The American journal of emergency medicine
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Obesity is a well-known risk factor in various health conditions. We analyzed the association between obesity and clinical outcomes, and its effect on targeted temperature management (TTM) practice for cardiac arrest survivors by calculating and classifying their body mass indexes (BMIs). ⋯ Overweight BMI compared to normal BMI classification was found to be associated with lower six-month mortality and poor neurologic outcome at discharge in cardiac arrest survivors treated with TTM. Higher BMI correlated with a slower induction rate.
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To construct an artificial neural network (ANN) model that can predict the presence of acute CT findings with both high sensitivity and high specificity when applied to the population of patients≥age 65years who have incurred minor head injury after a fall. ⋯ ANNs show great potential for predicting CT findings in the population of patients ≥ 65 years of age presenting with minor head injury after a fall. As a good first step, the ANN showed comparable sensitivity, predictive values, and accuracy, with a much higher specificity than the existing decision rules in clinical usage for predicting head CTs with acute intracranial findings.
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Assess the impact of scribes on an academic emergency department's (ED) throughput one year after implementation. ⋯ Overall patient throughput was not enhanced by scribes. Certain areas and staffing combinations yielded improvements in treatment room and door to provider time, however, scribes appear to have enabled attending physicians to see more patients per hour. This effect varied across treatment areas and times of day.
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Blunt traumatic diaphragmatic injury (BTDI) is an uncommon injury and one which is difficult to diagnose. The objective of this study was to identify features associated with this injury. ⋯ BTDI is infrequent following blunt trauma. Hollow viscus injuries were more predictive of BTDI than skeletal or solid organ injuries.
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The Rapid Emergency Medicine Score (REMS) was developed to predict emergency department patient mortality. Our objective was to utilize REMS to assess initial patient acuity and evaluate clinical change during prehospital care. ⋯ Descriptive analyses indicate that as dispatch and transport priorities increased in severity so too did initial REMS. The largest change in REMS was seen in patients with the highest dispatch and transport priorities. This indicates that REMS may provide system level insight into evaluating clinical changes during care.