Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Understanding the impact of overcrowding in pediatric emergency departments (PEDs) on quality of care is a growing concern. Boarding admitted patients in the PED and increasing emergency department (ED) visits are two potentially significant factors affecting quality of care. ⋯ ED boarding time and ED daily census show independent associations with increasing overall LOS, time to triage, time to physician, and number of patient elopements in a PED.
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Comparative Study
Direct comparison of the diagnostic accuracy of fifty protein biological markers of pulmonary embolism for use in the emergency department.
Pulmonary embolism (PE) is associated with abnormal concentrations of many proteins involved in inflammation, hemostasis, and vascular injury. The authors quantified the diagnostic accuracy of a battery of protein biological markers for the detection of PE in emergency department (ED) patients. ⋯ From 50 candidate biological markers, only D-dimer, CRP, and MPO demonstrated sufficient diagnostic accuracy to suggest potential utility as biological marker of PE.
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Multicenter Study
Interobserver agreement in assessment of clinical variables in children with blunt head trauma.
To be useful in development of clinical decision rules, clinical variables must demonstrate acceptable agreement when assessed by different observers. The objective was to determine the interobserver agreement in the assessment of historical and physical examination findings of children undergoing emergency department (ED) evaluation for blunt head trauma. ⋯ Both subjective and objective clinical variables in children with blunt head trauma can be assessed by different observers with acceptable agreement, making these variables suitable candidates for clinical decision rules.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Olanzapine versus droperidol for the treatment of primary headache in the emergency department.
The objective was to determine if there is a difference in pain relief or frequency and severity of side effects in emergency department (ED) patients with primary headache treated with either intramuscular (IM) olanzapine or IM droperidol. ⋯ Both olanzapine and droperidol are effective treatments for primary headaches in the ED. No significant differences were found between the medications in terms of pain relief, antiemetic effect, or akathisia. Olanzapine may be used to treat primary headache and it is an effective alternative to droperidol.