Clinical and Experimental Emergency Medicine最新文献

Introduction: Staffing significantly influences ED throughput, however there is a shortage of Registered Nurses (RNs), impacting ED flow and crowding. Non-RN providers, like Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), could potentially assist with tasks traditionally assigned to RNs. To improve the front-end ED process, we implemented an Attending Physician-Licensed Practical Nurse Team (PNT) positioned next to triage and utilized existing ED hallway space.

Methods: This study took place at a tertiary care ED with over 110,000 annual visits. We compared postintervention (Post-PNT) data (11/1/22-2/28/23) to pre-intervention (Pre-PNT) data (7/31/22-10/31/22). The PNT, positioned adjacent to triage, expedited care for ED patients awaiting open rooms. They selected patients from the waiting room to bypass the Main ED, evaluated them in a private room, and then moved them to the hallway pending further care. Multivariable Regression Analysis was utilized to measure the impact of different factors on ED Length of Stay (LOS).

Results: We analyzed 23516 patient visits, 10288 in the Pre-PNT period and 13288 in the Post-PNT period. Post-PNT consisted of 2454 PNT visits and 10834 non-PNT visits. The intervention led to significant improvements, including a decrease in mean ED LOS from 492 to 425 minutes, decrease in 72-hour revisits from 5.1% to 4.0%, decrease in Left Without Being Seen from 6.7% to 3.3%, and decrease in mean Arrival-to-Provider time from 74 minutes to 60 minutes. Multivariable Regression Analysis showed that ED LOS was significantly lower for Post-PNT patients than Pre-PNT.

Conclusion: By leveraging the scope of LPNs and utilizing existing ED space, the PNT model successfully reduced front-end bottlenecks, leading to improved throughput, revisit rate, and LWBS rate.

Objective: To evaluate the current body of literature pertaining to the use of ocular point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in the emergency department.

Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted on SCOPUS, Web of Science, MEDLINE, and Cochrane CENTRAL. Inclusion criteria included studies written in English only and primary clinical studies involving ocular POCUS scans in an emergency department setting. Exclusion criteria included non-primary studies (e.g. reviews or case reports), studies written in a non-English language, non-human studies, studies performed in a non-emergency setting, studies involving non-POCUS ocular ultrasound modalities, or studies published outside of the last decade. Data extraction was guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) recommendations.

Results: The initial search yielded 391 results with 153 duplicates. Of the remaining 238 studies selected for retrieval and screening, 24 met inclusion criteria. These 24 included studies encompassed 2448 patients across prospective, retrospective, cross sectional, and case series study designs. We found that a majority of included studies focus on the use of POCUS in the emergency department to measure ONSD as a proxy for papilledema and metabolic aberrations, while a minority use ocular POCUS to assist in the diagnosis of orbital fractures or posterior segment pathology.

Conclusion: The vast majority of articles investigating the use of ocular POCUS in recent years emphasize its utility in measuring ONSD and fluctuations in intracranial pressure, though additional outcomes of interest include posterior segment, orbit, and globe pathology.

Background: Chest pain, a common emergency department 35 (ED) presentation, requires rapid evaluation. Optical technology-based non-invasive wearable devices (Infrasensor, RCE, Carlsbad, CA) rapidly and transcutaneously assesses cardiac Troponin I (cTnI).

Objectives: To perform a pilot study describing the performance of the Infrasensor in cTnI defined cohorts.

Methods: This was a 10-hospital prospective observational study in healthy US subjects with a normal cTnI, and in patients with an elevated local cTnI. Healthy subjects were without disease, defined by a negative questionnaire and bloodwork, had a 3-minute Infrasensor measurement and blood samples for high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (hs-cTnI), n-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NTproBNP), creatinine, and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c). Elevated cTnI's patients had the same Infrasensor and blood sample measurements. Using a cross validation technique, a cTnI based binary classification model that did, and did not, include age was trained with 80%, and validated on 20% (n=168; elevated hs-cTnI equally distributed across 5 folds) of the overall cohort.

Results: Of 840 patients, 727 (87.5%) were non-elevated cTnI controls and the remainder, n=113, had elevated cTnI. Median (25th, 75th percentiles) age was 61 (52, 71) and 48 (32, 57) years for the elevated and healthy control cohorts, respectively. Overall, 50.5% were female, with 29.2% and 52.7% in the elevated and non-elevated troponin cohorts respectively. Overall, the sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predictive values of the Infrasensor for identifying an elevated cTnI were 0.9, 0.7, 0.98 and 0.48 respectively, with a C-statistic of 0.90 (0.89-0.99).

Conclusions: The Infrasensor identifies elevated cTnI within 3 minutes of application.

Introduction: Tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) is an echocardiographic parameter that serves as a prognostic indicator for severity of COPD clinical course. This study, consisting of a systematic review and meta-analysis, evaluates the current literature to elucidate the relationship between TAPSE measurement in COPD patients versus control subjects to discern baseline evidence of right heart strain.

Methods: PubMedTM, ScopusTM, CINAHL, Web of Science, and Cochrane Review databases were searched from their beginning through November 1, 2023, for eligible studies. Outcomes included the difference of TAPSE measurement and right ventricular wall thickness between COPD patients and control patients. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was applied to assess risk of bias; Q-statistics and I2 values were used to assess for heterogeneity; and Egger's and Begg's test used to assess for publication bias.

Results: The search yielded eleven studies reporting TAPSE values involving 1671 patients, 800 (47.9%) patients with COPD. The unadjusted mean TAPSE values for COPD patients was 18.9 mm (SD+/- 4), while the mean TAPSE value for control patients was 22.2 mm (SD+/- 0.8). The presence of COPD was significantly associated with decreased TAPSE values with the meta-analysis reporting the mean difference of TAPSE value between COPD and control patients was -3.0 (95% CI -4.3 to -1.7, P=0.001). Six studies reported the RV free wall thickness. The unadjusted mean RV free wall thickness for COPD patients was 4.9 mm (SD+/- 1.2), and control patients was 3.4 mm (SD+/- 0.7), respectively.

Conclusions: This meta-analysis demonstrated statistically-significantly lower TAPSE values and thicker RV free wall among COPD patients versus control patients.

In a prehospital setting, the narrow therapeutic window of epinephrine necessitates its cautious administration to avoid anaphylaxis. In this case, a 46-year-old man presented severe anaphylactic symptoms. Following the standard protocol, the emergency medical technician (EMT) administered intramuscular epinephrine; however, symptoms persisted. Under the oversight of the emergency medical services (EMS) medical director, an additional intravenous bolus of epinephrine was administered, unfortunately leading to atrial fibrillation. This case underscores the potential risks of intravenous epinephrine, which is not typically recommended for anaphylaxis without continuous monitoring. Since 2019, Korea has initiated a pilot program to expand the EMT scope of practice, which gives them the authority to administer epinephrine for anaphylaxis. The ultimate decision regarding epinephrine use for anaphylaxis, emphasizing patient safety, rests with the EMS medical director. Proper training for EMTs, coupled with the EMS medical director's comprehensive knowledge and meticulous protocol adherence, can ensure patient safety and optimal outcomes.

Objective: Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a vascular disease that is most frequently diagnosed using the radiological imaging technique computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA). In this study, we aimed to demonstrate the diagnostic accuracy of the Hounsfield unit (HU) for PE based on the hypothesis that acute thrombosis causes an increase in HU value on CT.

Methods: This research was a single-center, retrospective study. Patients presenting to the emergency department diagnosed with PE on CTPA were enrolled as the study group. Patients admitted to the same emergency department who were not diagnosed with PE and had noncontrast CT scans were included as the control group. A receiver operating curve was produced to determine the diagnostic accuracy of HU values in predicting PE.

Results: The study population (n=74) consisted of a study group (n=46) and a control group (n=28). The sensitivity and specificity of the HU value for predicting PE on thoracic CT were as follows: for the right main pulmonary artery, 61.5% and 96.4% at a value of 54.8 (area under the curve [AUC], 0.690); for the left main pulmonary artery, 65.0% and 96.4% at a value of 55.9 (AUC, 0.736); for the right interlobar artery, 44.4% and 96.4% at a value of 62.7 (AUC, 0.615); and for the left interlobar artery, 60.0% and 92.9% at a value of 56.7 (AUC, 0.736).

Conclusion: HU may exhibit high diagnostic specificity on CT for thrombi up to the interlobar level. An HU value exceeding 54.8 up to the interlobar level may raise suspicion of the presence of PE.

Objective: Effective triage of febrile patients in the emergency department is crucial during times of overcrowding to prioritize care and allocate resources, especially during pandemics. However, available triage tools often require laboratory data and lack accuracy. We aimed to develop a simple and accurate triage tool for febrile patients by modifying the quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) score.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data from 7,303 febrile patients and created modified versions of qSOFA using factors identified through multivariable analysis. The performance of these modified qSOFAs in predicting in-hospital mortality and intensive care unit (ICU) admission was compared using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC).

Results: Through multivariable analysis, the identified factors were age ("A" factor), male sex ("M" factor), oxygen saturation measured by pulse oximetry (SpO2; "S" factor), and lactate level ("L" factor). The AUROCs of ASqSOFA (in-hospital mortality: 0.812 [95% confidence interval, 0.789-0.835]; ICU admission: 0.794 [95% confidence interval, 0.771-0.817]) were simple and not inferior to those of other more complex models (e.g., ASMqSOFA, ASLqSOFA, and ASMLqSOFA). ASqSOFA also displayed significantly higher AUROC than other triage scales, such as the Modified Early Warning Score and Korean Triage and Acuity Scale. The optimal cutoff score of ASqSOFA for the outcome was 2, and the score for redistribution to a lower level emergency department was 0.

Conclusion: We demonstrated that ASqSOFA can be employed as a simple and efficient triage tool for emergency febrile patients to aid in resource distribution during overcrowding. It also may be applicable in prehospital settings for febrile patient triage.