The American journal of emergency medicine
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
A prospective comparison of 3 scoring systems in upper gastrointestinal bleeding.
The clinical severities of upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) are of a wide variety, ranging from insignificant bleeds to fatal outcomes. Several scoring systems have been designed to identify UGIB high- and low-risk patients. The aim of our study was to compare the Glasgow-Blatchford score (GBS) with the preendoscopic Rockall score (PRS) and the complete Rockall score (CRS) in their utilities in predicting clinical outcomes in patients with UGIB. ⋯ In detecting high-risk patients with acute UGIB, GBS may be a useful risk stratification tool. However, none of the 3 score systems has good performance in predicting rebleeding and 30-day mortality because of low AUCs.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Differentiation of exudate from transudate ascites based on the dipstick values of protein, glucose, and pH.
The aim of present study was to determine the reliability of the dipstick values (protein, glucose, and pH) for differentiation of exudate from transudate ascites in comparison with the serum-ascites albumin gradient as criterion standard. A total of 100 patients with ascites (58 males and 42 females; mean age, 55.6 ± 16.1 years) were studied for the different causes of ascites. Peripheral blood samples were obtained, and at the same time, the patients underwent paracentesis. ⋯ The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of dipstick equation to diagnose ascites as transudate and exudate were 93.8%, 94.4%, 96.8%, and 89.5%, respectively, and 94.4%, 93.9%, 89.5%, and 96.9%, respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.915 (95% confidence interval, 0.848-0.982; P < .001). We concluded that the dipstick can be an inexpensive, rapid, and simple option for categorizing ascites into transudate and exudate and can be used routinely for this purpose in clinical practice.
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Despite national concern about homeless veterans, there has been little examination of their use of emergency department (ED) services. This study examines factors related to the use of ED services in the Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare system, where insurance is not a barrier to ambulatory healthcare. National VA administrative data from fiscal year 2010 are used to describe the proportions of ED users among homeless and domiciled VA patients. ⋯ Among homeless VA patients, those who used EDs were more likely to have a range of psychiatric and medical conditions, and had more service visits and psychotropic medication prescriptions than non-ED users. Multivariate analyses suggest their risk for psychiatric and medical conditions increase their likelihood of using ED services. The high rate of ED use among homeless veterans is associated with significant morbidity, but also greater use of ambulatory care and psychotropics suggesting their ED use may reflect unmet psychosocial needs.
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Atrial fibrillation (AF) is often first detected in the emergency department (ED). Not all AF patients progress to sustained AF (ie, episodes lasting >7 days), which is associated with increased morbidity. The HATCH score stratifies patients with paroxysmal AF according to their risk for progression to sustained AF within 1 year. The HATCH score has previously never been tested in ED patients. We evaluated the accuracy of the HATCH score to predict progression to sustained AF within 1 year of initial AF diagnosis in the ED. ⋯ Among ED patients with new onset AF, the HATCH score was a modest predictor of progression to sustained AF. Because only 2 patients had a HATCH greater than 5, this previously recommended cut-point was not useful in identifying high-risk patients in this cohort. Refinement of this decision aid is needed to improve its prognostic accuracy in the ED population.
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Emergency department (ED) cardioversion and discharge of atrial fibrillation (AF) is an evolving treatment. Emergency department cardioversion patients have few comorbidities, and their discharge directly from the ED leads to a sicker in-patient population of AF patients. This study examines whether the quality care markers, hospital charges (HC) and length of stay (LOS), negatively reflect the practice of ED cardioversion. ⋯ Emergency department cardioversion selects out a less sick cohort of patients whose removal from a hospital's admission numbers negatively skews quality performance profiles.