ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the applicability of the three commonly used CT examination decision rules in Chinese head injured children. Methods This prospective observational study included 1538 children and adolescents (aged < 18 years), who were treated at the Emergency Department of First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University after head injuries. The three clinical decision rules include the Children's Head Injury Algorithm for the Prediction of Important Clinical Events (CHALICE; UK); the prediction rule for the identification of children at very low risk of clinically important traumatic brain injury, that was developed by the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN; USA), and the Canadian Assessment of Tomography for Childhood Head Injury (CATCH) rule. Diagnostic accuracy had been evaluated by using the rule-specific predictor variables to predict each rule-specific outcome measure in populations who met inclusion and exclusion criteria for each rule. Sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV), positive predictive value (PPV), and ROC curve were referred to the diagnostic accuracy. Indicators were characterized by 95％ CI. Results Of the 1538 patients, CTs were obtained for 339 patients (22.04％). Forty-nine patients (3.19％) had positive CT results, 8 patients (0.52％) underwent neurosurgery, 2 patients (0.13％) died, and 1 patient (0.07％) may be missed. In this study, CHALICE was applied for 1394 children (90.70％; 95％ CI: 89.24％-92.15％), PECARN for 801 children (52.11％; 95％ CI: 49.62％-54.61％), and CATCH for 325 patients (21.15％; 95％CI: 19.10％-23.19％). The validation sensitivities of CHALICE, PECARN, and CATCH rules were 92.6％(74.2％-98.7％), 100％ (56.1％-100％), and 85.7％ (42.0％-99.2％), respectively; the specificities were 78.1％(75.7％-80.2％), 48.0％ (44.5％-51.5％) and 70.8％ (65.4％-75.6％); positive predictive value were 7.7％ (5.1％-11.3％), 0.9％ (0.4％-1.9％) and 6.1％ (2.5％-13.2％); and negative predictive value were 99.8％ (99.2％-100％), 99.1％ (98.1％-99.6％), and 99.6％ (97.2％-100％), respectively. Conclusions The clinical decision rules of CHALICE, PECARN and CATCH have high sensitivities. The specificity of PECARN rule is lower than those of CHALICE and CATCH rules. The above three clinical decision rules can be used for the decision of CT examination in Chinese children with head injury in practice.
ABSTRACT
Tracheal intubation is one of the most important emergency techniques, and it is a key and difficult point in advanced life support training for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Our treatment is trying to combine standard video with visual laryngoscopes for tracheal intubation teaching. Firstly, the students watch the standard video. Then, the teacher shows how to perform a tracheal intubation by visual laryngo-scope. Finally, the students practice the intubation process on the simulation device. In this way, the teach-ing process is more intuitive, easier to be mastered, more normalized and repeatable. This method is worth to be promoted.
ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the risk factors related to persistent unconsciousness in patients with severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) by way of building a prognosis model.Methods The clinical data of 165 sTBI patients admitted from July 2011 to November 2013 were retrospectively analyzed.The eligible patients were randomly assigned to derivation cohort (n =115) and verification cohort (n =50) by treatment order.Inclusion criteria:(1) age ＞ 15 years; (2) definitive history of head injury; (3) traumatic brain injury confirmed by head computerized tomography or brain MRI; (4) initial Glasgow coma score (GCS) was less than 8; (5) patient's light come or consciousness impairment gradually deteriorating to profound coma on the day of admission.The exclusion criteria were as follows:(1) only a brief loss of consciousness or coma after trauma (coma time ＜ 6 hours) ; (2) post-injury hysteria or dementia causes appearance like coma ; (3) unconsciousness results of status epilepticus which was induced by emotion after injury.Univariate and muhivariable logistic regression were employed to determine the independent predictors of persistent unconsciousness in the derivation cohort,and then prognosis model was established.The Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve were used to assess the capacity of model for discrimination and calibration.Results Logistic regression analysis was used to identify GCS score,neurological complications,diffuse axonal injury (DAI),electrolytes disturbance as the most important predictors of persistent unconsciousness.The model was well calibrated in the derivation cohort (Hosmer-Lemeshow test,x2 =4.380,P =0.496).The model showed good discrimination (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve) in the derivation cohort (0.87; 95％ CI:0.798-0.942) and in the versification cohort (0.90; 95％ CI:0.803-0.997).Conclusions The prognosis model could accurately predict the persistent unconsciousness lasting in sTBI patients despite its certain limitations,and therefore,it has significantly clinical and societal value.