The American journal of emergency medicine
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Comparative Study Observational Study
Physicians' understanding of CT probabilities in ED patients with acute abdominal pain.
Computerized tomography (CT) is often employed to diagnose or rule out certain suspected abdominal pathologies. The aim of this study is to compare emergency physicians' estimated post-test disease probabilities to the probabilities obtained for similar diagnostic tests as reported in the literature. ⋯ When applying the probability theory of disease, physicians tend to overestimate the power of CT scanning. The difference in physician and actual post-test probabilities may be small or not clinically significant in diseases with good positive and negative likelihood ratios such as in diverticulitis; however, this difference may be large and clinically significant in diseases with poor likelihood ratios such as in post-op abscess.
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Chest pain and shortness of breath are chief complaints frequently evaluated in the emergency department. ACS, pulmonary embolism, and disorders involving the lung parenchyma are some of the disease processes commonly screened for. ⋯ We present the case of a young patient who presented with chest pain and dyspnea with ECG changes and history concerning for pulmonary embolism who was ultimately diagnosed with idiopathic primary pulmonary hypertension. The importance of a prompt diagnosis of this condition along with emergency department management of complications related to the disease is discussed in this report.
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Review Case Reports
Atypical presentation of gangrenous cholecystitis: A case series.
Gangrenous cholecystitis (GC) is a serious complication of acute cholecystitis that has been associated with increased morbidity. Patient with GC can present with a wide variety of non-specific clinical, laboratory, and imaging characteristics, making the diagnosis challenging. This disease requires emergent treatment, which is why a quick and reliable diagnosis is essential for the wellbeing of the patient. The authors herein present a case of GC in a patient whose initial complaint was intractable hiccups, and provide a thorough review of the literature of cases of GC with atypical presentations.
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Emergency Department crowding is an increasing problem, leading to treatment delays and higher risk of mortality. Our institution recently implemented a telemedicine physician intake ("tele-intake") process as a mitigating front-end strategy. Previous studies have focused on ED throughput metrics such as door to disposition; our work aimed to specifically assess the tele-intake model for clinical accuracy. ⋯ This novel analysis of an innovative patient care model suggests that the benefits of tele-intake as a replacement for in-person physician directed intake are not at the cost of over or under utilization of diagnostic testing or interventions.