Background: Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is spreading around the world. At the end of February, the outburst of the pandemic has hit hard on northern Italian's hospitals. As of today, no data have been published regarding the severity of respiratory failure of patients presenting to the Emergency Departments. Moreover, the outcome the patients forced to undergo Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) or Non-Invasive Positive Pressure Ventilation (NIPPV) due to lack of Intensive Care resources is unknown. "Papa Giovanni XXIII" hospital (HPG23) of Bergamo is one of the largest hospitals in the Country, with an Emergency Department (ED) managing over 100,000 patients per year. Methods: This is a retrospective observational study based on chart review of patients presenting to the Emergency Department of HPG23 from 29/02/2020 to 10/03/2020 with a clinical condition highly suspicious for COVID-19 infection. Registration of admission rates, severity of respiratory failure (ARDS classification), need of respiratory support, SARS-CoV-2 PCR test and outcome of patients treated with a ventilatory support were registered on 10th of May 2020. Findings: From 29/02 to 10/03 611 patients with a suspected diagnosis of COVID-19 infection were evaluated in our ED; 320 (52%) met the criteria for hospital admission and 99 (31%) needed to be immediately started on ventilatory support (81% CPAP, 7% NIPPV, 12% Invasive Mechanical Ventilation). Eighty-five (86%) of the 99 patients needing a ventilatory support eventually had SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed by PCR test on nasal-pharyngeal swab. Their median PO2/FiO2 ratio was 128 (IQR 85À168), with 23 patients (29.5%) classified as severe ARDS. Mortality rate as of 10th of May was 76.5%, ranging from 44.4% within patients <60 years old to 85% within those older than 60 years (p = 0.001). NIPPV/CPAP failure occurred in 91.5% of patients. Interpretation: The population of patients suspected for COVID-19 infection presenting at our ED showed a very high rate of severe respiratory failure, with urgent need of a large amount of intensive care resources. Mortality rates of critically ill patients with confirmed COVID-19 (76.5%) are similar to previously reported studies with similar population. CPAP/NIPPV could be a valid strategy to treat severely hypoxic patients that cannot be intubated in the ED due to lack of intensive care resources. Funding: No funds were received for this research project.
Background: The novel analysis of high-frequency QRS components (HFQRS-analysis) has been proposed in patients with chest pain (CP) and normal electrocardiography (ECG) referred for exercise tolerance test (ex-ECG HFQRS (area: 0.655, ST-segment-analysis. (Cardiol J 2015; 22, 2: 141-149)
BackgroundTeamwork training has been included in several emergency medicine (EM) curricula; the aim of this study was to compare different scales’ performance in teamwork evaluation during simulation for EM residents.MethodsIn the period October 2013–June 2014, we performed bimonthly high-fidelity simulation sessions, with novice (I–III year, group 1 (G1)) and senior (IV–V year, group 2 (G2)) EM residents; scenarios were designed to simulate management of critical patients. Videos were assessed by three independent raters with the following scales: Emergency Team Dynamics (ETD), Clinical Teamwork Scale (CTS) and Team Emergency Assessment Measure (TEAM). In the period March–June, after each scenario, participants completed the CTS and ETD.ResultsThe analysis based on 18 sessions showed good internal consistency and good to fair inter-rater reliability for the three scales (TEAM, CTS, ETD: Cronbach's α 0.954, 0.954, 0.921; Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC), 0.921, 0.917, 0.608). Single CTS items achieved highly significant ICC results, with 12 of the total 13 comparisons achieving ICC results ≥0.70; a similar result was confirmed for 4 of the total 11 TEAM items and 1 of the 8 total ETD items. Spearman's r was 0.585 between ETD and CTS, 0.694 between ETD and TEAM, and 0.634 between TEAM and CTS (scales converted to percentages, all p<0.0001). Participants gave themselves a better evaluation compared with external raters (CTS: 101±9 vs 90±9; ETD: 25±3 vs 20±5, all p<0.0001).ConclusionsAll examined scales demonstrated good internal consistency, with a slightly better inter-rater reliability for CTS compared with the other tools.
In patients with hypertension, AFib, and e-TnI, tailored-care inclusive of echocardiography and stress testing succeeded in recognizing and treating CAD avoiding adverse events without increase in admissions.
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