Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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More than 10% of the population visit emergency departments (ED) every year. Many of these patients are not up-to-date on routine vaccinations that could prevent future illnesses. The ED could significantly impact these vaccination trends. ⋯ An ED-based vaccination program is both feasible and successful. Other than a shortage of vaccine, the only ED barrier to vaccination (perceived need) might be overcome with patient education.
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Editorial Comment
Narrowing in on JCAHO recommendations for community-acquired pneumonia.
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Comparative Study
Electrocardiogram differentiation of benign early repolarization versus acute myocardial infarction by emergency physicians and cardiologists.
ST-segment elevation (STE) related to benign early repolarization (BER), a common normal variant, can be difficult to distinguish from acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The authors compared the electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretations of these two entities by emergency physicians (EPs) and cardiologists. ⋯ Although correct interpretation was high in both groups, cardiologists, who had significantly more years of practice, had fewer misinterpretations than EPs in distinguishing BER from AMI electrocardiographically.
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Comparative Study
A comparison of five simplified scales to the out-of-hospital Glasgow Coma Scale for the prediction of traumatic brain injury outcomes.
The 15-point Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) frequently is used in the initial evaluation of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in out-of-hospital settings. We hypothesized that the GCS might be unnecessarily complex for out-of-hospital use. ⋯ In the evaluation of injured patients, five simplified neurological scales approached the performance of the total GCS score for the prediction of four clinically relevant TBI outcomes.