Utility of Wrist-Wearable Data for Assessing Pain, Sleep, and Anxiety Outcomes After Traumatic Stress Exposure.

Importance: Adverse posttraumatic neuropsychiatric sequelae after traumatic stress exposure are common and have higher incidence among socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. Pain, depression, avoidance of trauma reminders, reexperiencing trauma, anxiety, hyperarousal, sleep disruption, and nightmares have been reported. Wrist-wearable devices with accelerometers capable of assessing 24-hour rest-activity characteristics are prevalent and may have utility in measuring these outcomes. Objective: To evaluate whether wrist-wearable devices can provide useful biomarkers for recovery after traumatic stress exposure. Design, Setting, and Participants: Data were analyzed from a diverse cohort of individuals seen in the emergency department after experiencing a traumatic stress exposure, as part of the Advancing Understanding of Recovery After Trauma (AURORA) study. Participants recruited from 27 emergency departments wore wrist-wearable devices for 8 weeks, beginning in the emergency department, and completed serial assessments of neuropsychiatric symptoms. A total of 19 019 patients were screened. Of these, 3040 patients met study criteria, provided informed consent, and completed baseline assessments. A total of 2021 provided data from wrist-wearable devices, completed the 8-week assessment, and were included in this analysis. The data were randomly divided into 2 equal parts (n = 1010) for biomarker identification and validation. Data were collected from September 2017 to January 2020, and data were analyzed from May 2020 to November 2022. Exposures: Participants were recruited for the study after experiencing a traumatic stress exposure (most commonly motor vehicle collision). Main Outcomes and Measures: Rest-activity characteristics were derived and validated from wrist-wearable devices associated with specific self-reported symptom domains at a point in time and changes in symptom severity over time. Results: Of 2021 included patients, 1257 (62.2%) were female, and the mean (SD) age was 35.8 (13.0) years. Eight wrist-wearable device biomarkers for symptoms of adverse posttraumatic neuropsychiatric sequelae exceeded significance thresholds in the derivation cohort. One of these, reduced 24-hour activity variance, was associated with greater pain severity (r = -0.14; 95% CI, -0.20 to -0.07). Changes in 6 rest-activity measures were associated with changes in pain over time, and changes in the number of transitions between sleep and wake over time were associated with changes in pain, sleep, and anxiety. Simple cutoffs for these biomarkers identified individuals with good recovery for pain (positive predictive value [PPV], 0.85; 95% CI, 0.82-0.88), sleep (PPV, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.59-0.67, and anxiety (PPV, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.72-0.80) with high predictive value. Conclusions and Relevance: These findings suggest that wrist-wearable device biomarkers may have utility as screening tools for pain, sleep, and anxiety symptom outcomes after trauma exposure in high-risk populations.

Compensation through Functional Hyperconnectivity: A Longitudinal Connectome Assessment of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a major public health concern. Functional MRI has reported alterations in several brain networks following mTBI. However, the connectome-scale brain network changes are still unknown. In this study, sixteen mTBI patients were prospectively recruited from an emergency department and followed up at 4-6 weeks after injury. Twenty-four healthy controls were also scanned twice with the same time interval. Three hundred fifty-eight brain landmarks that preserve structural and functional correspondence of brain networks across individuals were used to investigate longitudinal brain connectivity. Network-based statistic (NBS) analysis did not find significant difference in the group-by-time interaction and time effects. However, 258 functional pairs show group differences in which mTBI patients have higher functional connectivity. Meta-analysis showed that "Action" and "Cognition" are the most affected functional domains. Categorization of connectomic signatures using multiview group-wise cluster analysis identified two patterns of functional hyperconnectivity among mTBI patients: (I) between the posterior cingulate cortex and the association areas of the brain and (II) between the occipital and the frontal lobes of the brain. Our results demonstrate that brain concussion renders connectome-scale brain network connectivity changes, and the brain tends to be hyperactivated to compensate the pathophysiological disturbances.

The CT-STAT (Coronary Computed Tomographic Angiography for Systematic Triage of Acute Chest Pain Patients to Treatment) trial.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to compare the efficiency, cost, and safety of a diagnostic strategy employing early coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA) to a strategy employing rest-stress myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) in the evaluation of acute low-risk chest pain. BACKGROUND: In the United States, >8 million patients require emergency department evaluation for acute chest pain annually at an estimated diagnostic cost of >$10 billion. METHODS: This multicenter, randomized clinical trial in 16 emergency departments ran between June 2007 and November 2008. Patients were randomly allocated to CCTA (n = 361) or MPI (n = 338) as the index noninvasive test. The primary outcome was time to diagnosis; the secondary outcomes were emergency department costs of care and safety, defined as freedom from major adverse cardiac events in patients with normal index tests, including 6-month follow-up. RESULTS: The CCTA resulted in a 54% reduction in time to diagnosis compared with MPI (median 2.9 h [25th to 75th percentile: 2.1 to 4.0 h] vs. 6.3 h [25th to 75th percentile: 4.2 to 19.0 h], p < 0.0001). Costs of care were 38% lower compared with standard (median $2,137 [25th to 75th percentile: $1,660 to $3,077] vs. $3,458 [25th to 75th percentile: $2,900 to $4,297], p < 0.0001). The diagnostic strategies had no difference in major adverse cardiac events after normal index testing (0.8% in the CCTA arm vs. 0.4% in the MPI arm, p = 0.29). CONCLUSIONS: In emergency department acute, low-risk chest pain patients, the use of CCTA results in more rapid and cost-efficient safe diagnosis than rest-stress MPI. Further studies comparing CCTA to other diagnostic strategies are needed to optimize evaluation of specific patient subsets. (Coronary Computed Tomographic Angiography for Systematic Triage of Acute Chest Pain Patients to Treatment [CT-STAT]; NCT00468325).

An emergency department diagnostic protocol for patients with transient ischemic attack: a randomized controlled trial.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine whether transient ischemic attack patients treated with an accelerated diagnostic protocol in an emergency department (ED) observation unit will experience shorter lengths of stay, lower costs, and comparable clinical outcomes relative to patients with traditional inpatient admission. METHODS: A prospective randomized study of ED transient ischemic attack patients with a normal head computed tomography scan, ECG, and laboratory test results and no known embolic source. Patients were randomized to an inpatient bed or to accelerated diagnostic protocol care. Both groups had orders for serial clinical examinations, a neurology consultation, carotid Doppler tests, echocardiography, and cardiac monitoring. Accelerated diagnostic protocol patients with positive testing results were admitted. Study outcomes were length of stay, 90-day total direct cost, recidivism, and clinical outcome. RESULTS: One hundred forty-nine transient ischemic attack patients were randomized to the accelerated diagnostic protocol (75) or admission (74), with both groups similar in age, percentage of male patients, and stroke risk factors. Accelerated diagnostic protocol patient median length of stay was lower (25.6 hours [interquartile range 21.9 to 28.7 hours] versus 61.2 hours [interquartile range 41.6 to 92.2 hours]), and their 90-day costs were less ($890 [interquartile range $768 to 1,510] versus $1,547 [interquartile range $1,091 to 2,473]). Fifteen percent of accelerated diagnostic protocol patients were admitted, with all positive clinical outcomes occurring while patients were in the observation unit. More accelerated diagnostic protocol patients received carotid imaging (97% versus 91%) and in less time (median 13.0 hours versus 25.2 hours), and more received echocardiography (97% versus 73%) in less time (median 19.1 versus 43.0 hours). Both groups had comparable rates of related return visits (12% each), subsequent strokes (3 versus 2), and major clinical event (4 each). CONCLUSION: A diagnostic protocol for transient ischemic attack using an accelerated diagnostic protocol is more efficient and less costly than traditional inpatient admission and demonstrated clinical outcomes comparable to those of traditional inpatient admission.

A randomized controlled trial of multi-slice coronary computed tomography for evaluation of acute chest pain.

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to compare the safety, diagnostic efficacy, and efficiency of multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) with standard diagnostic evaluation of low-risk acute chest pain patients. BACKGROUND: Over 1 million patients have emergency center evaluations for acute chest pain annually, at an estimated diagnostic cost of over $10 billion. Multi-slice computed tomography has a high negative predictive value for exclusion of coronary artery stenoses. METHODS: We randomized patients to MSCT (n = 99) versus SOC (n = 98) protocols. The MSCT patients with minimal disease were discharged; those with stenosis >70% underwent catheterization, whereas cases with intermediate lesions or non-diagnostic scans underwent stress testing. Outcomes included: safety (freedom from major adverse events over 6 months), diagnostic efficacy (clinically correct and definitive diagnosis), as well as time and cost of care. RESULTS: Both approaches were completely (100%) safe. The MSCT alone immediately excluded or identified coronary disease as the source of chest pain in 75% of patients, including 67 with normal coronary arteries and 8 with severe disease referred for invasive evaluation. The remaining 25% of patients required stress testing, owing to intermediate severity lesions or non-diagnostic scans. During the index visit, MSCT evaluation reduced diagnostic time compared with SOC (3.4 h vs. 15.0 h, p < 0.001) and lowered costs (1,586 dollars vs. 1,872 dollars, p < 0.001). Importantly, MSCT patients required fewer repeat evaluations for recurrent chest pain (MSCT, 2 of 99 (2.0%) patients vs. SOC, 7 of 99 (7%) patients; p = 0.10). CONCLUSIONS: Multi-slice computed tomographic coronary angiography can definitively establish or exclude coronary disease as the cause of chest pain. However, inability to determine the physiological significance of intermediate severity coronary lesions and cases with inadequate image quality are present limitations. (Study of Coronary Artery Computed Tomography to Diagnose Emergency Chest Pain CR; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00273832?order=1; NCT00273832).

Status report: Development of emergency medicine research since the Macy Report.

In Williamsburg, VA, April 17 to 20, 1994, the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation sponsored a conference entitled "The Role of Emergency Medicine in the Future of American Medical Care," a report on which was published in Annals in 1995. This report promulgated recommendations for the development and enhancement of academic departments of emergency medicine and a conference to develop an agenda for research in emergency medicine. The American College of Emergency Physicians' Research Committee, along with several ad hoc members, presents updates in several of the areas addressed by the Macy Report and subsequent conferences, as a status report for the development of emergency medicine research as a whole, as of late 2002.