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Background With an aging population, the number of elderly individuals exposed to traumatic injuries is increasing. The elderly age criterion for traumatic injuries has been inconsistent in the literature. This study aimed at specifying the elderly age criterion when the traumatic mortality rate increases. Methods This is a multicenter retrospective cohort study that was conducted utilizing the data from the Emergency Department-based Injury In-depth Surveillance Registry of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, collected between January 2014 and December 2018 from 23 emergency departments. The outcome variable was in-hospital mortality. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to calculate the adjusted mortality rate for each age group. By using the shape-restricted regression splines method, the relationship between age and adjusted traumatic mortality was plotted and the point where the gradient of the graph had the greatest variation was calculated. Results A total of 637,491 adult trauma patients were included. The number of in-hospital deaths was 6504 (1.0%). The age at which mortality increased the most was 65.06 years old. The adjusted odds ratio for the in-hospital mortality rate with age in the ≤ 64-year-old subgroup was 1.038 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.032–1.044) and in the ≥ 65-year-old subgroup was 1.059 (95% CI 1.050–1.068). The adjusted odds ratio for in-hospital mortality in the ≥ 65-year-old compared to the ≤ 64-year-old subgroup was 4.585 (95% CI 4.158–5.055, p Conclusions This study found that the in-hospital mortality rate rose with increasing age and that the increase was the most rapid from the age of 65 years. We propose to define the elderly age criterion for traumatic injuries as ≥ 65 years of age.

Background The best treatment approach for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is prompt primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, some patients show ST elevation on electrocardiography (ECG), but do not have myocardial infarction. We sought to identify the frequency of and to develop a prediction model for false-positive STEMI. Methods This study was conducted in the emergency departments (EDs) of two hospitals using the same critical pathway (CP) protocol to treat STEMI patients with primary PCI. The prediction model was developed in a derivation cohort and validated in internal and external validation cohorts. Results Of the CP-activated patients, those for whom ST elevation did not meet the ECG criteria were excluded. Among the patients with appropriate ECG patterns, the incidence of false-positive STEMI in the entire cohort was 16.3%. Independent predictors extracted from the derivation cohort for false-positive STEMI were age