Tamponnade tardive : quatre cas de complication rare du traumatisme fermé du thorax

Delayed post-traumatic pericardial effusion is a rare condition after blunt trauma. The diagnosis of the effusion can be made by the clinical signs, which is not very specific and the cardiac echography. The etiological diagnosis remains difficult because it requires the elimination of the other causes of pericarditis. Their treatment consists in evacuating the pericardial effusion. The evolution thereafter is simple. We report four cases of patients with pericardial effusion late after a thoracic injury. Imaging the blood test, the examination of the pericardial fluid and the anatomopathological examination of the pericardium, eliminates the other etiologies.     

The HAS-Choice study: Utilizing the HEART score,an ADP,and shared decision-making to decrease admissions in chest pain patients

Objective

The HAS-Choice pathway utilizes the HEART Score, an accelerated diagnostic protocol (ADP), and shared decision-making using a visual aid in the evaluation of chest pain patients. We seek to determine if our intervention can improve resource utilization in a community emergency department (ED) setting while maintaining safe patient care.

Chest pain as a manifestation of hypokalemia in a pediatric patient

Patients presenting to the emergency department with chest pain are common and a cause of significant concern to patients and families and physicians alike. The causes of chest pain are myriad. These causes span diverse categories including cardiovascular, respiratory, abdominal and gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, psychiatric, hematologic and oncologic, and neurologic Thull-Freedman (2010) [1]. These diverse etiologies present a diagnostic and management challenge to the ER physician who is tasked to minimize unnecessary diagnostics while not missing any significant disease. Multiple reviews have discussed the various etiologies of chest pain in the pediatric patient presenting to the ER but none of these recent reviews has included hypokalemia as a cause of chest pain Talner and Carboni (2000), Cava and Sayger (2004), Ringstrom and Freedman (2006), Foy and Filippone (2015), Yeh and Yeh (2015) [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]. Additionally, no reviews of hypokalemia describe this condition presenting with chest pain (Mandal, 1997; Gennari, 2002; Medford-Davis and Rafique, 2014 [7], [8], [9]).This case report describes a pediatric patient who presents with chest pain that was attributed to hypokalemia. This report attempts to make practitioners aware that hypokalemia may present with chest pain and to encourage ER providers to include this in the differential diagnosis.     

情绪障碍在彝族冠心病患者胸痛中的作用

目的初步探讨情绪障碍在彝族冠心病患者胸痛中的作用。方法观察彝族冠心病患者抑郁的发生率及严重程度,抗抑郁治疗前后胸痛的特点。结果彝族冠心病患者存在明显的情绪障碍,抗抑郁治疗后胸痛、每周发作次数、发作时 ST 段下移程度和胸痛持续时间均较抗抑郁治疗前明显改善。结论彝族冠心病患者胸痛发作时,抑郁是其中很重要的机制。     

Characteristics and sputum conversion of tuberculosis (TB) patients in Kalutara,Sri Lanka

Background

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious bacterial disease; remains as one of the important public health problem affecting every part of the world. Substantial number of TB cases are reported from Sri Lanka every year irrespective of its strong preventive health system. The aim of this analysis is to describe the characteristics of TB patients and to assess the factors associated with sputum conversion. This analysis was based on the data from the District Chest Clinic of Kalutara district, Sri Lanka.

Elaboración de modelos predictivos de la gravedad y la mortalidad en pacientes con COVID-19 que acuden al servicio de urgencias,incluida la radiografía torácica

ObjectivesTo develop prognosis prediction models for COVID-19 patients attending an emergency department (ED) based on initial chest X-ray (CXR), demographics, clinical and laboratory parameters.MethodsAll symptomatic confirmed COVID-19 patients admitted to our hospital ED between February 24th and April 24th 2020 were recruited. CXR features, clinical and laboratory variables and CXR abnormality indices extracted by a convolutional neural network (CNN) diagnostic tool were considered potential predictors on this first visit. The most serious individual outcome defined the three severity level: 0) home discharge or hospitalization ≤ 3 days, 1) hospital stay >3 days and 2) intensive care requirement or death. Severity and in-hospital mortality multivariable prediction models were developed and internally validated. The Youden index was used for the optimal threshold selection of the classification model.ResultsA total of 440 patients were enrolled (median 64 years; 55.9% male); 13.6% patients were discharged, 64% hospitalized, 6.6% required intensive care and 15.7% died. The severity prediction model included oxygen saturation/inspired oxygen fraction (SatO2/FiO2), age, C-reactive protein (CRP), lymphocyte count, extent score of lung involvement on CXR (ExtScoreCXR), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), D-dimer level and platelets count, with AUC-ROC = 0.94 and AUC-PRC = 0.88. The mortality prediction model included age, SatO2/FiO2, CRP, LDH, CXR extent score, lymphocyte count and D-dimer level, with AUC-ROC = 0.97 and AUC-PRC = 0.78. The addition of CXR CNN-based indices did not improve significantly the predictive metrics.ConclusionThe developed and internally validated severity and mortality prediction models could be useful as triage tools in ED for patients with COVID-19 or other virus infections with similar behaviour.     

Chest pain on questionnaire and prediction of major ischaemic heart disease events in men

Objective To examine the prediction of major ischaemic heartdisease events by questionnaire-assessed chest pain and othersymptoms. Design Population-based prospective study. Subjects 7735 randomly selected men, aged 40–59 yearsat entry. Methods Symptoms and history of diagnosed ischaemic heart diseasewere ascertained by administered questionnaire at baseline.Follow-up was for an average of 14·7 years, for firstmajor ischaemic heart disease event. Results During follow-up, 969 men had a major ischaemic heartdisease event. ‘Definite’ angina (chest pain fulfillingall WHO criteria) and ‘possible’ angina (exertionalchest pain without all other WHO criteria) were associated withsimilar ischaemic heart disease outcome, and a single combinedangina category was used. In the whole cohort, the relativerisks (95% CI) of a major ischaemic heart disease event were2·03 (1·61, 2·57) for angina only, 2·13(1·72, 2·63) for possible myocardial infarctiononly and 4·50 (3·57, 5·66) for angina pluspossible myocardial infarction, compared to no chest pain. Therelative risk for recall of an ischaemic heart disease diagnosiswas 3·98 (3·36, 4·71). Only 33% of menwith angina or possible myocardial infarction symptoms recalleda previous ischaemic heart disease diagnosis. In men withoutrecall of an ischaemic heart disease diagnosis (in whom 82%of events during follow-up occurred), chest pain symptoms remainedpredictive of major ischaemic heart disease events with relativerisks (95% CI) of 1·69 (1·27, 2·24) forangina only, 1·49 (1·12, 1·97) for possiblemyocardial infarction only and 2·55 (1·44, 4·53)for angina plus possible myocardial infarction. ‘Otherchest pain’ increased risk of a major ischaemic heartdisease event by 1·19 (1·01, 1·40) comparedto no chest pain. Symptoms of breathlessness or calf pain onwalking increased ischaemic heart disease risk in men with ‘otherchest pain’ and in men without chest pain, but had nofurther effect on ischaemic heart disease risk in men with symptomsof angina or possible myocardial infarction. Conclusions In defining angina by chest pain questionnaire,the exertional component is the crucial criterion. When usingquestionnaire-assessed symptoms to determine ischaemic heartdisease risk, information on previous ischaemic heart diseasediagnoses should be taken into account. The majority of menwith angina or possible myocardial infarction symptoms do nothave a diagnosis of ischaemic heart disease, but they remainat significantly increased risk of a major ischaemic heart diseaseevent. The value of breathlessness and calf pain on walkingin stratifying ischaemic heart disease risk is restricted tomen with ‘other chest pain’ or no chest pain.     

Implementing Point-of-Care Troponin Testing in the Emergency Department: Impact on Time to Result

IntroductionIn the emergency department, troponin assays are commonly used and essential in the evaluation of chest pain and diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome. This study was designed to assess the potential impact of implementing point-of-care troponin testing by comparing the time to point-of-care laboratory result and time to conventional laboratory result.MethodsThe study enrolled 60 ED patients deemed to need a troponin test in the evaluation of low-risk chest pain (HEART score <4 based on history, electrocardiogram, age, risk factors). Point-of-care troponin testing was performed with the same blood sample obtained for a conventional troponin assay. If the provider determined that the patient required 2 troponin tests, the second laboratory draw was used in the data collection. This was to correlate the time of laboratory result to time of disposition.ResultsOf the 60 subjects enrolled, 2 subjects were excluded because of user errors with the point-of-care testing equipment and 2 others for not meeting inclusion criteria on later review. The median times for the point-of-care troponin and conventional troponin assays were 11:00 minutes (interquartile range 10:00-15:30) and 40:00 minutes (interquartile range 31:30-52:30), respectively; P < 0.001. There were 3 extreme outliers from the conventional troponin assay that significantly skewed the distribution of the mean, making the median the more accurate assessment of the central tendency.DiscussionPoint-of-care troponin testing provided results in a median time 29 minutes quicker than the conventional troponin assay. This result is statistically significant and has the potential to greatly improve time to disposition in all patients with chest pain requiring a troponin assay.