Emergency Medicine Alert articles from February 2003

Emergency Medicine Alert archives from February 2003

Pharmacologic reperfusion for AMI: combining GPIIb/IIIa inhibitors with reduced dose fibrinolytics. (Abstract & Commentary).(acute myocardial infarction, the medical term for heart attack)
February 1, 2003... CURRENT PHARMACOLOGIC REPERFUSION FOR ACUTE MYOCARDIAL infarction (AMI) primarily involves the administration of fibrinolytic therapy. While these agents clearly have shown benefit in terms of rapid reperfusion and survival, they also are...

Opioids, ketorolac, and the biliary tract. (Abstract & Commentary).
February 1, 2003... IT HAS BEEN A MAXIM IN EMERGENCY MEDICINE THAT naturally occurring opiates such as morphine cause spasm of the sphincter of Oddi at the terminus of the common bile duct (CBD). (1-6) In patients with biliary colic, spasm of the sphincter of Oddi...

Should we screen all OD patients for acetaminophen? (Abstract & Commentary).(overdose)
February 1, 2003... PARACETAMOL (ACETAMINOPHEN) OVERDOSE IS A common type of ingestion seen in emergency departments (EDs). Most emergency physicians routinely screen all suspected intentional overdose patients for paracetamol ingestion due to the nonspecific or...

The non-arrhythmie ECG.(The Electrocardiogram in Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, part 1 )(Special Feature)
February 1, 2003... IN 1930, WOLFF, PARKINSON, AND WHITE DESCRIBED the "combination of bundle-branch block, abnormally short PR interval, and paroxysms of tachycardia occurring in young, healthy patients with normal hearts." (1) This syndrome, termed the...

Physician CME questions.
February 1, 2003... Effective with this issue, Emergency Medicine Alert is changing its testing procedure. At the conclusion of the semester for this publication (with issue No. 12, May 2003), you will not need to return a Scantron answer sheet to earn credit for...

How many chambers? (ECG Review).
February 1, 2003... Clinical Scenario: The 12-lead ECG shown in the Figure was obtained from a 49-year-old African American man with a history of hypertension, alcohol abuse, and progressively increasing dyspnea. What might his echocardiogram show? How many...