Articles: emergency-department.
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To determine the diagnostic accuracy of copeptin in patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and its correlation with obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) on coronary CT angiography (CTA). ⋯ Copeptin seems to be elevated in patients with ACS while there is no strong correlation with obstructive coronary disease on CTA.
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Pediatric emergency care · Nov 2013
Case ReportsThyrotoxicosis after a massive levothyroxine ingestion in a 3-year-old patient.
Most children with exploratory levothyroxine ingestions remain asymptomatic or suffer only minor effects, and most patients can be managed in the home or with supportive care in the hospital. We present a case of a 3-year-old girl who was found after a witnessed massive ingestion of levothyroxine. The patient was initially seen in an emergency department and discharged in stable condition, only to return 4 days after ingestion with thyrotoxicosis, hypertension, tachycardia, 24 hours of persistent vomiting, and clinical and laboratory evidence of dehydration. ⋯ The patient was followed up until 2 months after ingestion and remained asymptomatic. Although most exploratory levothyroxine ingestions suffer little to no clinical effects, serious symptoms can occur. Because serious symptoms can occur in a delayed fashion, it is important for clinicians to give proper anticipatory guidance regarding home symptom monitoring, follow-up, and reasons to return to the emergency department when patients present for medical evaluation.
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Pediatric patients, who accounted for 17.4% of US emergency department (ED) visits in 2010, present unique challenges that can impede an ED's ability to provide optimal care. To meet the growing demand for comprehensive, high-quality care, health care systems are incorporating quality improvement (QI) methods to reduce costs and variations in care and to improve access, safety, and ultimately the outcomes of medical care. This overview of QI initiatives within the field of pediatric emergency medicine explores how proven QI strategies are being integrated into efforts that target the care of children within the broader emergency care community. ⋯ Professional societies supporting education, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, have made several strides to cultivate new health leaders that will use QI methodology to improve outcomes in pediatric emergency care. In addition to educational pursuits, professional societies and QI organizations (eg, Children's Hospital Association) offer stable infrastructures from which QI initiatives, either disease specific or broadly targeted, can be implemented as large-scale QI initiatives (eg, quality collaboratives). This overview also provides examples of how QI methodology has been integrated into research strategies and describes how the pediatric emergency medicine community can spread innovation and best practices into the larger emergency care community.
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Cardiac arrest is a common presentation to the emergency care system. The decision to terminate CPR is often challenging to heath care providers. An accurate, early predictor of the outcome of resuscitation is needed. The purpose of this systematic review is to evaluate the prognostic value of ETCO2 during cardiac arrest and to explore whether ETCO2 values could be utilised as a tool to predict the outcome of resuscitation. ⋯ ETCO2 values during CPR do correlate with the likelihood of ROSC and survival and therefore have prognostic value. Although certain ETCO2 cut-off values appears to be a strong predictor of mortality, the utility of ETCO2 cut-off values during CPR to accurately predict the outcome of resuscitation is not fully established. Therefore, ETCO2 values cannot be used as a mortality predictor in isolation.