Articles: emergency-department.
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Review Meta Analysis
The Diagnosis of Acute Mesenteric Ischemia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
Acute mesenteric ischemia is an infrequent cause of abdominal pain in emergency department (ED) patients; however, mortality for this condition is high. Rapid diagnosis and surgery are key to survival, but presenting signs are often vague or variable, and there is no pathognomonic laboratory screening test. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the available literature was performed to determine diagnostic test characteristics of patient symptoms, objective signs, laboratory studies, and diagnostic modalities to help rule in or out the diagnosis of acute mesenteric ischemia in the ED. ⋯ The quality of the overall literature base for mesenteric ischemia is varied. Signs, symptoms, and laboratory testing are insufficiently diagnostic for the condition. Only CT angiography had adequate accuracy to establish the diagnosis of acute mesenteric ischemia in lieu of laparotomy.
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Review Meta Analysis
Pulmonary embolism rule-out criteria (PERC) in pulmonary embolism--revisited: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
To perform a systematic review and meta-analysis including all the current studies to assess the accuracy of pulmonary embolism rule-out criteria (PERC) in ruling out pulmonary embolism (PE). ⋯ Because of the high sensitivity and low negative likelihood ratio, PERC rule can be used confidently in clinically low probability population settings.