Patients frequently present to the Emergency Department either with direct concern following an upper gastro intestinal bleed, or with a history that points towards the diagnosis.
When these patients are haemodynamically unstable or with ongoing high volume bleeding the decision to admit or discharge becomes simple.
But when the episode has settled, deciding whether they are safe to be discharged and continue with outpatient follow up can be difficult. Lots of us use scoring systems such as the Glasgow-Batchford Score or the Rockall Score but how much do we actually understand regarding the 'positive' and 'negative' outcomes of those scores?
A recent paper on the topic helps to cast some light on the topic and forms the basis of this podcast.
One of the frequently used scoring systems is the Glasgow-Blatchford score below that bases it's score upon historical, physiological and laboratory findings.
Probably the other most frequently used score in ED is the Rockall score, which in its full form utilises endoscopy findings, however for use in the ED (pre-endoscopy) it has been modified and utilised.
mdcalc pre-endoscopy Rockall Score
Have a listen to how these scores fare in the paper and it may inform your risk stratification in the ED.
Enjoy!
It's never long before the topic of pulmonary embolism makes it back into the controversial lime light and a recent paper on the association of PE with syncope is the lastest reason.
The PESIT trial, just published in the New England Journal of Medicine certainly grabs your attention when you read the abstract, with the implication that PE's are a major and hugely missed cause of the presentation of syncope. It also highlights a diagnostic work up that consists of blanket Well's scoring +/- d-dimer to decide who should be worked up further for the potential diagnosis, for every single patient presenting with syncope, including those with no appropriate symptoms or signs!
As always to read the abstract and draw a conclusion is to fall at the first hurdle, so take a listen to the podcast as we dive a bit deeper into the paper and topic, and of course make sure you take a look at the paper yourself and see what you make of the headline grabbing article
Enjoy!
This month the literature seems to be focussed on cardiac arrest
In this podcast we'll cover a paper looking at the significance of chest compression rate, ultrasound for prognostication (and to a lesser extent identification of tamponade) and finally a systematic review and meta-analysis of PCI following ROSC.
The PCI paper follows on nicely from our previous podcast on the topic, so make sure you have a listen to that one first.
Our sponsors ADPRAC are giving away another £30 iTunes voucher to spend on education/entertainment to support your work life balance! All you need to do is click the link on our home page through to the ADPRAC website and answer the question relating to the podcast, good luck!
References & Further Reading
EM Nerd-The Case of the Tell-Tale Heart
JC: Is this the REASON to use USS in cardiac arrest? St.Emlyn’s