Articles: emergency-department.
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Pediatric emergency care · Sep 2023
Observational StudyPediatric Croup Due to Omicron Infection Is More Severe Than Non-COVID Croup.
Croup due to infection with the omicron variant of COVID is an emerging clinical entity, but distinguishing features of omicron croup have not yet been characterized. We designed a study to compare the clinical features of croup patients presenting to the pediatric emergency department pre-COVID pandemic with COVID-positive croup patients who presented during the initial omicron surge. ⋯ Pediatric patients with omicron croup develop more severe disease than do children with classic croup. They are more likely to require additional emergency department treatments and hospital admission than patients with croup before the COVID pandemic.
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Assessment of E/A ratio helps emergency clinicians in the management of patients with acute dyspnea.
Acute dyspnea (AD) is one of the main reasons for admission to the Emergency Department (ED). In the last years integrated ultrasound examination (IUE) of lung, heart and inferior vena cava (IVC) has become an extension of clinical examination for a fast differential diagnosis. The aim of present study is to assess the feasibility and diagnostic accuracy of E/A ratio for diagnosing acute heart failure (aHF) in patients with acute dyspnea. ⋯ However, the highest accuracy was obtained by diastolic function parameters. The E/A ratio showed the highest diagnostic performance with an AUC for aHF of 0.93. In patients presenting with AD, E/A ratio is easy to obtain in a fast ultrasound protocol and showed an excellent accuracy for diagnosis of aHF.
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Transcutaneous carbon dioxide (Ptcco2) measurement is a non-invasive surrogate marker for arterial carbon dioxide (Paco2), which requires invasive arterial blood sampling. Use of Ptcco2 has been examined in different clinical settings, however, most existing evidence in the adult emergency department (ED) setting shows insufficient agreement between the measurements. This study assessed the level of agreement between Ptcco2 and Paco2 in undifferentiated adult ED patients across multiple timepoints. ⋯ The level of agreement between Ptcco2 and Paco2 measurements may not be sufficiently precise for the adoption of Ptcco2 monitoring in patients presenting to the ED.
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Emergency department patient boarding is associated with hospital mortality and increased hospital length of stay. The objective of the present study is to describe the impact of deploying an Intensive Care team in the ED and its association with sepsis mortality and ICU length of stay. Patients admitted to ICU through the ED with an ICD-10 CM diagnosis of sepsis were included. ⋯ Septic shock and ED boarding time were associated with prolonged ICU LOS. Compliance with SEP-1 bundle was associated with its reduction. Implementation of an ICU team in the ED for the treatment of septic patients during high volume hospitalizations is not associated with a reduction of mortality or ICU LOS.