Clinical probability and risk analysis of patients with suspected pulmonary embolism.

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary embolism (PE) is one of the most frequent diseases that could be missed in overcrowded emergency departments as in Turkey. Early and accurate diagnosis could decrease the mortality rate and this standard algorithm should be defined. This study is to find the accurate, fast, non-invasive, cost-effective, easy-to-access diagnostic tests, clinical scoring systems and the patients who should be tested for clinical diagnosis of PE in emergency department. METHODS: One hundred and forty patients admitted to the emergency department with the final diagnosis of PE regarding to anamnesis, physical examination and risk factors, were included in this prospective, cross-sectional study. The patients with a diagnosis of pulmonary embolism, acute coronary syndrome or infection and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were excluded from the study. The demographics, risk factors, radiological findings, vital signs, symptoms, physical-laboratory findings, diagnostic tests and clinical scoring systems of patients (Wells and Geneva) were noted. The diagnostic criteria for pulmonary emboli were: filling defect in the pulmonary artery lumen on spiral computed tomographic angiography and perfusion defect on perfusion scintigraphy. RESULTS: Totally, 90 (64%) of the patients had PE. Age, hypotension, having deep vein thrombosis were the risk factors, and oxygen saturation, shock index, BNP, troponin and fibrinogen levels as for the biochemical parameters were significantly different between the PE (+) and PE (-) groups (P<0.05). The Wells scoring system was more successful than the other scoring systems. CONCLUSION: Biochemical parameters, clinical findings, and scoring systems, when used altogether, can contribute to the diagnosis of PE.

The role of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin in identifying contrast induced nephropathy development in the emergency department.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the diagnostic significance of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin in detecting the development of contrast-induced nephropathy in patients undergoing contrast imaging in an emergency department setting. METHODS: The case-control study was conducted at the emergency department of Uludag University, Turkey, between January 1 and July 1, 2012, and comprised patients who underwent a diagnostic thoracic or abdominal Computed Tomography examination with contrast agent. At 2 hours and 72 hours after the scan, control urea, creatinine, and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin values were recorded. Plasma lipocalin measurement was performed using fluorescence-detected immunoassay method. An increase in serum creatinine of more than 0.5 mg/dl or 25% elevation from the basal level was considered to be a marker for the occurrence of contrast-induced nephropathy. SPSS 13 was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Of the 80 subjects in the study, 60 (75%) were cases and 20 (25%) were controls. Contrast-induced nephropathy did not develop in any of the patients, and, accordingly, no significant increase of plasma urea, creatinine, or neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin levels was observed. A significant positive relationship was found between urea and creatinine levels at 2 hours (p < 0.009) and at 72 hours (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Diagnostic contrast computed tomography examination in patients with normal renal function did not lead to Contrast-induced nephropathy or increased neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin levels, an accepted early indicator of kidney injury.

Aortic arch blunt injury in front-seat passenger.

Aortic arch blunt injury has highly lethal nature. Because the physical examination findings are subtle, immediate medical evaluation is very important. The case was a 72-year-old woman. Massive haemorrhage in the left haemotorax, contusion area in the left lung and a traumatic transection of the distal aortic arch was observed during autopsy. We described intersting autopsy case of aortic arch blunt injury.

Evaluation of the modified MEDS, MEWS score and Charlson comorbidity index in patients with community acquired sepsis in the emergency department.

Sepsis is one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in patients presenting to the emergency department. SIRS criteria that define sepsis are not specific and do not reflect the severity of infection. We aimed to evaluate the ability of the modified mortality in emergency department sepsis (MEDS) score, the modified early warning score (MEWS) and the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) to predict prognosis in patients who are diagnosed in sepsis. We prospectively investigated the value of the CCI, MEWS and modified MEDS Score in the prediction of 28-day mortality in patients presenting to the emergency department who were diagnosed with sepsis. 230 patients were enrolled in the study. In these patients, the 5-day mortality was 17 % (n = 40) and the 28-day mortality was 32.2 % (n = 74). A significant difference was found between surviving patients and those who died in terms of their modified MEDS, MEWS and Charlson scores for both 5-day mortality (p < 0.001, p = 0.013 and p = 0.006, respectively) and 28-day mortality (p < 0.001, p = 0.008 and p < 0.001, respectively). The area under the curve (AUC) for the modified MEDS score in terms of 28-day mortality was 0.77. The MEDS score had a greater prognostic value compared to the MEWS and CCI scores. The performance of modified MEDS score was better than that of other scoring systems, in our study. Therefore, we believe that the modified MEDS score can be reliably used for the prediction of mortality in sepsis.

Should the New Injury Severity Score replace the Injury Severity Score in the Trauma and Injury Severity Score?

BACKGROUND: This study was performed to compare the efficacies of Injury Severity Score (ISS) and New Injury Severity Score (NISS), and to investigate whether replacing ISS with NISS in Trauma and Injury Severity Score (TRISS) changes the predictive power for mortality. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 550 patients aged over 16 years seen in our center over a period of four years who had injuries in at least two organ systems. The ISS, NISS and TRISS were calculated for each patient. TRISS was calculated in two ways: TRISS 1 with age, Revised Trauma Score (RTS) and ISS, and TRISS 2 with age, RTS and NISS. The cut-off values for TRISS 1, TRISS 2, ISS and NISS were determined by ROC analysis. RESULTS: The ideal cut-off values for the prediction of mortality were 21.0 (AUC: 0.907) for ISS and 25.0 (AUC: 0.914) for NISS. There was no statistically significant difference between the ROC curves of ISS and NISS. The ideal cut-off values for predicting mortality were 90 (AUC: 0.934) for TRISS 1 and 86 (AUC: 0.935) for TRISS 2. There was no statistically significant difference between the ROC curves of TRISS 1 and TRISS 2. CONCLUSION: Use of NISS instead of ISS in the TRISS model demonstrated no significant difference, and it can thus be recommended for use.

A case report of fatal oral ingestion of resorcinol.

Resorcinol is a pharmaceutical agent used topically in dermatological treatments for acne, eczema, psoriasis and related skin conditions. Although there are a few studies that indicate chronic toxic effects of resorcinol on humans after topical application, information on the effects of resorcinol in acute poisoning after oral ingestion is limited. Thus, we wish to report the clinical and laboratory findings of a patient who was admitted to our emergency department (ED) after inadvertent oral ingestion of resorcinol and later died, as well as the patient's autopsy findings. The major clinical and laboratory findings were unconsciousness, respiratory failure that required mechanical ventilation, generalized tonic-clonic seizures, leukocytosis and severe metabolic acidosis. In the blood sample taken at the autopsy, a high level of methemoglobin was found. In the serum, resorcinol was revealed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. It can be concluded that the basic approach to patients with resorcinol poisoning should include initial stabilization of the patient by supporting the airway, respiration and circulation, and treating complications such as seizures or metabolic acidosis in the ED, as soon as possible after oral ingestion.