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High-sensitivity cardiac troponin (hs-cTn) assays have higher sensitivity for myocardial ischemic injury and necrosis than conventional assays, but with reduced specificity.
An hs-cTn level below the detectable limit is very accurate at excluding AMI in an ED patient with chest pain.
The precision of hs-cTn assays enables serial sampling of cardiac biomarkers to exclude AMI to be done over 1-2 hours as opposed to 3-9 hours for conventional cTn assays.
A normal coronary CT angiography (CCTA) (< 50% stenosis in any epicardial coronary artery) performed in an ED patient with chest pain is associated with a good 30-day outcome.
Use of CCTA in ED patients with chest pain is associated with reduced length of stay, admissions, and overall costs compared to typical care that often involves myocardial perfusion imaging.
CCTA is associated with a small but consistent increase in invasive coronary angiograms and reperfusion procedures compared to typical care that often involved myocardial perfusion imaging.
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Patients seen in emergency departments (ED) for acute chest pain who are deemed low risk for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and relatively safe for discharge are often referred to their primary care physician (PCP) for follow-up.
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The majority of patients with advanced cancer have decisional capacity at the time of their terminal hospitalization but lose that capacity before having an end-of-life discussion.
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The ECG shown above was obtained from an acutely ill but alert and hemodynamically stable patient. How certain are you that the rhythm is ventricular tachycardia (VT)? Might there be another explanation if the patient in question was a young adult with renal disease and diabetes?
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Uncomplicated cellulitis, defined as cellulitis without abscess, is most often caused by streptococci.
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More patients who received a preventive medicine intervention also had their physician receive the corresponding preventive intervention.
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In a large population of Caucasian women participating in the Womens Health Initiative Observational Study, those who used aspirin had a significantly lower risk of melanoma and increased duration of use was associated with incrementally greater protection.
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The FDA has approved paroxetine for the treatment of hot flashes (vasomotor symptoms) in postmenopausal women.
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How do we involve patients in decisions about their health care? This study from the Informed Medical Decisions Foundation attempts to answer the question using the results of a survey conducted between 2010 and 2011 with a probability sample from across the United States.
