Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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To appraise the evidence on the diagnostic accuracy of CT pulmonary angiography and the prognostic value of a negative CT pulmonary angiogram in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism. ⋯ Diagnostic studies give conflicting results for the diagnostic accuracy of CT pulmonary angiography. Follow up studies show that CT pulmonary angiography can be used in combination with investigation for deep vein thrombosis to exclude pulmonary embolism.
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A short cut review was carried out to establish whether intransasal naloxone is effective in suspected opiate overdose. 596 papers were screened, of which eight presented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these best papers are tabulated. The clinical bottom line is that it is likely that intranasal Naloxone is a safe and effective first line prehospital intervention in reversing the effects of an Opioid overdose and helping to reduce the risk of needle stick injury. A large, well conducted trial into it's usage is however required to confirm this.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Use of a prophylactic antiemetic with morphine in acute pain: randomised controlled trial.
The aim of this study was to compare the incidence of nausea and vomiting in patients with acute pain treated with morphine along with prophylactic metoclopramide or placebo. ⋯ When intravenous morphine is administered for acute pain, the overall incidence of nausea and vomiting is low, regardless of whether these patients are given prophylactic metoclopramide or not.
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Acute dissection of the aorta can be one of the most dramatic cardiovascular emergencies. Classically, aortic dissection presents as sudden, severe chest, back, or abdominal pain that is characterised as ripping or tearing in nature. However, a timely diagnosis can be elusive in the event of an atypical presentation. In this report, the authors present two patients with painless aortic dissection who were misdiagnosed during their initial evaluation in the emergency department.
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Lactic acidosis portends a poor prognosis in trauma, sepsis, and other shock states and is useful for triaging and resuscitating emergency department (ED) patients. The authors sought to determine whether the AG is a reliable screen for lactic acidosis when applied specifically in the ED setting. ⋯ The traditional definition of AG >12 was insensitive for the presence of lactic acidosis. Using the revised AG of >6 is more sensitive but non-specific for lactic acidosis. The authors conclude that employing the AG as a screen for LA may be inappropriate in ED patients. Instead, they recommend ordering a serum lactate immediately upon suspicion of a shock state. A prospective study to confirm these findings is needed.