Pulmonary embolism diagnosis part 1: clinical assessment at the front door.

This first of two practice reviews addresses pulmonary embolism (PE) diagnosis considering important aspects of PE clinical presentation and comparing evidence-based PE testing strategies. A companion paper addresses the management of PE. Symptoms and signs of PE are varied, and emergency physicians frequently use testing to 'rule out' the diagnosis in people with respiratory or cardiovascular symptoms. The emergency clinician must balance the benefit of reassuring negative PE testing with the risks of iatrogenic harms from over investigation and overdiagnosis.

Telephone triage of young adults with chest pain: population analysis of NHS24 calls in Scottish unscheduled care.

BACKGROUND: Telephone triage is increasingly used to manage unscheduled care demand. Younger adults are frequent users, and commonly call with chest pain. We compared pathways of care in younger adults calling with chest pain, and associations of patient characteristics and telephone triage recommendation with hospital admission. METHODS: A retrospective study of all triage calls with chest pain to NHS24 advice line by people aged 15-34 years between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2017 where chest pain was recorded as the call reason. Recommended outcome and subsequent use of services were determined using the continuous urgent care pathways (CUPs) database which records single episodes of care spanning multiple services. We determined the number of services involved, the proportion of patients with inpatient admission, those with an admission for an 'acute-and-serious' diagnosis, and the association between the triage call recommendation and these outcomes. RESULTS: There were 102 822 CUPs identified, with 1251 different combinations of services. The most common pathway was an NHS24 call then attendance at a primary care out-of-hours (PCOOH) centre, accounting for 38 643 (37.6%) CUPs. 9060 (8.8%) CUPs ended with hospital admission, 3030 (3.0%) the result of an 'acute-and-serious' diagnosis. 8453 (8.2%) were given 'self-care' advice and not referred further, while 46.9% ended at PCOOH and 15.2% at ED. 'Asthma, unspecified' was the most frequent 'acute-and-serious' diagnosis. Compared with people given self-care advice, referral to other services had increased odds of inpatient admission (adjusted OR (aOR) for ambulance called 28.7, 95% CI 22.6 to 36.3; for 1-hour in-home general practitioner (GP) visit arranged aOR 36.8, 95% CI 23.2 to 58.5) and for admission with an 'acute-and-serious' diagnosis (aOR ambulance called 23.9, 95% CI 16.2 to 35.4; aOR 1-hour GP visit 48.3, 95% CI 25.5 to 91.6). CONCLUSION: Chest pain triage by NHS24 appears safe, but care pathways can involve multiple service contacts. While acuity assigned to the call is strongly related to the odds of hospital admission and odds of an 'acute-and-serious' diagnosis, 'overtriage' means few patients are directed to self-care advice.

Lessons from a pilot for uncontrolled donation after circulatory death in the ED in the UK.

Worldwide there is a shortage of available organs for patients requiring transplants. However, some countries such as France, Italy and Spain have had greater success by allowing donations from patients with unexpected and unrecoverable circulatory arrest who arrive in the ED. Significant advances in the surgical approach to organ recovery from donation after circulatory death (DCD) led to the establishment of a pilot programme for uncontrolled DCD in the ED of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. This paper describes the programme and discusses the lessons learnt.

Approach to syncope in the emergency department.

Syncope is a common reason for ED attendance and it presents a major management challenge with regard to the appropriate workup and disposition. Nearly 50% of patients are admitted, and for many this is unnecessary; clinical decision rules have not proven to decrease unnecessary admissions. The European Society of Cardiology has recently developed guidance for managing syncope in the ED. This article highlights the key steps in evaluating syncope in the ED, factors involved in determining risk of a cardiac cause, and considerations for admission, observation or discharge.

Prognostic value of cardiac biomarkers in the risk stratification of syncope: a systematic review.

The role of cardiac biomarkers in risk stratification of syncope is unclear. We undertook a systematic review to assess their predictive value for short-term major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). We conducted a systematic review using MEDLINE, EMBASE, DARE and Cochrane databases from inception to July 2014. We included studies involving adult syncope patients that evaluated cardiac biomarker levels for risk stratification during acute management and excluded case reports, reviews and studies involving children. Primary outcome (MACE) included death, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, myocardial infarction (MI), structural heart disease, pulmonary embolism, significant hemorrhage or cardiac procedural interventions. Secondary outcome analysis assessed for prediction of MI, cardiac syncope and death. Two reviewers extracted patient-level data based on the cut-off reported. Pooled sensitivities and specificities were calculated using patient-level data. A total of 1862 articles were identified, and 11 studies with 4246 patients were included. Studies evaluated 3 biomarkers: contemporary troponin (2693 patients), natriuretic peptides (1353 patients) and high-sensitive troponin (819 patients). The pooled sensitivities and specificities for MACE were: contemporary troponin 0.29 (95 % CI 0.24, 0.34) and 0.88 (95 % CI 0.86, 0.89); natriuretic peptides 0.77 (95 % CI 0.69, 0.85) and 0.73 (95 % CI 0.70, 0.76); high-sensitive troponin 0.74 (95 % CI 0.65, 0.83) and 0.65 (95 % CI 0.62, 0.69), respectively. Natriuretic peptides and high-sensitive troponin showed good diagnostic characteristics for both primary and secondary outcomes. Natriuretic peptides and high-sensitive troponin might be useful in risk stratification.

Syncope: the emergency department and beyond.

Syncope is a common problem encountered by both emergency and internal medicine physicians. This review focuses on not only the assessment, risk stratification and management of the syncope patient, but also the latest thinking on diagnostic testing including more novel tools such as biomarkers and ambulatory patch monitor recording.

Uncontrolled organ donation after circulatory death: potential donors in the emergency department.

BACKGROUND: The continuing shortfall of organs for transplantation has led to interest in Maastricht Category II (uncontrolled) Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) organ donation. As preparation for a proposed pilot, this study aimed to explore the potential of uncontrolled DCD organ donation from patients presenting in cardiac arrest to the emergency department (ED) who are unsuccessfully resuscitated. METHODS: We identified all patients who died in our ED following unsuccessful resuscitation after cardiac arrest who were aged between 16 years and 60 years, whose collapse was witnessed, in whom the paramedics arrived within 15 min, whose death in the ED was less than 2 h after their collapse, who were on the organ donation register and who arrived in the ED during the working week (Monday to Friday between 9:00 and 17:00). RESULTS: During a 14-month period from 1 August 2008 to 30 September 2009, 564 patients had a cardiac arrest in the Lothian region. Four patients may have been eligible to participate in an uncontrolled DCD organ donation programme. CONCLUSIONS: Identifying potential organ donors in the ED who are unsuccessfully resuscitated from cardiac arrest may contribute to reducing the shortfall of organs for transplantation, although numbers are likely to be small. If such a programme was to be introduced during weekday working hours, there may be around four donors a year. However, even one additional donor per year from hospitals across the UK with an ED and a transplantation service would add considerably to the overall organ donation rate.

Impact of the introduction of emergency ultrasound to one large UK emergency department: the REBUS study.

AIM: Firstly, to detail the experiences of one UK training region in establishing an emergency ultrasound (EU) training programme and secondly, to report the initial 30 months of EU scanning experience. METHODS: Prospective study of all documented emergency department (ED) ultrasound scans. Results were extracted from written paper reports and/or electronically saved images. Details of scan date, time, type of scan, grade of operator, supervision status (whether supervised by a level 1 competent scanner) and whether the scan was clinical (performed or supervised by a level 1 operator) or training, were recorded. EU scans were reviewed for quality (internal quality assurance) and for diagnostic accuracy (external quality assurance). RESULTS: Between 14 January 2009 and 4 July 2011, 626 scans were performed by 41 operators. 263 (42%) scans were completed outside of normal working hours (09:00 to 17:00). There were 251 abdominal aorta and inferior vena cava scans (40% of all scans) and 198 focused assessment with sonography in trauma scans (32%). The number of scans performed by each operator varied widely. 87 scans (14%) were supervised but the majority (459; 73%) were not. 484 (77%) scans were for training purposes, 124 (20%) were clinical scans and the majority (401; 63%) were performed by either speciality registrars (ST4-6) or specialist registrars (SpR). When the three commonest types of scans performed were analysed, eight false positives and 11 false negatives were identified. Only seven of these were deemed of poor quality and none led to poor patient outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Since the acquisition of our ED ultrasound machine and the development of a quality assured training programme, on average 20 scans per month have been performed in the ED, with no known adverse patient outcomes.

Are the public ready for organ donation after out of hospital cardiac arrest?

OBJECTIVE: To assess Emergency Department (ED) relatives' and patients' opinions on: (1) discussing organ donation (OD) with relatives soon after ED death after cardiac arrest and (2) acceptability of organ preservation procedures both before and after discussion with relatives. METHODS: Questionnaire study; convenience sample. RESULTS: 200 questionnaires were completed. 37.5% of participants were male subjects; mean age was 40.4 (SD 16.9; range 15-85) years. There was no difference in the number willing to discuss OD after brainstem death in intensive care unit compared with circulatory death in the ED (72% vs 72%; p=0.146). The majority were willing to discuss OD soon after ED death after cardiac arrest (106; 54%). 41 (21%) were not willing and 43 (22%) had no strong views (n=198). Organ preservation procedures (groin tube insertion, continuation of mechanical cardiopulmonary resuscitation and continuation of ventilator) were acceptable to between 48% and 57% of respondents if performed before discussion with family increasing to an acceptability of between 64% and 69% after discussion with family. One in four respondents felt these procedures were not acceptable regardless of the timing of discussion with family and some felt these procedures were more acceptable if the patient was a registered organ donor. 122 (61%) patients wished to donate their organs after death but only 59 (30%) were registered donors. CONCLUSIONS: (1) The majority of patients and their relatives are not averse to OD being discussed shortly after ED death. (2) Organ preservation procedures are acceptable to many. Prior discussion and prior organ donor registration may improve acceptability.