Last month Academic Emergency Medicine published the article “Can emergency physician gestalt ‘rule in’ or ‘rule out’ acute coronary syndrome: validation in a multi-center prospective diagnostic cohort study”. The following is a critique by Dr. deSouza and Dr. Sinert: In this large multi-center, prospective diagnostic accuracy study, the investigators conclude Read more…
Last week’s post described the history of observation units, and how technology and knowledge has advanced since the early days of observation. Now, we are identifying more MIs in the ED and safely discharging a large swath of low-risk chest pain patients. So, who is left for observation? Are there Read more…
Accurate and expeditious diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction or acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is one of the key charges of emergency medicine providers. Chest pain is the second most common reason for emergency department visits in the United States and coronary artery disease is our leading cause of death (1,2). Read more…
A 29-year-old male comes to your ED complaining of pressure-like left sided chest pain that started an hour after he smoked marijuana. He has never felt anything like this before. He has no medical problems, surgeries, medications, allergies, and has no family history of heart disease. He does not smoke cigarettes, Read more…