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Objective Chest pain is one of the most common complaints in the emergency department (ED). Cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA) is a frequently used tool for the early triage of patients with low- to intermediate-risk acute chest pain. We present a study protocol for a multicenter prospective randomized controlled clinical trial testing the hypothesis that a low-dose CCTA protocol using prospective electrocardiogram (ECG)-triggering and limited-scan range can provide sufficient diagnostic safety for early triage of patients with acute chest pain. Methods The trial will include 681 younger adult (aged 20 to 55) patients visiting EDs of three academic hospitals for acute chest pain or equivalent symptoms who require further evaluation to rule out acute coronary syndrome. Participants will be randomly allocated to either low-dose or conventional CCTA protocol at a 2:1 ratio. The low-dose group will undergo CCTA with prospective ECG-triggering and restricted scan range from sub-carina to heart base. The conventional protocol group will undergo CCTA with retrospective ECG-gating covering the entire chest. Patient disposition is determined based on computed tomography findings and clinical progression and all patients are followed for a month. The primary objective is to prove that the chance of experiencing any hard event within 30 days after a negative low-dose CCTA is less than 1%. The secondary objectives are comparisons of the amount of radiation exposure, ED length of stay and overall cost. Results and conclusion Our low-dose protocol is readily applicable to current multi-detector computed tomography devices. If this study proves its safety and efficacy, dose-reduction without purchasing of expensive newer devices would be possible.

The purposes of this study were to investigate the clinical presentation, cause and outcome of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) and to evaluate the predictive value of the model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score in DILI.Patients diagnosed with DILI between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2012 in the Emergency Department at Asan Medical Center in Seoul, Korea were analyzed retrospectively. The primary end point was poor outcome, defined as liver transplantation or death within 30 days of the initial hospital visit.Of 213 patients, 13.1% had a 30-day poor outcome. Folk remedies were the most common cause of DILI in 147 patients (69%). Univariate logistic regression analysis showed that multiple drugs (odds ratio [OR] 2.30, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03-5.15), concurrent alcohol consumption (OR 3.69, 95% CI: 1.03-13.18), white blood cell (WBC) count (OR 1.17, 95% CI: 1.07-1.28), hemoglobin (Hb) (OR 0.60, 95% CI: 0.49-0.74), platelet count (OR 0.993, 95% CI: 0.987-0.998), total bilirubin (OR 1.09, 95% CI: 1.06-1.13) and MELD (OR 1.23, 95% CI: 1.15-1.32) were significantly associated with 30-day poor outcomes. Multivariate analysis showed that the MELD (OR 1.21, 95% CI: 1.12-1.30) and Hb (OR 0.77, 95% CI: 0.61-0.98) were independent predictors of poor outcome. For 30-day mortality, the c-statistics for MELD alone and for combination of MELD and Hb were 0.93 (95% CI: 0.89-0.97) and 0.94 (95% CI: 0.90-0.97), respectively.The outcome of patients with DILI was poor. MELD score and Hb were reliable predictors of short-term outcome in patients with DILI.

Background: Many critically ill patients in the ED are hospitalized to the ICU, but most prognosis predicting systems have been developed based on the physiochemical variables of the critically ill in the ICU. The objective of this study is to identify prognostic predictors early in the ED when compared with well-known predictors in the ICU and estimate their predictive abilities. Methods: An observational prospective study was performed in an urban ED. Information of all the critically ill patients admitted to the ICU via the ED including vital signs, laboratory results, and physiochemical scoring systems were checked during 6 months and divided into the early stage for the ED and the late stage in the ICU. Poor outcome was defined as 28-days mortality. After checking for significant predictors among them through univariate analysis, we identified the most discriminating predictors in each stage using logistic regression and a decision tree analysis. Results: A total of 246 patients were enrolled. In univariate analysis, the significant predictors including central venous pressure, fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2), pressure of arterial oxygen/fraction of inspired oxygen (PaO2/FiO2), albumin, mortality in emergency department sepsis, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II, simplified acute physiology score II, and sequential organ failure assessment scores were identified in the early stage, while PaO2/FiO2, base excess, unmeasured anion, albumin, anion gap, albumin-corrected anion gap, APACHEII, SAPSII, SOFA, and rapid emergency medicine score were identified in the late stage. Through a decision tree analysis, PaO2/FiO2 and SAPSII were revealed as the most discriminating predictors in the ED and ICU, respectively. Conclusions: The prognosis discriminating predictor in critical patients wa s different between the ED and ICU. Emergency physicians should pay more attention to the critical patients having low PaO2/FiO2.