Annals of emergency medicine
-
Multicenter Study
A multicenter evaluation of the ABCD2 score's accuracy for predicting early ischemic stroke in admitted patients with transient ischemic attack.
We evaluate, in admitted patients with transient ischemic attack, the accuracy of the ABCD(2) (age [A], blood pressure [B], clinical features [weakness/speech disturbance] [C], transient ischemic attack duration [D], and diabetes history [D]) score in predicting ischemic stroke within 7 days. ⋯ Our analysis suggests the best application of the ABCD(2) score may be to identify patients at low risk for an early disabling ischemic stroke. Further study of the ability to determine an ABCD(2) score in all patients is needed, along with validation in a large, consecutive population of patients with transient ischemic attack.
-
Multicenter Study
A simple quantitative bedside test to determine methemoglobin.
Methemoglobinemia after pesticide poisoning is associated with a mortality of 12% in Sri Lanka. Treatment is complicated by the lack of laboratory facilities. We aimed to develop and validate a low-cost bedside test for quantitative estimation of clinically significant methemoglobin to be used in settings of limited resources. ⋯ A color chart can be used to give a clinically useful quantitative estimate of methemoglobinemia.