The American journal of emergency medicine
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A 57-year-old male former smoker presented to the Emergency Department (ED) with blurry vision, headache, and generalized weakness. He was hypoxic on room air and ECG showed sinus tachycardia. A CT pulmonary angiogram was ordered in the ED and revealed no pulmonary embolism but incidentally noted a likely significant stenosis in the proximal LAD. ⋯ Unlike coronary CTA, CTPA is performed with non-ECG gated helical scanning and generates motion artifacts associated with myocardial contraction. However, the timing of vascular contrast opacification during CTPA often allows for at least partial evaluation of the coronary arteries, especially ostial and proximal segments. Physicians ordering and evaluating noncardiac-focused CT chest studies, particularly in the ED, should remain cognizant of the radiographic appearance of underlying CAD, particularly life-threatening incidental coronary pathologies to allow for timely management and intervention.
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Many patients transported by emergency medical services (EMS) may require advanced cardiac care but do not have ST-segment elevation (STEMI) on the initial prehospital EKG. We sought to identify factors associated with the need for advanced cardiac care in undifferentiated EMS patients reporting chest pain in the absence of STEMI on EKG. ⋯ We have identified several factors that could be considered when risk stratifying prehospital patients reporting chest pain. While potentially predictive, the factors are broad and support the need for other objective factors that could augment prediction of patients who may benefit from early advanced cardiac care.
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Complications from influenza have been documented in the literature, but this patient case represents a rare and potentially deadly result in an otherwise healthy adult. Providers in the emergency department should be vigilant when assessing patients with influenza symptoms and monitoring those that don't always present with common symptoms and complaints. This patient's cerebral edema and tonsillar herniation was life-threatening and was caused from the influenza B virus.
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Patients who experience trauma with severe hemorrhage requiring immediate surgery and massive blood transfusion often present with markedly abnormal laboratory values. These cases require valuable resources; however, little is known regarding prognostic factors that correlate with mortality. The purpose of this study was to determine whether abnormal initial arterial blood gas (ABG) pH, a marker for severe blood loss, could serve as a prognostic indicator for these patients. ⋯ Consideration should be given to initial pH values when resuscitating "red blanket" patients. However, the pH values alone cannot reliably be used to determine clinical futility in individual patients in the early period after injury.
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A multidisciplinary team at a major academic medical center established an Acutely Decompensated Heart Failure Clinical Pathway (ADHFCP) program to reduce inpatient readmission rates among patients with heart failure which, among several interventions, included an immediate consultation from a cardiologist familiar with an ADHFCP patient when the patient presented at the Emergency Department (ED). This study analyzed how that program impacted utilization of services in the ED and its subsequent effect on rates of admission from the ED and on disposition times. ⋯ Improved communication between cardiologists and ED physicians through the establishment of an explicit pathway to coordinate the care of heart failure patients may decrease that population's likelihood of admission without increasing ED disposition times.