Emergency Medicine Alert articles from February 2004

Emergency Medicine Alert archives from February 2004

For women with acute MI, atypical presentations are typical.(Abstract & Commentary)
February 1, 2004... THE AUTHORS OF THIS STUDY SOUGHT TO CHARACTERIZE SYMPtoms women experience in association with an acute myocardial infarction (MI). Patients were identified using hospital discharge codes and were contacted by phone 4-6 months after their...

Do steroids provide the best treatment for otitis externa?(Abstract & Commentary)
February 1, 2004... IN THIS EUROPEAN STUDY, RESEARCHERS COMPARED three different topical treatment regimens for patients with acute otitis externa: acetic acid alone, acetic acid with steroids (triamcinolone 0.1%), or antibiotic with steroids (neomycin/polymixin...

Valsartan--no better than captopril in MI patients complicated by heart failure.(Abstract & Commentary)
February 1, 2004... STUDIES DEMONSTRATE THAT ANGIOTENSIN-CONVERTING-ENZYME (ACE) inhibitors such as captopril reduce mortality and cardiovascular morbidity for patients with myocardial infarction (MI) complicated by left ventricular systolic dysfunction, heart...

Glucose, insulin, and potassium infusion in acute MI: back to the future?(Abstract & Commentary)
February 1, 2004... HIGH-DOSE GLUCOSE-INSULIN-POTASSIUM (GIK) INFUSION for patients presenting with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has been advocated since the 1960s. Suggested benefits from GIK include improving cardiac energy metabolism by increased glucose...

Sports concussions: grading severity and advising on return to play.(Special Feature)
February 1, 2004... CONCUSSION, OR MILD TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY (MTBI), is a common occurrence in contact and collision sports. The medical literature estimates between 200,000 and 300,000 concussions occur per year in the United States. However, the true incidence...

Physician CME questions.
February 1, 2004... 14. The European study comparing treatment regimens for acute otitis externa concluded that: a. steroids improved the efficacy of treatment when combined with antibiotics or acetic acid. b. antibiotics are unnecessary and potentially...

Mobitz II in a patient on digoxin.(ECG Review)
February 1, 2004... Clinical Scenario: The nonsequential rhythm strips shown in the Figure were obtained from a 71-year-old man with a history of congestive cardiomyopathy and renal insufficiency. The patient was admitted for an exacerbation of heart failure....