Analysis of patient clinical characteristics visiting single regional emergency department in COVID-19 pandemic era: a before-and-after observational study

Objective@#This study aimed at analyzing the clinical characteristics of patients visiting the emergency department (ED) and pre-triage clinic during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic era in Daegu, South Korea. @*Methods@#We conducted a retrospective observational study by using the medical records of patients who visited the ED and pre-triage clinic from February 22 to March 31, 2020 and comparing them with the corresponding period in 2019. @*Results@#The number of patients visiting the ED per day decreased from 122 (115-138) to 77 (66-93). The percentage of patients with respiratory infection increased from 6.6% to 15.4% (P<0.001). The length of the ED stay increased from 269 (150-562) to 559 (293-941) minutes, especially in patients with fever (P<0.001). The rate of injured and less urgent patients decreased from 24.7 to 13.2 and 53.4% to 50.2%, respectively (P<0.001). Sixty-one-point nine percent of patients visiting the ED were triaged and discharged at the pre-triage clinic without entering the ED. @*Conclusion@#In the COVID-19 pandemic era, there was an increase in the proportion of patients with fever and respiratory symptoms and a decrease in the proportion of injured patients. At the pre-triage clinic, a significant number of patients with suspected COVID-19 or less urgent conditions were treated and discharged without their having to enter the ED.

Clinically Significant Monocyte Biomarker for Differential Diagnosis of COVID-19 Pneumonia in the Emergency Department / 계명의대학술지

Objectives@#To determine basic patient characteristics and biomarkers to help in the early diagnosis of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia in patients with pneumonia who visited the emergency department (ED). @*Methods@#This retrospective study evaluated patients diagnosed with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) or COVID-19 pneumonia in ED at four tertiary medical centers between February 1 and March 31, 2020. Parameters related to the differential diagnosis between CAP and COVID-19 were investigated. Clinical characteristics and laboratory results of biomarkers were analyzed. @*Results@#In total, 81 patients presented to the ED with COVID-19 pneumonia. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that monocyte count [odds ratio (OR): 0.996; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.994–0.999] and pneumonia severity index (PSI) [OR: 1.025; 95% CI: 1.002–1.049] were associated with diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia. The area under the curve comprising the combination of monocyte and PSI was 0.789. @*Conclusion@#Differential diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia from pneumonia patients who visited the emergency room can be made by monocyte count and PSI score.

The Significance of the Strong Ion Gap in Predicting Acute Kidney Injury and In-hospital Mortality in Critically Ill Patients with Acute Poisoning

Purpose@#A high anion gap (AG) is known to be a significant risk factor for serious acid-base imbalances and death in acute poisoning cases. The strong ion difference (SID), or strong ion gap (SIG), has recently been used to predict in-hospital mortality or acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome. This study presents a comprehensive acidbase analysis in order to identify the predictive value of the SIG for disease severity in severe poisoning. @*Methods@#A cross-sectional observational study was conducted on acute poisoning patients treated in the emergency intensive care unit (ICU) between December 2015 and November 2020. Initial serum electrolytes, base deficit (BD), AG, SIG, and laboratory parameters were concurrently measured upon hospital arrival and were subsequently used along with Stewart’s approach to acid-base analysis to predict AKI development and in-hospital death. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and logistic regression analysis were used as statistical tests. @*Results@#Overall, 343 patients who were treated in the intensive care unit were enrolled. The initial levels of lactate, AG, and BD were significantly higher in the AKI group (n=62). Both effective SID [SIDe] (20.3 vs. 26.4 mEq/L, p<0.001) and SIG (20.2 vs. 16.5 mEq/L, p<0.001) were significantly higher in the AKI group; however, the AUC of serum SIDe was 0.842 (95% confidence interval [CI]=0.799-0.879). Serum SIDe had a higher predictive capacity for AKI than initial creatinine (AUC=0.796, 95% CI=0.749-0.837), BD (AUC=0.761, 95% CI=0.712-0.805), and AG (AUC=0.660, 95% CI=0.607-0.711). Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that diabetes, lactic acidosis, high SIG, and low SIDe were significant risk factors for in-hospital mortality. @*Conclusion@#Initial SIDe and SIG were identified as useful predictors of AKI and in-hospital mortality in intoxicated patients who were critically ill. Further research is necessary to evaluate the physiological nature of the toxicant or unmeasured anions in such patients.

Public awareness and willingness to use automated external defibrillators in a metropolitan city

Objective@#Early defibrillation is crucial for the survival of patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. This study aimed to examine the trends and associated factors regarding public awareness and willingness to use automated external defibrillators (AEDs) through citywide surveys. @*Methods@#Three-round surveys were conducted in February 2012 (n=1,000), December 2016 (n=1,141), and December 2018 (n=1,001) among citizens in Daegu, South Korea, who were aged ≥19 years. The subjects were selected through a three-stage quota sampling. Awareness and willingness to use an AED were assessed in the three groups. The primary outcome was willingness to use AEDs. @*Results@#Of 3,142 respondents, 3,069 were eligible for analysis. The proportion of respondents who knew how to use AEDs increased from 4.7% in 2012 to 20.8% in 2018. Of the respondents in 2012, 2016, and 2018, 39.7%, 50.0%, and 43.2%, respectively, were willing to use an AED. Factors associated with willingness to use AEDs were male sex (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 1.39; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10–1.75), cardiopulmonary resuscitation training experience in the previous 2 years (AOR, 1.80; 95% CI, 1.43–2.28), recognition of the Good Samaritan law (AOR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.13–1.86), and awareness of how to use an AED (AOR, 4.40; 95% CI, 3.26–5.93). @*Conclusion@#To increase willingness to use AEDs, education in AED use and the Good Samaritan law, along with re-education to maintain knowledge of AED use, should be considered.

Factors affecting successful esophageal foreign body removal using a Foley catheter in pediatric patients

Objective@#This study aimed to determine the factors that affect successful esophageal foreign body (FB) removal using a Foley catheter and to identify methods to increase the success rate. @*Methods@#In this retrospective, cross-sectional study, we included pediatric patients who presented with esophageal FB impaction that was removed using a Foley catheter in the emergency departments of tertiary care and academic hospitals. We analyzed the effect of the patients’ age, sex, and symptoms; FB type, size, and location; Foley catheter size; complications during FB removal; duration between FB ingestion and removal; operator’s years of training; sedation; success rate of FB removal; endoscopy; and patient’s posture during FB removal on the success of Foley catheter-based FB removal. @*Results@#Of the 43 patients we enrolled, Foley catheter-based FB removal was successful in 81.4% (35/43) but failed in 18.6% (8/43) of patients; no FB-removal-related complications were reported. There was no significant association between the success rate of Foley catheter-based FB removal and any study variable. A higher number of years in training tended to increase the success rate of Foley catheter-based FB removal, although statistical significance was not achieved. @*Conclusion@#Children’s esophageal FB removal is a practical challenge in the emergency rooms, and using a Foley catheter is associated with a high success rate of the removal and low occurrence of complications. In this study, no single variable was found correlated with the success rate of Foley catheter-based esophageal FB removal in pediatric patients, which may indicate multiple variables interacting with one another to affect the success rate.

Impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on adult out-of-hospital cardiac arrest outcomes in Daegu, South Korea: an observational study

Objective@#This study aimed to compare the outcomes of adult out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) before and after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in a large metropolitan city. @*Methods@#This before-and-after observational study used a prospective citywide OHCA registry. Adult patients with emergency medical service-treated OHCA, with presumed cardiac etiology, pre- and post-COVID-19 outbreak were enrolled. The study period spanned 2 months, starting from February 18, 2020. The control period was 2 months from February 18, 2019. The primary and secondary outcomes were good neurologic outcome and survival to hospital discharge, respectively. The association between the COVID-19 outbreak and OHCA outcomes was assessed using multivariable logistic regression analysis. @*Results@#This study analyzed 297 OHCA patients (control period, 145; study period, 152). The bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation rates were 64.8% and 60.5% during the control and study periods, respectively. Response and on-scene times increased by 2 minutes, supraglottic airway use increased by 35.6%, and mechanical chest compression device use increased by 13% post-COVID-19 outbreak. Good neurologic outcome was significantly lower during the study period in overall OHCAs (adjusted odds ratio, 0.23; 95% confidence interval, 0.05–0.98) and in witnessed OHCAs (adjusted odds ratio, 0.14; 95% confidence interval, 0.02–0.90). No significant difference was found in the survival to hospital discharge of OHCA patients between the two periods. @*Conclusion@#During the COVID-19 pandemic, the response and on-scene times were longer, and good neurologic outcome was significantly lower than that in the control period.

Clinically Significant Monocyte Biomarker for Differential Diagnosis of COVID-19 Pneumonia in the Emergency Department / 계명의대학술지

Objectives@#To determine basic patient characteristics and biomarkers to help in the early diagnosis of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia in patients with pneumonia who visited the emergency department (ED). @*Methods@#This retrospective study evaluated patients diagnosed with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) or COVID-19 pneumonia in ED at four tertiary medical centers between February 1 and March 31, 2020. Parameters related to the differential diagnosis between CAP and COVID-19 were investigated. Clinical characteristics and laboratory results of biomarkers were analyzed. @*Results@#In total, 81 patients presented to the ED with COVID-19 pneumonia. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that monocyte count [odds ratio (OR): 0.996; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.994–0.999] and pneumonia severity index (PSI) [OR: 1.025; 95% CI: 1.002–1.049] were associated with diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia. The area under the curve comprising the combination of monocyte and PSI was 0.789. @*Conclusion@#Differential diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia from pneumonia patients who visited the emergency room can be made by monocyte count and PSI score.

Public awareness and willingness to use automated external defibrillators in a metropolitan city

Objective@#Early defibrillation is crucial for the survival of patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. This study aimed to examine the trends and associated factors regarding public awareness and willingness to use automated external defibrillators (AEDs) through citywide surveys. @*Methods@#Three-round surveys were conducted in February 2012 (n=1,000), December 2016 (n=1,141), and December 2018 (n=1,001) among citizens in Daegu, South Korea, who were aged ≥19 years. The subjects were selected through a three-stage quota sampling. Awareness and willingness to use an AED were assessed in the three groups. The primary outcome was willingness to use AEDs. @*Results@#Of 3,142 respondents, 3,069 were eligible for analysis. The proportion of respondents who knew how to use AEDs increased from 4.7% in 2012 to 20.8% in 2018. Of the respondents in 2012, 2016, and 2018, 39.7%, 50.0%, and 43.2%, respectively, were willing to use an AED. Factors associated with willingness to use AEDs were male sex (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 1.39; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10–1.75), cardiopulmonary resuscitation training experience in the previous 2 years (AOR, 1.80; 95% CI, 1.43–2.28), recognition of the Good Samaritan law (AOR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.13–1.86), and awareness of how to use an AED (AOR, 4.40; 95% CI, 3.26–5.93). @*Conclusion@#To increase willingness to use AEDs, education in AED use and the Good Samaritan law, along with re-education to maintain knowledge of AED use, should be considered.

Factors affecting successful esophageal foreign body removal using a Foley catheter in pediatric patients

Objective@#This study aimed to determine the factors that affect successful esophageal foreign body (FB) removal using a Foley catheter and to identify methods to increase the success rate. @*Methods@#In this retrospective, cross-sectional study, we included pediatric patients who presented with esophageal FB impaction that was removed using a Foley catheter in the emergency departments of tertiary care and academic hospitals. We analyzed the effect of the patients’ age, sex, and symptoms; FB type, size, and location; Foley catheter size; complications during FB removal; duration between FB ingestion and removal; operator’s years of training; sedation; success rate of FB removal; endoscopy; and patient’s posture during FB removal on the success of Foley catheter-based FB removal. @*Results@#Of the 43 patients we enrolled, Foley catheter-based FB removal was successful in 81.4% (35/43) but failed in 18.6% (8/43) of patients; no FB-removal-related complications were reported. There was no significant association between the success rate of Foley catheter-based FB removal and any study variable. A higher number of years in training tended to increase the success rate of Foley catheter-based FB removal, although statistical significance was not achieved. @*Conclusion@#Children’s esophageal FB removal is a practical challenge in the emergency rooms, and using a Foley catheter is associated with a high success rate of the removal and low occurrence of complications. In this study, no single variable was found correlated with the success rate of Foley catheter-based esophageal FB removal in pediatric patients, which may indicate multiple variables interacting with one another to affect the success rate.

Impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on adult out-of-hospital cardiac arrest outcomes in Daegu, South Korea: an observational study

Objective@#This study aimed to compare the outcomes of adult out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) before and after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in a large metropolitan city. @*Methods@#This before-and-after observational study used a prospective citywide OHCA registry. Adult patients with emergency medical service-treated OHCA, with presumed cardiac etiology, pre- and post-COVID-19 outbreak were enrolled. The study period spanned 2 months, starting from February 18, 2020. The control period was 2 months from February 18, 2019. The primary and secondary outcomes were good neurologic outcome and survival to hospital discharge, respectively. The association between the COVID-19 outbreak and OHCA outcomes was assessed using multivariable logistic regression analysis. @*Results@#This study analyzed 297 OHCA patients (control period, 145; study period, 152). The bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation rates were 64.8% and 60.5% during the control and study periods, respectively. Response and on-scene times increased by 2 minutes, supraglottic airway use increased by 35.6%, and mechanical chest compression device use increased by 13% post-COVID-19 outbreak. Good neurologic outcome was significantly lower during the study period in overall OHCAs (adjusted odds ratio, 0.23; 95% confidence interval, 0.05–0.98) and in witnessed OHCAs (adjusted odds ratio, 0.14; 95% confidence interval, 0.02–0.90). No significant difference was found in the survival to hospital discharge of OHCA patients between the two periods. @*Conclusion@#During the COVID-19 pandemic, the response and on-scene times were longer, and good neurologic outcome was significantly lower than that in the control period.

Comparison of the new and conventional injury severity scoring systems for predicting mortality in severe geriatric trauma

Objective@#This study compared the prognostic performance of the following five injury severity scores: the Geriatric Trauma Outcome Score (GTOS), the Injury Severity Score (ISS), the New Injury Severity Score (NISS), the Revised Trauma Score (RTS), and the Trauma and Injury Severity Score (TRISS) for in-hospital mortality in severe geriatric trauma patients. @*Methods@#A retrospective, cross-sectional, observational study was conducted using a database of severe geriatric trauma patients (age ≥65 years and ISS ≥16) who presented to a single regional trauma center between November 2016 and October 2018. We compared the baseline characteristics between the survivor and mortality groups and the predictive ability of the five scoring systems. @*Results@#A total of 402 patients were included in the analysis; the in-hospital mortality rate was 25.6% (n=103). The TRISS had the highest area under the curve of 0.953 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.927-0.971); followed by RTS, 0.777 (95% CI, 0.733-0.817); NISS, 0.733 (95% CI, 0.687-0.776); ISS, 0.660 (95% CI, 0.612-0.707); and GTOS, 0.660 (95% CI, 0.611-0.706) in severe geriatric trauma. The TRISS also had the highest area under the curve of 0.961 (0.919-0.985) among the injury severity scoring systems in polytrauma. The predictive ability of TRISS was significantly higher than the other four scores with respect to overall trauma and polytrauma (P<0.001). @*Conclusion@#The TRISS showed the highest prognostic performance for predicting in-hospital mortality among all the injury severity scoring systems in severe geriatric trauma.

Confirmation of COVID-19 in Outof-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Patients and Postmortem Management in the Emergency Department during the COVID-19 Outbreak / 감염과화학요법

Background@#There is currently a lack of evidence-based postresuscitation or postmortem guidelines for patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in the setting of an emerging infectious disease. This study aimed to develop and validate a multimodal screening tool that aids in predicting the disease confirmation in emergency situations and patients with OHCA during a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. @*Materials and Methods@#We conducted a retrospective, multicenter observational study of adult patients with OHCA in Daegu, Korea. To identify the potential predictors that could be used in screening tools in the emergency department, we applied logistic regression to data collected from March 1 to March 14. The prediction performance of the screening variables was then assessed and validated on the data of patients with OHCA who were treated between February 19 and March 31, 2020. General patient characteristics and hematological findings of the COVID-19-negative and COVID-19-positive groups were compared. We also evaluated confirmation test criteria as predictors for COVID-19 positivity in patients with OHCA. @*Results@#Advanced age, body temperature, and abnormal chest X-ray (CXR) revealed significant predictive ability in the derivation cohort. Of the 184 adult patients with OHCA identified in the validation cohort, 80 patients were included in the analysis. Notably, 9 patients were positive and 71 were negative on the COVID-19 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test. Five patients (55.6%) in the COVID-19-positive group had a fever before OHCA, and 12 (16.9%) of the COVID-19-negative group had a fever before OHCA (P = 0.018).Eight patients (88.9%) in the COVID-19-positive group had a CXR indicating pneumonic infiltration. Of the criteria for predicting COVID-19, fever or an abnormal CXR had a sensitivity of 100% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 65.4 – 100) and a specificity of 22.5% (95% CI: 13.5 – 34.0). @*Conclusion@#The screening tools that combined fever or abnormal CXR had a good discriminatory ability for COVID-19 infection in adult patients with OHCA. Therefore, during the COVID-19 outbreak period, it is recommended to suspect COVID-19 infection and perform COVID-19 test if patients present with a history of fever or show abnormal findings in postmortem CXR

Comparison of the new and conventional injury severity scoring systems for predicting mortality in severe geriatric trauma

Objective@#This study compared the prognostic performance of the following five injury severity scores: the Geriatric Trauma Outcome Score (GTOS), the Injury Severity Score (ISS), the New Injury Severity Score (NISS), the Revised Trauma Score (RTS), and the Trauma and Injury Severity Score (TRISS) for in-hospital mortality in severe geriatric trauma patients. @*Methods@#A retrospective, cross-sectional, observational study was conducted using a database of severe geriatric trauma patients (age ≥65 years and ISS ≥16) who presented to a single regional trauma center between November 2016 and October 2018. We compared the baseline characteristics between the survivor and mortality groups and the predictive ability of the five scoring systems. @*Results@#A total of 402 patients were included in the analysis; the in-hospital mortality rate was 25.6% (n=103). The TRISS had the highest area under the curve of 0.953 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.927-0.971); followed by RTS, 0.777 (95% CI, 0.733-0.817); NISS, 0.733 (95% CI, 0.687-0.776); ISS, 0.660 (95% CI, 0.612-0.707); and GTOS, 0.660 (95% CI, 0.611-0.706) in severe geriatric trauma. The TRISS also had the highest area under the curve of 0.961 (0.919-0.985) among the injury severity scoring systems in polytrauma. The predictive ability of TRISS was significantly higher than the other four scores with respect to overall trauma and polytrauma (P<0.001). @*Conclusion@#The TRISS showed the highest prognostic performance for predicting in-hospital mortality among all the injury severity scoring systems in severe geriatric trauma.

Confirmation of COVID-19 in Outof-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Patients and Postmortem Management in the Emergency Department during the COVID-19 Outbreak / 감염과화학요법

Background@#There is currently a lack of evidence-based postresuscitation or postmortem guidelines for patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in the setting of an emerging infectious disease. This study aimed to develop and validate a multimodal screening tool that aids in predicting the disease confirmation in emergency situations and patients with OHCA during a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. @*Materials and Methods@#We conducted a retrospective, multicenter observational study of adult patients with OHCA in Daegu, Korea. To identify the potential predictors that could be used in screening tools in the emergency department, we applied logistic regression to data collected from March 1 to March 14. The prediction performance of the screening variables was then assessed and validated on the data of patients with OHCA who were treated between February 19 and March 31, 2020. General patient characteristics and hematological findings of the COVID-19-negative and COVID-19-positive groups were compared. We also evaluated confirmation test criteria as predictors for COVID-19 positivity in patients with OHCA. @*Results@#Advanced age, body temperature, and abnormal chest X-ray (CXR) revealed significant predictive ability in the derivation cohort. Of the 184 adult patients with OHCA identified in the validation cohort, 80 patients were included in the analysis. Notably, 9 patients were positive and 71 were negative on the COVID-19 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test. Five patients (55.6%) in the COVID-19-positive group had a fever before OHCA, and 12 (16.9%) of the COVID-19-negative group had a fever before OHCA (P = 0.018).Eight patients (88.9%) in the COVID-19-positive group had a CXR indicating pneumonic infiltration. Of the criteria for predicting COVID-19, fever or an abnormal CXR had a sensitivity of 100% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 65.4 – 100) and a specificity of 22.5% (95% CI: 13.5 – 34.0). @*Conclusion@#The screening tools that combined fever or abnormal CXR had a good discriminatory ability for COVID-19 infection in adult patients with OHCA. Therefore, during the COVID-19 outbreak period, it is recommended to suspect COVID-19 infection and perform COVID-19 test if patients present with a history of fever or show abnormal findings in postmortem CXR

Discrepancies and Validation of Ethanol Level Determination with Osmolar Gap Formula in Patients with Suspected Acute Poisoning

PURPOSE@#Osmolar gap (OG) has been used for decades to screen for toxic alcohol levels. However, its reliability may vary due to several reasons. We validated the estimated ethanol concentration formula for patients with suspected poisoning and who visited the emergency department. We examined discrepancies in the ethanol level and patient characteristics by applying this formula when it was used to screen for intoxication due to toxic levels of alcohol.@*METHODS@#We retrospectively reviewed 153 emergency department cases to determine the measured levels of toxic ethanol ingestion and we calculated alcohol ingestion using a formula based on serum osmolality. Those patients who were subjected to simultaneous measurements of osmolality, sodium, urea, glucose, and ethanol were included in this study. Patients with exposure to other toxic alcohols (methanol, ethylene glycol, or isopropanol) or poisons that affect osmolality were excluded. OG (the measured-calculated serum osmolality) was used to determine the calculated ethanol concentration.@*RESULTS@#Among the 153 included cases, 114 had normal OGs (OG≤14 mOsm/kg), and 39 cases had elevated OGs (OG>14). The mean difference between the measured and estimated (calculated ethanol using OG) ethanol concentration was −9.8 mg/dL. The 95% limits of agreement were −121.1 and 101.5 mg/dL, and the correlation coefficient R was 0.7037. For the four subgroups stratified by comorbidities and poisoning, the correlation coefficients R were 0.692, 0.588, 0.835, and 0.412, respectively, and the mean differences in measurement between the measured and calculated ethanol levels were −2.4 mg/dL, −48.8 mg/dL, 9.4 mg/dL, and −4.7 mg/dL, respectively. The equation plots had wide limits of agreement.@*CONCLUSION@#We found that there were some discrepancies between OGs and the calculated ethanol concentrations. Addition of a correction factor for unmeasured osmoles to the equation of the calculated serum osmolality would help mitigate these discrepancies.

Validation of critical administration threshold and massive transfusion for mortality prediction in patients with adult severe trauma

OBJECTIVE: A massive transfusion (MT) of 10 or more units of packed red blood cells (PRCs) focuses on the summation volumes over 24 hours. This traditional concept promotes survivor bias and fails to identify the “massively” transfused patient. The critical administration threshold (≥3 units of PRCs per hour, CAT+) has been proposed as a new definition of MT that includes the volume and rate of blood transfusion. This study examined the CAT in predicting mortality in adult patients with severe trauma, compared to MT. METHODS: Retrospective data of adult major trauma patients (age≥15 years, Injury Severity Score [ISS]≥16) from a regional trauma center collected between May 2016 and June 2017 were used to identify the factors associated with trauma-related death. Univariate associations were calculated, and multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the parameters associated with in-hospital mortality. RESULTS: A total of 540 patients were analyzed. The median ISS was 22, and the hospital mortality rate was 30.9% (n=92). Forty-two (7.8%) and 23 (4.3%) patients were CAT+ and traditional MT+, respectively. Severe brain injury, CAT+, acidosis, and elderly age were significant variables in multivariate analysis. CAT+ was associated with a fourfold increased risk of death (odds ratio, 4.427; 95% confidence interval, 1.040–18.849), but MT+ was not associated (odds, 1.837; 95% confidence interval, 0.376–8.979). CONCLUSION: The new concept of CAT for transfusion was a more useful validation concept of mortality in adult severe trauma patients on admission than traditional MT. Encompassing both the rate and volume of transfusion, CAT is a more sensitive tool than common MT definitions.

A case of primary empty sella syndrome combined with Cushing's disease / 대한내과학회지

Empty sella is defined as a sella which, regardless of its size, is completely or partly filled with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and is divided into two groups, primary or secondary. Secondary empty sella syndrome is associated with a prior surgery, radiation therapy or medical treatment of pituitary gland, and otherwise primary. The endocrine function of primary empty sella syndrome is usually normal, but sometimes, this syndrome is associated with complete or partial pituitary insufficiency and rarely pituitary hypersecretion. In the cases of hypersecretion of pituitary hormones, hyperprolactinemia, acromegaly and hypersecretion of adrenocorticotrophin (ACTH) has been reported. but, hypersecretion of ACTH is rarely reported. We describe a patient of primary empty sella syndrome combined with Cushing's disease. So we present this case with a review of the literature.

A Small Rectal Carcinoid Tumor with Liver Metastasis / 대한소화기내시경학회지

Carcinoid tumors are originated from the enterochromaffin cells in the gastrointestinal mucosa. The incidence of rectal carcinoid tumors is more than 10 percent of gastrointestinal tract carcinoid. The tumor has naturally the benign character that does not develop symptoms and it is found incidentally. The tumor may infrequently have a malignant behavior such as invasion to muscle wall, obstruction of bowel lumen and metastasis to distant organ (especially, liver) almost when its size is larger than 2 cm. We have experienced a case of rectal carcinoid tumor smaller than 1 cm in its size with huge metastatic mass of liver.

A Case of Secondary Amyloid Colitis in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Amyloidosis is known as a disease caused by the deposition of a insoluble and fibrous amyloid protein in the extracellular space of various organs and tissue. Intestinal amyloid deposition may develop motility disturbance, malabsorption, bleeding and perforation. A 70-year old woman with lower abdominal pain, watery diarrhea was admitted and had the past history of diabetes mellitus, hypertension for 8 years and rheumatoid arthritis for 10 year. On colonoscopic examination for evaluation of diarrhea, multiple edematous and shallow ulcers was found from distal sigmoid to terminal ileum. A green colored positive birifringent stained amorphous material was found in polarizing microscopy of colon biopsy specimen stained with Congo-red on microscopic examination,. We report a case of amyloidosis causing colon ulcers confirmed by colonoscopic biopsy with review literature.

Hepatic Septal Fibrosis Induced by Long-term Use of Ketoconazole / 대한간학회지

Ketoconazole, an imidazole derivative, is a broad spectrum antifungal agent which has been used widely in the treatment of systemic or local fungal infections. Mild asymptomatic elevation of plasma transaminase activities occurs in approximately 6% to 17.5% of patients who have used ketoconazole. However, the incidence of symptomatic hepatic injury is low and overt hepatitis develops in about 5% of the patients. Nausea and vomiting are the most frequent side reactions. Histopathological features of the reported ketoconazole induced hepatotoxicity are massive or submassive hepatocellular necrosis involving the acinar zone 3, destroyed lobular architecture with bridging necrosis and inflammatory cell infiltration on portal tracts. However, hepatic septal fibrosis with liver cirrhosis has not been reported yet. We experienced a case of hepatic septal fibrosis that developed after 9 months of ketoconazole administration.