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Aims The clinical relevance of hyperglycaemia in an emergency department population remains incompletely understood. We investigated the association between admission blood glucose levels and adverse clinical outcomes in a large emergency department cohort. Methods We prospectively enrolled 7132 adult medical patients seeking emergency department care in three tertiary care hospitals in Switzerland, France and the USA. We used adjusted multivariable logistic regression models to examine the association between admission blood glucose levels and 30-day mortality, as well as adverse clinical course stratified by pre-existing diabetes and principal medical diagnoses. Results In 6044 people without diabetes (84.7%), severe hyperglycaemia, defined as a glucose level of > 11.1 mmol/l (200 mg/dl), was associated with a doubling in the risk of 30-day mortality [adjusted odds ratio ( OR) 1.9; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.1 to 3.3; P = 0.018] and a three-fold increase in the risk of intensive care unit admission (adjusted OR 3.0; 95% CI, 1.9 to 4.9; P < 0.001). These associations were similar among different diagnoses. In the population with diabetes ( n = 1088), no association with 30-day mortality was found (adjusted OR 1.0; 95% CI, 0.6 to 1.8; P for interaction = 0.001), whereas the association with intensive care unit admission was weaker (adjusted OR 2.4; 95% CI, 1.5 to 4.1; P for interaction = 0.011). Overall 30-day mortality was higher in those with diabetes than in those without (6.1 vs. 4.4%, P = 0.015). Conclusions In this large medical emergency department patient cohort, admission hyperglycaemia was strongly associated with adverse clinical course in people without diabetes. (Clinical Trial Registry No: NCT01768494) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is a lack of validated tools to assess potential disease progression and hospitalisation decisions in patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with a suspected infection. This study aimed to identify suitable blood biomarkers (MR-proADM, PCT, lactate and CRP) or clinical scores (SIRS, SOFA, qSOFA, NEWS and CRB-65) to fulfil this unmet clinical need., Methods: An observational derivation patient cohort validated by an independent secondary analysis across nine EDs. Logistic and Cox regression, area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) and Kaplan-Meier curves were used to assess performance. Disease progression was identified using a composite endpoint of 28-day mortality, ICU admission and hospitalisation > 10 days., Results: One thousand one hundred seventy-five derivation and 896 validation patients were analysed with respective 28-day mortality rates of 7.1% and 5.0%, and hospitalisation rates of 77.9% and 76.2%. MR-proADM showed greatest accuracy in predicting 28-day mortality and hospitalisation requirement across both cohorts. Patient subgroups with high MR-proADM concentrations (≥ 1.54 nmol/L) and low biomarker (PCT < 0.25 ng/mL, lactate < 2.0 mmol/L or CRP < 67 mg/L) or clinical score (SOFA < 2 points, qSOFA < 2 points, NEWS < 4 points or CRB-65 < 2 points) values were characterised by a significantly longer length of hospitalisation (p < 0.001), rate of ICU admission (p < 0.001), elevated mortality risk (e.g. SOFA, qSOFA and NEWS HR [95%CI], 45.5 [10.0-207.6], 23.4 [11.1-49.3] and 32.6 [9.4-113.6], respectively) and a greater number of disease progression events (p < 0.001), compared to similar subgroups with low MR-proADM concentrations (< 1.54 nmol/L). Increased out-patient treatment across both cohorts could be facilitated using a derivation-derived MR-proADM cut-off of < 0.87 nmol/L (15.0% and 16.6%), with decreased readmission rates and no mortalities., Conclusions: In patients presenting to the ED with a suspected infection, the blood biomarker MR-proADM could most accurately identify the likelihood of further disease progression. Incorporation into an early sepsis management protocol may therefore aid rapid decision-making in order to either initiate, escalate or intensify early treatment strategies, or identify patients suitable for safe out-patient treatment.

Objectives: The National Early Warning Score (NEWS) helps to estimate mortality risk in emergency department (ED) patients. This study aimed to investigate whether the prognostic value of the NEWS at ED admission could be further improved by adding inflammatory blood markers (ie, white cell count (WCC), procalcitonin (PCT) and midregional-proadrenomedullin (MR-proADM)., Design: Secondary analysis of a multinational, observational study (TRIAGE study, March 2013-October 2014)., Setting: Three tertiary care centres in France, Switzerland and the USA., Participants: A total of 1303 adult medical patients with complete NEWS data seeking ED care were included in the final analysis. NEWS was calculated retrospectively based on admission data., Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcome was all-cause 30-day mortality. Secondary outcome was intensive care unit (ICU) admission. We used multivariate regression analyses to investigate associations of NEWS and blood markers with outcomes and area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) as a measure of discrimination., Results: Of the 1303 included patients, 54 (4.1%) died within 30 days. The NEWS alone showed fair prognostic accuracy for all-cause 30-day mortality (AUC 0.73), with a multivariate adjusted OR of 1.26 (95% CI 1.13 to 1.40, p<0.001). The AUCs for the prediction of mortality using the inflammatory markers WCC, PCT and MR-proADM were 0.64, 0.71 and 0.78, respectively. Combining NEWS with all three blood markers or only with MR-proADM clearly improved discrimination with an AUC of 0.82 (p=0.002). Combining the three inflammatory markers with NEWS improved prediction of ICU admission (AUC 0.70vs0.65 when using NEWS alone, p=0.006)., Conclusion: NEWS is helpful in risk stratification of ED patients and can be further improved by the addition of inflammatory blood markers. Future studies should investigate whether risk stratification by NEWS in addition to biomarkers improve site-of-care decision in this patient population., Trial Registration Number: NCT01768494; Post-results., Competing Interests: Competing interests: AK, BM, PH and PS have received research grants and support from BRAHMS AG (now ThermoFisher Scientific Biomarkers) and bioMérieux for attending meetings and fulfilling speaking engagements. BM has served as a consultant to both companies, (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Background: Hyponatremia is a common feature of acute illness and associated with increased mortality. This may be explained by a stress-mediated activation of the vasopressin system with an increase in free-water reabsorption., Objectives: To investigate whether the association between hyponatremia and mortality could be explained by activation of the vasopressin system., Methods: We prospectively enrolled adult, medical patients seeking emergency care in three centres in Switzerland, France and the United States. We investigated associations between admission plasma sodium and copeptin, a stable portion of the vasopressin-precursor peptide, with 30-day mortality. We performed uni- and multivariate regression analysis., Results: Of 6962 included patients, 18% had hyponatremia (sodium ≤135 mmol L -1 ), which doubled their risk for mortality compared to patients with normonatremia (8.3% vs. 3.8%). This association was confirmed in a multivariate-adjusted logistic regression analysis [adjusted odds ratio (OR) 1.47, 95% CI 1.12-1.93, P = 0.005]. Vasopressin levels, mirrored by copeptin, were also increased in nonsurvivors and strongly associated with mortality (adjusted OR 3.42, 95% CI 2.76-4.25, P < 0.001). The association between hyponatremia and mortality remained unchanged when adding copeptin levels to the regression model (fully adjusted OR 1.53, 95% CI 1.16-2.00, P = 0.002)., Conclusion: This prospective study including medical patients upon emergency room admission found hyponatremia as well as an activation of the vasopressin system to be independently associated with mortality. This suggests that stress- and vasopressin-independent mechanisms are responsible for the association of low sodium levels with mortality., (© 2018 The Association for the Publication of the Journal of Internal Medicine.)

Background: Patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) currently face inacceptable delays in initial treatment, and long, costly hospital stays due to suboptimal initial triage and site-of-care decisions. Accurate ED triage should focus not only on initial treatment priority, but also on prediction of medical risk and nursing needs to improve site-of-care decisions and to simplify early discharge management. Different triage scores have been proposed, such as the Manchester triage system (MTS). Yet, these scores focus only on treatment priority, have suboptimal performance and lack validation in the Swiss health care system. Because the MTS will be introduced into clinical routine at the Kantonsspital Aarau, we propose a large prospective cohort study to optimize initial patient triage. Specifically, the aim of this trial is to derive a three-part triage algorithm to better predict (a) treatment priority; (b) medical risk and thus need for in-hospital treatment; (c) post-acute care needs of patients at the most proximal time point of ED admission., Methods/design: Prospective, observational, multicenter, multi-national cohort study. We will include all consecutive medical patients seeking ED care into this observational registry. There will be no exclusions except for non-adult and non-medical patients. Vital signs will be recorded and left over blood samples will be stored for later batch analysis of blood markers. Upon ED admission, the post-acute care discharge score (PACD) will be recorded. Attending ED physicians will adjudicate triage priority based on all available results at the time of ED discharge to the medical ward. Patients will be reassessed daily during the hospital course for medical stability and readiness for discharge from the nurses and if involved social workers perspective. To assess outcomes, data from electronic medical records will be used and all patients will be contacted 30 days after hospital admission to assess vital and functional status, re-hospitalization, satisfaction with care and quality of life measures. We aim to include between 5000 and 7000 patients over one year of recruitment to derive the three-part triage algorithm. The respective main endpoints were defined as (a) initial triage priority (high vs. low priority) adjudicated by the attending ED physician at ED discharge, (b) adverse 30 day outcome (death or intensive care unit admission) within 30 days following ED admission to assess patients risk and thus need for in-hospital treatment and (c) post acute care needs after hospital discharge, defined as transfer of patients to a post-acute care institution, for early recognition and planning of post-acute care needs. Other outcomes are time to first physician contact, time to initiation of adequate medical therapy, time to social worker involvement, length of hospital stay, reasons for discharge delays, patient's satisfaction with care, overall hospital costs and patients care needs after returning home., Discussion: Using a reliable initial triage system for estimating initial treatment priority, need for in-hospital treatment and post-acute care needs is an innovative and persuasive approach for a more targeted and efficient management of medical patients in the ED. The proposed interdisciplinary , multi-national project has unprecedented potential to improve initial triage decisions and optimize resource allocation to the sickest patients from admission to discharge. The algorithms derived in this study will be compared in a later randomized controlled trial against a usual care control group in terms of resource use, length of hospital stay, overall costs and patient's outcomes in terms of mortality, re-hospitalization, quality of life and satisfaction with care., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier, NCT01768494.