Practical Summaries in Acute Care Archives – June 1, 2003
June 1, 2003
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Unwelcome Import: SARS Arrives in U.S. Emergency Departments
As of April 23, 2003, 4288 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 25 countries had been reported to the World Health Organization. In the United States, there were 245 cases of SARS in 37 states. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its interim case definition for SARS on April 20, 2003. -
EMS Response Time May Dictate Choice of CPR or Defibrillation in the Field
In this European study, investigators randomized 200 out-of-hospital VF/VT cardiac arrest victims to immediate defibrillation and standard cardiac arrest care (96 patients in the standard group) vs. three minutes of CPR prior to defibrillation (104 patients in the CPR-first group) performed by responding emergency medical services (EMS) personnel. -
Continued Complications Plague tPA in Stroke
The purpose of this retrospective cohort study was to compare adverse outcomes among patients given intravenous tPA in routine clinical practice to those given tPA in the NINDS cohort, and to examine the relationship of protocol deviations to adverse outcomes. -
Special Feature: The Brugada Syndrome
The Brugada syndrome is a recently described cardiac disorder involving patients with structurally normal hearts who lack coronary artery disease and experience ventricular dysrhythmias. -
ECG Review: ‘Scoopies’ on ECG
The ECG in the Figure was obtained from an older man on multiple medications. Which cardiac drug do you most strongly suspect he is taking?