinal block with 7.5 mg hyperbaric bupivacaine 0.5% and 5 µg sufentanil. ⋯ In our study none of subjects complained of pain intraoperatively. The subjects were without complaints during the spinal anesthetic in both groups. Spinal block with low dose local anesthetic and sufentanil was a safe and effective method for lower limb surgery in patients with low ejection fraction.
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Acta medica Iranica · Jan 2013
Effect of door-to-antibiotic time on mortality of patients with sepsis in emergency department: a prospective cohort study.
Sepsis constitutes an important cause of hospital admission with a high mortality rate. Appropriate antibiotic therapy is the cornerstone of therapy in patients with sepsis. Although numerous studies have recommended early antibiotic initiation in severe sepsis or septic shock stages of sepsis syndrome, its role in treatment of patients with sepsis who have not entered these stages remains to be investigated. ⋯ The mean door-to-antibiotic time for our patients was 104.4 minutes. Antibiotic administration time and mortality in patients with APACHE scores of 21 or higher (P=0.05) were significantly related; whereas such a relationship was not observed for patients with APACHE scores of 11- 20 (P=0.46). We observed early antibiotic initiation for patients in sepsis phase with higher severity scores was associated with significant improvement in survival rate.
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Acta medica Iranica · Jan 2013
Venous thromboembolism in medical critically ill patients: prevalence and incidence.
The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and incidence of venous thromboembolism among critically ill medical surgical patients. In this cross sectional and retrospective study, we observed 243 patients who were first admitted at the intensive care unit. Patients who were diagnosed with deep venous thrombosis or embolism either by clinical or paraclinical methods were enrolled. ⋯ Among 6 VTE cases 3 of them didn't receive any anticoagulant prophylaxis, 2 patients received LDUH 5000 unit twice a day and one patient received LMWH 60 mg daily but all developed VTE although receiving prophylaxis. We found that the prevalence of proximal lower limb DVT among medical-surgical critically ill patients remaining in the ICU for ≥3 days is about 9.4% and the incidence of that is about 5.2%. Further studies should be performed in order to assess the benefits and risks of venous thromboprophylaxis in Iranian patients.