ABSTRACT
Both coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and heat stroke have symptoms of fever or hyperthermia and the difficulty in distinguishing them could lead to a strain on emergency medical care. To mitigate the potential confusion that could arise from actions for preventing both COVID-19 spread and heat stroke, particularly in the context of record-breaking summer season temperatures, this work offers new knowledge and evidence that address concerns regarding indoor ventilation and indoor temperatures, mask wearing and heat stroke risk, and the isolation of older adults. Specifically, the current work is the second edition to the previously published guidance for handling heat stroke during the COVID-19 pandemic, prepared by the "Working group on heat stroke medical care during the COVID-19 epidemic," composed of members from four organizations in different medical and related fields. The group was established by the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine Heatstroke and Hypothermia Surveillance Committee. This second edition includes new knowledge, and conventional evidence gleaned from a primary selection of 60 articles from MEDLINE, one article from Cochrane, 13 articles from Ichushi, and a secondary/final selection of 56 articles. This work summarizes the contents that have been clarified in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases and heat stroke to provide guidance for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of heat stroke during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ABSTRACT
Background: Blood culture is critical in treating infectious diseases. This leads to unnecessary intervention, inappropriate antibiotic use, and excess cost. Few studies have tackled patient factors that could possibly affect contamination rates. This study aimed to explore the association between patients' nursing care levels and blood culture contamination. Methods: This is a single-centered, retrospective, case-control study of adult patients whose blood culture specimens were taken in the emergency department between April 2018 and July 2019. The study was conducted in an acute care community hospital in Japan. The case group included patients with false-positive blood culture results with contamination; the control group included patients with true-positive or true-negative blood culture results without contamination. We randomly selected two control patients per case. Patients' age, gender, nursing care level, ambulance use, housing status, Glasgow Coma Scale, hospital arrival time, and puncture sites were obtained from the patients' medical charts. Results: Of the 5130 patients, 686 patients got positive blood culture results. Of the 686 patients, 35 patients were included in the case group, and 70 were randomly selected from the noncontaminated group and included in the control. In multivariate analysis, patients with contaminated blood cultures had a higher nursing care level (adjusted odds ratio: 8.50; 95% confidence interval: 1.65-43.7; p = 0.01). Conclusions: A higher nursing care level is associated with a higher incidence of blood culture contamination in the emergency department. Careful and appropriate procedures are required for patients with a higher nursing care level.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: It is still unclear that which anti-arrhythmics are adequate for treating refractory dysrhythmia. This study aimed to compare amiodarone and nifekalant in management of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases with refractory shockable rhythm. METHODS: This was a post hoc analysis of cases registered in a nationwide, multicentre, prospective registry that includes 288 critical care medical centres in Japan. From June 2014 to December 2017, we included all out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients aged ≥18 years who presented with refractory arrhythmia (sustained ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia following delivery of at least two defibrillator shocks) and treated with nifekalant or amiodarone after arrival to hospital. Overlap weight was performed to address potential confounding factors. RESULTS: 1,317 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients with refractory arrhythmia were enrolled and categorized into amiodarone (n = 1,275) and nifekalant (n = 42) groups. After overlap weight was performed, there were no significant intergroup differences in increased the rate of admission after return of spontaneous circulation [-5.9% (95%CI: -7.1 to 22.4); p = 0.57], 30-day favourable neurological outcome [0.1% (95%CI: -14 to 13.9); p = 0.99], and 30-day survival [-3.9% (95% CI: -19.8 to 12.0); p = 0.63]. CONCLUSION: This nationwide study showed that nifekalant was not associated with improved outcomes regarding admission after return of spontaneous circulation, 30-day survival, and 30-day favourable neurological outcome compared with amiodarone.
