The American journal of emergency medicine
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Many rapid d-dimer assays are commercially available with wide ranges of reported sensitivities, often based on small sample sizes. This has limited their intended use as rapid and inexpensive tests to evaluate pulmonary embolism in the low-risk patient. We sought to determine the sensitivity of the STA-Liatest D-Di d-dimer assay in our ED. ⋯ Using the exact method, the sensitivity of this assay was calculated to be 100% with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 91.4% to 100%. Our results suggest that the STA-Liatest D-Di d-dimer assay could have an adequate sensitivity to be used to rule out pulmonary embolism in low-risk patients. Further prospective studies with larger sample sizes are required to validate this observation.
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Letter Case Reports
Multiple organ dysfunction syndrome associated with Salmonella typhi infection.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study Clinical Trial
The influence of urban, suburban, or rural locale on survival from refractory prehospital cardiac arrest.
There are many variables that can have an effect on survival in cardiopulmonary arrest. This study examined the effect of urban, suburban, or rural location on the outcome of prehospital cardiac arrest as a secondary end point in a study evaluating the effect of bicarbonate on survival. The proportion of survivors within a type of EMS provider system as well as response times were compared. ⋯ There was no difference in time to bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but medical response time (basic life support) was decreased for suburban or urban sites, and intervention (ACLS) and transport times were decreased for suburban sites alone. Although response times were differentiated by location, they were not necessarily predictive of survival. Factors other than response time such as patient population or resuscitation skill could influence survival from cardiac arrest occurring in diverse prehospital service areas.
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A large amount of EM information can be found on the Internet, but the accuracy of this information has not been determined. This study compares the "gold standards" of EM information on four common emergencies with top healthcare web sites. The study also examines the relationship of web sites' credentials and certification on content. ⋯ Despite recent efforts to improve web site content through certification, few web sites contained a significant amount of EM information on all four topics investigated. In fact, some of the information provided on these health information web sites has the potential to be dangerous. Thus, most web sites are not good sources of reference for the public to find out what to do in the case of a medical emergency.