Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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To establish the prevalence of previously undiagnosed dyslipidaemia in patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with non-traumatic chest pain and, more particularly, the prevalence in the subgroup which was discharged home from the ED, the group that traditionally would not have received a lipid test. ⋯ A moderate, but useful, increase in detection rates of dyslipidaemia is possible if lipid testing is offered to all patients presenting with chest pain, and not just to those who are admitted to wards for further investigation and management of suspected acute coronary syndromes. Testing of this group should be considered as a health promotion initiative in the ED, with appropriate follow up in the community.
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Case Reports
Case of the month: rivastigmine (Exelon) toxicity with evidence of respiratory depression.
Rivastigmine, which has been approved by the US Food and Drugs Administration for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, is a non-competitive reversible inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase. We present a case of rivastigmine toxicity at a dose of 90 mg, with evidence of respiratory depression. To our knowledge, this case report provides evidence of the highest rivastigmine ingestion recorded (90 mg) that caused respiratory depression but requiring only supportive intervention without the need for ralidoxime. Emergency physicians should strongly consider cholinesterase inhibitor (rivastigmine, galantamine, and tacrine) ingestion in patients who present with short and temporary organophosphate-like toxidromes.
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Vehicle accidents in Greece are among the leading causes of death and the primary one in young people. The mechanism of injury influences the patterns of injury in victims of vehicle accidents. ⋯ The results reveal a clear association between different road-user categories and age and sex incidence patterns, as well as outcomes and injury profiles. Recognition of these features would be useful in designing effective prevention strategies and in comprehensive prehospital and inhospital treatment of motor-vehicle trauma patients.