Performance of the CURB-65, ISARIC-4C and COVID-GRAM scores in terms of severity for COVID-19 patients.

BACKGROUND: In the COVID-19 pandemic, difficulties have been experienced in the provision of healthcare services because of excessive patient admissions to hospitals and emergency departments. It has become important to use clear and objective criteria for the early diagnosis of patients with high-risk classification and clinical worsening risk. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic accuracy of CURB-65, ISARIC-4C and COVID-GRAM scores in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 and to compare the scoring systems in terms of predicting in-hospital mortality and intensive care unit requirement. METHODS: The files of all COVID-19 patients over the age of 18 who were admitted to the emergency department and hospitalised between September 1, 2020 and December 1, 2020 were retrospectively scanned. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve and Youden J Index were used to compare scoring systems for predicting in-hospital mortality and intensive care requirement. RESULTS: There were 481 patients included in this study. The median age of the patients was 67 (52-79). In terms of in-hospital mortality, the AUC of CURB-65, ISARIC-4C and COVID-GRAM were 0.846, 0.784 and 0.701 respectively. In terms of intensive care requirement, the AUC of CURB-65, ISARIC-4C and COVID-GRAM were 0.898, 0.797 and 0.684 respectively. In our study, Youden's J indexes of CURB-65, ISARIC-4C and COVID-GRAM scores were found to be 0.59, 0.27 and 0.01 respectively, for mortality prediction of COVID-19 patients. Whereas Youden's J indexes were found to be 0.63, 0.26 and 0.01 respectively for determining intensive care requirement. CONCLUSIONS: Among the scoring systems assessed, CURB-65 score had better performance in predicting in-hospital mortality and ICU requirement in COVID-19 patients. ISARIC-4C has been found successful in identifying low-risk patients and the use of the ISARIC-4C score with CURB-65 increases the accuracy of risk assessment.

Comparison of Point-of-Care Ultrasonography and Radiography in the Diagnosis of Long-Bone Fractures.

Background and objectives: In this study, the accuracy of point-of-care ultrasonography (POCUS) was compared to radiography (XR) in the diagnosis of fractures, the determination of characteristics of the fractures, and treatment selection of fractures in patients admitted to the emergency department (ED) due to trauma and suspected long bone (LB) fractures. Materials and Methods: The patients were included in the study, who were admitted to ED due to trauma, and had physical examination findings suggesting the presence of fractures in LB (humerus, radius, ulna, femur, tibia, and fibula). The patients were evaluated by two emergency physicians (EP) in ED. The first EP examined LBs with POCUS and the second EP examined them with XR. LBs were evaluated on the anterior, posterior, medial, and lateral surfaces and from the proximal joint to the distal one (shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, knee, and ankle joint) in both longitudinal and transverse axes with POCUS. Results: A total of 205 patients with suspected LB fractures were included in the study. LB fractures were determined in 99 patients with XR and in 105 patients with POCUS. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value of POCUS in determining the fractures were 99%, 93%, 93%, and 99%, respectively, compared to XR. Compared to XR, POCUS was able to determine 100% of fissure type fractures (kappa (κ) value: 0.765), 83% of linear fractures (κ: 0.848), 92% of fragmented fractures(κ: 0.756), 67% of spiral fractures (κ:0.798), 75% of avulsion type fractures (κ: 0.855), and 100% of full separation type fractures (κ: 0.855). Conclusions: This study has demonstrated that POCUS has a high sensitivity in diagnosing LB fractures. POCUS has a high sensitivity in identifying fracture characteristics. POCUS can be used as an alternative imaging method to XR in the diagnosis of LB fractures and in the determination of fracture characteristics.

The Effects of Intravenous Lipid Emulsion Therapy in the Prevention of Depressive Effects of Propofol on Cardiovascular and Respiratory Systems: An Experimental Animal Study.

Background and objectives: Although there are several hypotheses about the mechanism of action, intravenous lipid emulsion (ILE) therapy has been shown to be effective in the treatment of toxicities due to local anaesthetics and many lipophilic drugs. In this study, we had hypothesized that ILE therapy might also be effective in preventing mortality and cardiorespiratory depressant effects due to propofol intoxication. Materials and methods: Twenty-eight Sprague-Dawley adult rats were randomly divided into four groups. Saline was administered to the subjects in the control group. The second group was administered propofol (PP group); the third group was administered ILE (ILE group), and the fourth group was administered propofol and ILE therapy together (ILE+PP group). Systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), respiratory rate (RR), heart rate (HR), and mortality were recorded at 10 time-points during a period of 60 min. A repeated measures linear mixed-effect model with unstructured covariance was used to compare the groups. Results: In the PP group; SBP, DBP, RR, and HR levels declined steadily; and all rats in this group died after the 60-min period. In the ILE+PP group, the initially reduced SBP, DBP, RR, and HR scores increased close to the levels observed in the control group. The SBP, DBP, RR, and HR values in the PP group were significantly lower compared to the other groups (p < 0.01). The mortality rate was 100% (with survival duration of 60 min) for the PP group; however, it was 0% for the remaining three groups. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the untoward effects of propofol including hypotension, bradycardia, and respiratory depression might be prevented with ILE therapy.

Prognostic Performance of Shock Index, Diastolic Shock Index, Age Shock Index, and Modified Shock Index in COVID-19 Pneumonia.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to compare the prognostic accuracy of shock indexes in terms of mortality in patients hospitalized with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia. METHODS: Hospitalized patients whose COVID-19 reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results were positive, had thoracic computed tomography (CT) scan performed, and had typical thoracic CT findings for COVID-19 were included in the study. RESULTS: Eight hundred one patients were included in the study. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, chronic neurological diseases, chronic renal failure, and a history of malignancy were found to be chronic diseases that were significantly associated with mortality in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. White blood cell, neutrophil, lymphocyte, C reactive protein, creatinine, sodium, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, total bilirubin, high sensitive troponin, d-dimer, hemoglobin, and platelet had a statistically significant relationship with in-hospital mortality in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. The area under the curve (AUC) values of shock index (SI), age shock index (aSI), diastolic shock index (dSI), and modified shock index (mSI) calculated to predict mortality were 0.772, 0.745, 0.737, 0.755, and Youden Index J (YJI) values were 0.523, 0.396, 0.436, 0.452, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study show that SI, dSI, mSI, and aSI are effective in predicting in-hospital mortality.

Predictive Performance of Lactate as a Mortality Predictor in Patients with Acute Pancreatitis.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship in the blood gas lactate levels and the prognosis of Emergency Department (ED) patients diagnosed with acute pancreatitis (AP). STUDY DESIGN: Analytical study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: Department of Emergency Medicine, Kartal Dr. Lutfi Kirdar City Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey between January 2018 and January 2020. METHODOLOGY: Hospital database was scanned according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes, and the relationship between lactate levels at admission and the 30-day mortality status of patients diagnosed with AP was analysed. The performance of lactate in predicting mortality was determined by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. In addition, the measurements such as the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), area under the curve (AUC), and Youden J Index (YJI) were calculated. RESULTS: There were 147 patients, with median age of 65 (50-76) years, where 91 were females (61.9%) and 56 were males (38.1%). The predictive values of lactate in terms of 30-day mortality were analysed by ROC analysis. Sensitivity (82.61%), specificity (79.84%), PPV (43.2%), NPV (96.1%), AUC (0.821), and YJI values (0.6245) were determined. CONCLUSION: Early recognition of patients with AP and initiation of appropriate treatment without delay will reduce morbidity and mortality. According to the conclusions, the lactate elevation measured at the time of admission can be used as a useful, fast and simple method in estimating mortality of AP patients. KEY WORDS: Acute pancreatitis, Lactate, Mortality.

Usefulness of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in predicting the severity of COVID-19 patients: a retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Quick and accurate identification of critically ill patients ensures appropriate and correct use of medical resources. In situations that threaten public health, like pandemics, rapid and effective methods are needed for early disease detection among critically ill patients. OBJECTIVE: To determine the relationship between the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) patients upon admission to the emergency department (ED) and these patients' prognosis. DESIGN AND SETTING: Retrospective cohort study among COVID-19 patients in the ED of a tertiary-level hospital. METHODS: Data on patients' age, gender, vital signs, chronic diseases, laboratory tests and clinical outcomes were collected from electronic medical records. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed. The area under the curve (AUC) was used to assess the accuracy of NLR for predicting in-hospital mortality risk and intensive care unit (ICU) requirement. The Youden J index (YJI) was used to determine optimal threshold values. RESULTS: 1,175 patients were included. Their median age was 63 years (IQR, 48-75). With an NLR cutoff value of 5.14, the sensitivity, specificity, PPV, AUC and YJI for ICU requirement were calculated as 77.87%, 74.08%, 92.4%, 0.811 and 0.5194, respectively. With the same cutoff value, the sensitivity, specificity, AUC and YJI for in-hospital mortality were 77.27%, 75.82%, 0.815 and 0.5309, respectively. In addition, advanced age, leukocytosis, anemia and lymphopenia were found to be associated with poor prognosis. CONCLUSION: The NLR, which is a widely available simple parameter, can provide rapid insights regarding early recognition of critical illness and prognosis among COVID-19 patients.

Comparison of C-reactive protein and C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio in predicting mortality among geriatric coronavirus disease 2019 patients.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare C-reactive protein and C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio performances in predicting mortality of geriatric patients who visited the emergency department. METHODS: The data of patients with COVID-19 and aged 65 years and above, who visited emergency department during the study period, were retrospectively analyzed. The data were obtained from an electronic-based hospital information system. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve and the area under the curve were used to assess each cutoff value discriminatory for predicting mortality. RESULTS: The mean age of the population included in this study was 76 (71-82) years, while 52.7% were males. The sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve values for C-reactive protein in terms of mortality were calculated as 71.01, 52.34, and 0.635%, respectively, while the sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve values for C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio were calculated as 75.74, 47.66, and 0.645%, respectively (p<0.001). In the pairwise comparison for the receiver operating characteristic curves of C-reactive protein and C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio, no statistically significant difference was found. CONCLUSIONS: Geriatric patients are the "most vulnerable" patient group against the COVID-19. In this study, both C-reactive protein and C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio were found to be successful in predicting mortality for geriatric COVID-19 patients.

Resuscitative Thoracotomy as a Life-saving Intervention in the Emergency Department.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the survival rate and the return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) in patients who underwent the resuscitative thoracotomy in the emergency department (EDRT), and determine the difference in survival rate of the patients who underwent EDRT with and without out of hospital CPR. STUDY DESIGN: Observational study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: Department of Emergency Medicine, Edremit State Hospital, Balikesir, Turkey between January 2014 and March 2020. METHODOLOGY: Patients who underwent EDRT were included. Post-CPR ROSC success and 6-month survival were determined as the study endpoints. Categorical data were compared using the Chi-square test so expressed as frequency and percentage, and continuous parametric data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation (SD). RESULTS: Twenty-seven patients were included in the study. The 6-month survival was 51.9% for all patients, and ROSC was achieved in 61.1% of patients requiring CPR. Comparing patients with and without out of hospital CPR, survival was observed in 16.7% and 80%. ROSC success was observed in 50% of patients who needed out of hospital CPR, while 83.3% for the patients with in-hospital cardiac arrest. The survival rate was 33.3% in gunshot and 80% in stab-wound injuries. Survival did not occur in patients with blunt trauma. CONCLUSION: Performing EDRT increases the survival in penetrating injuries, especially in stab-wounds. Patients gain time for an advanced intervention. Furthermore, EDRT provides life guardians time to assess for organ donation when death is inevitable. Key Words: Blunt trauma, Cardiac arrest, CPR, Emergency thoracotomy, Gunshot injury; Organ donation, Resuscitation, Resuscitative thoracotomy, Stab-wound injury; Trauma resuscitation.

Comparison of 4 Different Threshold Values of Shock Index in Predicting Mortality of COVID-19 Patients.

OBJECTIVE: The object of this study was to examine the accuracy in prehospital shock index (SI) for predicting intensive care unit (ICU) requirement and 30-d mortality among from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients transported to the hospital by ambulance. METHODS: All consecutive patients who were the age ≥18 y, transported to the emergency department (ED) by ambulance with a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 in the prehospital frame were included in the study. Four different cutoff points were compared (0.7, 0.8, 0.9, and 1.0) to examine the predictive performance of both the mortality and ICU requirement of the SI. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the area under the curve (AUC) was used to evaluate each cut-off value discriminatory for predicting 30-d mortality and ICU admission. RESULTS: The total of 364 patients was included in this study. The median age in the study population was 69 y (range, 55-80 y), of which 196 were men and 168 were women. AUC values for 30-d mortality outcome were calculated as 0.672, 0.674, 0.755, and 0.626, respectively, for threshold values of 0.7, 0.8, 0.9 and 1.0. ICU admission was more likely for the patients with prehospital SI > 0.9. Similarly, the mortality rate was higher in patients with prehospital SI > 0.9. CONCLUSIONS: Early triage of COVID-19 patients will ensure efficient use of health-care resources. The SI could be a helpful, fast, and powerful tool for predicting mortality status and ICU requirements of adult COVID-19 patients. It was concluded that the most useful threshold value for the shock index in predicting the prognosis of COVID-19 patients is 0.9.

Recurrence of COVID-19 Documented with RT-PCR.

We present a case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) re-infection where the time interval between two COVID-positive episodes is the longest in the literature. A 40-year male patient was admitted to the Emergency Department with complaints of sore throat, cough and diarrhea; and was re-diagnosed as COVID-19 positive after a virus-free period. He did not have a chronic disease in his anamnesis and used no medication. After COVID-19 infection and a long recovery period, he became COVID-19 positive again. In this case, the time to second COVID-19 infection was 94 days from the first positive PCR test and 86 days from the complete resolution of symptoms. This is one of the longest COVID-19-free period between two episodes of infection in the literature. Key Words: COVID-19, Recurrence, Re-infection, Recovery.

Recurrence of COVID-19 Documented with RT-PCR.

We present a case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) re-infection where the time interval between two COVID-positive episodes is the longest in the literature. A 40-year male patient was admitted to the Emergency Department with  complaints of sore throat, cough and diarrhea; and was re-diagnosed as COVID-19 positive after a virus-free period. He did not have a chronic disease in his anamnesis and used no medication. After COVID-19 infection and a long recovery period, he became COVID-19 positive again. In this case, the time to second COVID-19 infection was 94 days from the first positive PCR test and 86 days from the complete resolution of symptoms. This is one of the longest COVID-19-free period between two episodes of infection in the literature. Key Words: COVID-19, Recurrence, Re-infection, Recovery.

Investigation of QT Prolongation with Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin for the Treatment of COVID-19.

OBJECTIVE: To assess and identify the risk of prolonged QT about hydroxychloroquine (HQ) and azithromycin (AZ) used in the treatment of patients with COVID-19. STUDY DESIGN: Cohort study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: Kartal Dr. Lütfi Kirdar City Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey, from March to May 2020. METHODOLOGY: One hundred and forty-four patients with the diagnosis of COVID-19, confirmed by Rt-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction), were restrospectively reviewed. Patients who were hospitalised, received HQ or HQ plus AZ treatment, had a baseline electrocardiogram (ECG), and had at least one ECG after treatment were included in the study. Patients with missing data were excluded. RESULTS: Fifty-one (35.4%) patients were given hydroxychloroquine monoterapy (HQ), 93 (64.6%) were given hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin (HA), and 70 (48.6%) were women. Pre-treatment mean QTc measurements were calculated as 410.61 ± 29.44 milliseconds (ms) for HQ group and 412.02 ± 25.37 ms for HA group, while the mean values of post-treatment QTc measurements were calculated as 432.31 ± 33.97 ms for HQ group and 432.03 ± 27.0 ms for the HA group. Post-treatment QTc measurements of both HA group and HQ group were prolonged compared to pre-treatment measurements. Ventricular arrhythmia was not observed in any patient. CONCLUSION: For COVID-19, no globally accepted definite treatment has yet been found. Both of hydroxychloroquine monotherapy and hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin treatment regimens cause QTc measurement to increase at a statistically significant level. We concluded that this increase in QTc did not cause ventricular arrhythmia. Key Words: COVID-19, QTc interval, Hydroxychloroquine, Azithromycin.

Usefulness of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in predicting the severity of COVID-19 patients: a retrospective cohort study

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Quick and accurate identification of critically ill patients ensures appropriate and correct use of medical resources. In situations that threaten public health, like pandemics, rapid and effective methods are needed for early disease detection among critically ill patients. OBJECTIVE: To determine the relationship between the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) patients upon admission to the emergency department (ED) and these patients' prognosis. DESIGN AND SETTING: Retrospective cohort study among COVID-19 patients in the ED of a tertiary-level hospital. METHODS: Data on patients' age, gender, vital signs, chronic diseases, laboratory tests and clinical outcomes were collected from electronic medical records. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed. The area under the curve (AUC) was used to assess the accuracy of NLR for predicting in-hospital mortality risk and intensive care unit (ICU) requirement. The Youden J index (YJI) was used to determine optimal threshold values. RESULTS: 1,175 patients were included. Their median age was 63 years (IQR, 48-75). With an NLR cutoff value of 5.14, the sensitivity, specificity, PPV, AUC and YJI for ICU requirement were calculated as 77.87%, 74.08%, 92.4%, 0.811 and 0.5194, respectively. With the same cutoff value, the sensitivity, specificity, AUC and YJI for in-hospital mortality were 77.27%, 75.82%, 0.815 and 0.5309, respectively. In addition, advanced age, leukocytosis, anemia and lymphopenia were found to be associated with poor prognosis. CONCLUSION: The NLR, which is a widely available simple parameter, can provide rapid insights regarding early recognition of critical illness and prognosis among COVID-19 patients.

Electrocardiographic clue for a mid-LAD lesion.

ECG is still the first diagnostic tool for coronary artery disease. It is possible to predict the localisation of affected vessel(s) through ST and T changes on ECG. Sometimes, reciprocal changes may be the only marker of acute myocardial ischaemia, as single T-wave inversion in lead aVL may represent a coronary artery lesion in the left anterior descending (LAD). A 49-year-old woman presented to the emergency department, with left-sided chest pain. Her initial ECG showed no ischaemic changes. On the third hour ECG there was T-wave inversion in leads aVL and V2, and troponin turned positive. Coronary angiography showed 90% mid-LAD occlusion. The importance of this case is that patients with ischaemic chest pain should be followed with serial ECG. Also, emergency physicians should be alert to identify new changes on ECG, as isolated T-wave inversion in lead aVL can be the only finding to take the patient into the catheterisation laboratory.

A challenging differential diagnosis of optic neuropathy in ED: CSD.

Optic neuropathy due to cat scratch disease (CSD) is a rare occurrence associated with macular star formation and is characterised by sudden mostly unilateral painless loss of vision. The aetiological agent in CSD is Bartonella henselae. Ocular complications present in up to 10% of patients and include neuroretinitis, conjunctivitis or uveitis. Ocular bartonelosis is usually self-limited. A case of a man patient with neuroretinitis caused by B. henselae is reported.