Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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A short cut review was carried out to establish whether anticoagulation is indicated after emergency department cardioversion of a patient with acute onset atrial fibrillation. 243 papers were found using the reported search, of which none presented any evidence to answer the clinical question. It is concluded that there is no evidence available to answer this question. Further research is needed.
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Handheld ultrasound, because of its light weight, size, rugged design, and relative simplicity of use is ideal for use on operational military deployment. These machines have been used in the diagnosis of a range of traumatic conditions including abdominal, thoracic, and extremity trauma in the hospital environment, yet few data exist on their use during military operations. This paper presents experience of handheld focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST) on operational military deployment. ⋯ Handheld FAST is a valuable technique for investigating abdominal or thoracic bleeding in single or multiple casualty events on operational military deployment.
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Comparative Study
Agreement between an arterial blood gas analyser and a venous blood analyser in the measurement of potassium in patients in cardiac arrest.
Rapid measurement of potassium is crucial in the resuscitation of patients in cardiac arrest. This is often done on an arterial blood gas sample taken during resuscitation and analysed in an emergency department based blood gas analyser. No-one has assessed how accurate or reliable this is when compared with the traditional method of sending a venous sample to the laboratory for standard analysis. This study looked at the agreement between potassium measurements in arterial blood gas samples and venous blood samples in patients in cardiac arrest. ⋯ Based on these results, it is advised that arterial blood gas analysers should be used with caution to measure potassium in patients in cardiac arrest.