The American journal of emergency medicine
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Comment Letter
Glucagon for refractory asthma exacerbation: Friend or foe?
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To calculate the emergency department (ED)-level Escherichia coli percentage of isolates susceptible to commonly used antibiotics and to determine the risk factors associated with inadequate empiric antibiotic therapy among patients treated for urinary tract infections (UTIs) in our ED. ⋯ Development of ED-level antimicrobial susceptibility data and consideration of patients' clinical characteristics can help better guide selection of empiric antibiotic therapy for the treatment of UTIs.
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Chest decompression can be performed by different techniques, like needle thoracocentesis (NT), lateral thoracostomy (LT), or tube thoracostomy (TT). The aim of this study was to report the incidence of prehospital chest decompression and to analyse the effectiveness of these techniques. ⋯ Prehospital NT or TT is infrequently attempted in trauma patients. Especially NT is associated with a high failure rate of more than 80%, potentially due to an inadequate ratio between chest wall thickness and catheter length as previously published as well as a possible different pathophysiological cause of respiratory distress. Therefore, TT may be considered already in the prehospital setting to retain sufficient pleural decompression upon admission.
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To investigate the difference in pentraxin 3 (PTX 3) levels between patients with pulmonary contusion and healthy volunteers. ⋯ PTX 3 levels in pulmonary contusion increased significantly compared to the healthy control group. If supported by wider series, PTX 3 may be expected to be capable of use as a marker in pulmonary contusion.