Sex differences in the 1-year outcomes of emergency department patients with alcohol withdrawal.

Background: Alcohol withdrawal is a common emergency department (ED) presentation, but differences in long-term outcomes between female and male patients are not clear.

Methods: From January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2018, at three urban EDs in Vancouver, British Columbia, we studied patients who were discharged with a primary or secondary diagnosis of alcohol withdrawal. We performed a structured chart review to ascertain patient characteristics and ED treatments.

Assessing Analytical Performance and Correct Classification for Cardiac Troponin Deltas Across Diagnostic Pathways Used for Myocardial Infarction.

In the emergency setting, many diagnostic pathways incorporate change in high-sensitivity cardiac troponin (hs-cTn) concentrations (i.e., the delta) to classify patients as low-risk (rule-out) or high-risk (rule-in) for possible myocardial infarction (MI).

Development of a Novel Risk-Prediction Tool for Emergency Department Patients with Symptoms of Coronary Artery Disease: A Research Study Protocol.

Unlabelled: Patients with chest pain and symptoms of acute coronary syndromes account for > 600,000 emergency department (ED) visits annually in Canada. Of these patients, 85% do not have acute coronary syndromes, and most are discharged from the ED after a thorough evaluation. However, a large proportion of these patients are referred for outpatient cardiac testing after ED discharge, even though their short-term risk of major adverse cardiac events (MACE), including death, new myocardial infarction, and need for revascularization, is very small.

Bystander CPR Technique and Outcomes for Cardiac Arrest With and Without Opioid Toxicity.

Importance: Previous studies support bystander provision of chest compression-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CC-CPR) for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). However, it is unknown whether OHCA secondary to opioid toxicity may benefit from chest compression plus ventilation CPR (CCV-CPR).

Objective: To examine the association between bystander CPR technique and outcomes among both opioid-associated OHCA (OA-OHCA) and otherwise undifferentiated OHCA.

Establishing methodological standards for the development of artificial intelligence-based Clinical Decision Support in emergency medicine.

Objective: Artificial intelligence (AI) offers opportunities for managing the complexities of clinical care in the emergency department (ED), and Clinical Decision Support has been identified as a priority application. However, there is a lack of published guidance on how to rigorously develop and evaluate these tools. We sought to answer the question, "What methodological standards should be applied to the development of AI-based Clinical Decision Support tools in the ED?".

The relationship between race and emergency medical services resuscitation intensity for those in refractory-arrest.

Background: Previous studies have reported race-based health disparities in North America. It is unknown if emergency medical service (EMS) treatment of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) varies based on race. We sought to compare markers of resuscitation intensity among different racial groups.

Outcomes after Traumatic Brain Injury with and Without Computed Tomography.

Our recent improved understanding of traumatic brain injury (TBI) comes largely from cohort studies of TBI patients with indication for computed tomography (CT). Using CT head as an inclusion criterion may overestimate poor outcomes after TBI with Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) 13-15. We aimed to compare outcomes after TBI in adults who had a head CT scan (with negative findings) versus those who had no CT when presenting to an emergency department.

Imprecision of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays at the female 99th-percentile.

Background: An analytical benchmark for high-sensitivity cardiac troponin (hs-cTn) assays is to achieve a coefficient of variation (CV) of ≤ 10.0 % at the 99th percentile upper reference limit (URL) used for the diagnosis of myocardial infarction. Few prospective multicenter studies have evaluated assay imprecision and none have determined precision at the female URL which is lower than the male URL for all cardiac troponin assays.

Factors associated with frequent buprenorphine / naloxone initiation in a national survey of Canadian emergency physicians.

Objective: To identify individual and site-related factors associated with frequent emergency department (ED) buprenorphine/naloxone (BUP) initiation. BUP initiation, an effective opioid use disorder (OUD) intervention, varies widely across Canadian EDs.

Methods: We surveyed emergency physicians in 6 Canadian provinces from 2018 to 2019 using bilingual paper and web-based questionnaires.

External Validation of the Post-Concussion Symptoms Rule for Predicting Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Outcome.

Persistent symptoms are common after a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). The Post-Concussion Symptoms (PoCS) Rule is a newly developed clinical decision rule for the prediction of persistent post-concussion symptoms (PPCS) 3 months after an mTBI. The PoCS Rule includes assessment of demographic and clinical characteristics and headache presence in the emergency department (ED), and follow-up assessment of symptoms at 7 days post-injury using two thresholds (lower/higher) for symptom scoring.

Identification of Emerging Novel Psychoactive Substances by Retrospective Analysis of Population-Scale Mass Spectrometry Data Sets.

Over the last two decades, hundreds of new psychoactive substances (NPSs), also known as "designer drugs", have emerged on the illicit drug market. The toxic and potentially fatal effects of these compounds oblige laboratories around the world to screen for NPS in seized materials and biological samples, commonly using high-resolution mass spectrometry. However, unambiguous identification of a NPS by mass spectrometry requires comparison to data from analytical reference materials, acquired on the same instrument.

The association of tibial vs. humeral intraosseous vascular access with patient outcomes in adult out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.

Aim: Humeral and tibial intraosseous (IO) vascular access can deliver resuscitative medications for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), however the optimal site is unclear. We examined the association between IO tibia vs. humerus as the first-attempted vascular access site with OHCA outcomes.