Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Objective screening tool for patients at a high risk of developing acute brain injury (ABI) is necessary for the proper treatment of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning patients. The aim of this study is to identify clinical factors that could predict ABI due to CO poisoning in patients with an altered mental status. ⋯ In CO poisoning patients with an altered mental status, CO exposure duration was useful for predicting ABI, which may help clinicians or paramedics identify high-risk patients and provide treatment on priority.
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For a variety of reasons including cheap computing, widespread adoption of electronic medical records, digitalization of imaging and biosignals, and rapid development of novel technologies, the amount of health care data being collected, recorded, and stored is increasing at an exponential rate. Yet despite these advances, methods for the valid, efficient, and ethical utilization of these data remain underdeveloped. ⋯ These recommendations included: 1) developing methods for cross-platform identification and linkage of patients; 2) creating central, deidentified, open-access databases; 3) improving methodologies for visualization and analysis of intensively sampled data; 4) developing methods to identify and standardize electronic medical record data quality; 5) improving and utilizing natural language processing; 6) developing and utilizing syndrome or complaint-based based taxonomies of disease; 7) developing practical and ethical framework to leverage electronic systems for controlled trials; 8) exploring technologies to help enable clinical trials in the emergency setting; and 9) training emergency care clinicians in data science and data scientists in emergency care medicine. The background, rationale, and conclusions of these recommendations are included in the present article.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The HEART Pathway Randomized Controlled Trial One-year Outcomes.
The objective was to determine the impact of the HEART Pathway on health care utilization and safety outcomes at 1 year in patients with acute chest pain. ⋯ The HEART Pathway had a 100% NPV for 1-year safety outcomes (MACE) without increasing downstream hospitalizations or ED visits. Reduction in 1-year objective testing was not significant.
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Review Meta Analysis
Ultrasound-assisted Lumbar Punctures: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Lumbar punctures (LPs) are a common procedure in emergency medicine. However, studies have found that failed procedure rates can be as high as 50%. Ultrasound has been suggested to improve success rates by visually identifying the location and trajectory for the LP procedure. This systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to determine whether the use of ultrasound improved the rate of successful LP performance. ⋯ Ultrasound-assisted LPs were associated with higher success rates, fewer traumatic LPs, shorter time to successful LP, fewer needle passes, and lower patient pain scores. Ultrasound should be considered prior to performing all LPs, especially in patients with difficult anatomy. Further studies are recommended to determine whether this effect is consistent in both adult and pediatric subgroups, as well as the impact of transducer type and body habitus on this technique.