Emergency Medicine Alert articles from December 2002

Emergency Medicine Alert archives from December 2002

Hyperbaric oxygen for carbon monoxide poisoning. (Abstract & Commentary).
December 1, 2002... IT IS A WELL-KNOWN FACT AMONG EMERGENCY PHYSICIANS THAT acute carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning can result in cognitive sequelae. These cognitive sequelae occur in 25-50% of patients with loss of consciousness or with CO levels above 25%. The...

Fibrinolysis in acute MI and hospital revascularization capability. (Abstract & Commentary).
December 1, 2002... IN THIS RETROSPECTIVE STUDY OF THE GUSTO-I DATA-base, investigators compared clinical outcomes of more than 25,000 patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) who were treated with fibrinolytic therapy in U.S. hospitals with the without...

Oral vitamin K lowers INR faster than subcutaneous vitamin K. (Abstract & Commentary).(international normalized ratio)
December 1, 2002... THE ANTICOAGULANT EFFECTS OF WARFARIN FREQUENTLY need to be reversed for bleeding complications, excessively high international normalized ratio (INR) values, or in preparation for procedures. Although withholding warfarin is eventually...

Syncope should not be taken lightly. (Abstract & Commentary).
December 1, 2002... THE AUTHORS EVALUATED PARTICIPANTS ENROLLED in the Framingham Heart Study between 1971 and 1998 who reported syncopal events. The patients' reports were confirmed by review of hospital and outpatient records, and the etiology of the syncopal...

Metabolic alkalosis. (Special Feature).(acid-base disorders)
December 1, 2002... METABOLIC ALKALOSIS IS THE MOST COMMON ACID-base disorder found in hospitalized patients. In a study performed examining 13,430 arterial blood samples, 51% of the acid-base disorders were categorized as metabolic alkalosis. (1) Its prevalence...

Physician CME questions.(continuing medical education )
December 1, 2002... 1. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy as delivered in the study by Weaver and colleagues: a. increased morbidity but reduced mortality compared with normobaric treatment. b. reduced cognitive sequelae at 6 weeks and 1 year after...

Chest pain and lots of P waves. (ECG Review).
December 1, 2002... Clinical Scenario: The 12-lead ECG shown in the Figure was obtained from a 55-year-old woman with new-onset chest pain. Many more P waves than QRS complexes are seen on the tracing (see dots under P waves in leads III, aVF, and [V.sub.3]). How...