Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Beneficial effects of albuterol therapy driven by heliox versus by oxygen in severe asthma exacerbation.
To determine and define the beneficial effects of heliox-driven albuterol therapy on severe asthma exacerbation and clinical factors that affect greater response. ⋯ Heliox-driven albuterol may be a useful adjunct therapy for older asthmatic patients with severe asthma exacerbation.
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Comparative Study
The accuracy and completeness of data collected by prospective and retrospective methods.
To describe and test a model that compares the accuracy of data gathered prospectively versus retrospectively among adult emergency department patients admitted with chest pain. ⋯ Information obtained retrospectively from the abstraction of medical records is measurably less accurate than information obtained prospectively from research subjects. For certain items, more than half of the information is not available. This loss of information is related to the data types included in the study and by the assumptions that a researcher performing a retrospective study makes about implied versus explicitly stated responses. A model of information flow that incorporates the concepts of reliability and validity can be used to measure some of the loss of information that occurs at each step along the way from subject to clinician to medical record abstractor.
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To assess emergency physician reporting patterns in Oregon before and after the passage of a mandatory intoxicated driving reporting law. ⋯ Although 44% of responding emergency physicians in Oregon were unaware of a mandated reporting law for intoxicated drivers presenting to the ED, most physicians stated an increase in their reporting practice.
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Acute decompensated heart failure (adHF) is the cause of approximately 1 million annual hospital admissions. In some of these, the use of a short-stay emergency department observation unit (EDOU) decreases 90-day ED revisits and 90-day rehospitalizations and, if subsequent hospitalization is required, results in shorter stays. ⋯ These results demonstrate that a BUN level >30 mg/dL is associated with an increased likelihood of admission in patients with adHF. This provides the emergency physician with a practical prognostic tool for disposition planning in congestive heart failure patients.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Human patient simulation is effective for teaching paramedic students endotracheal intubation.
The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether the endotracheal intubation (ETI) success rate is different among paramedic students trained on a human patient simulator versus on human subjects in the operating room (OR). ⋯ When tested in the OR, paramedic students who were trained in ETI on a simulator are as effective as students who trained on human subjects. The results support using simulators to teach ETI.