Epidemiology, prehospital care and outcomes of patients arriving by ambulance with dyspnoea: An observational study

Background: This study aimed to determine epidemiology and outcome for patients presenting to emergency departments (ED) with shortness of breath who were transported by ambulance. Methods: This was a planned sub-study of a prospective, interrupted time series cohort study conducted at three time points in 2014 and which included consecutive adult patients presenting to the ED with dyspnoea as a main symptom. For this sub-study, additional inclusion criteria were presentation to an ED in Australia or New Zealand and transport by ambulance. The primary outcomes of interest are the epidemiology and outcome of these patients. Analysis was by descriptive statistics and comparisons of proportions. Results: One thousand seven patients met inclusion criteria. Median age was 74 years (IQR 61-68) and 46.1 % were male. There was a high rate of co-morbidity and chronic medication use. The most common ED diagnoses were lower respiratory tract infection (including pneumonia, 22.7 %), cardiac failure (20.5%) and exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (19.7 %). ED disposition was hospital admission (including ICU) for 76.4 %, ICU admission for 5.6 % and death in ED in 0.9 %. Overall in-hospital mortality among admitted patients was 6.5 %. Discussion: Patients transported by ambulance with shortness of breath make up a significant proportion of ambulance caseload and have high comorbidity and high hospital admission rate. In this study, >60 % were accounted for by patients with heart failure, lower respiratory tract infection or COPD, but there were a wide range of diagnoses. This has implications for service planning, models of care and paramedic training. Conclusion: This study shows that patients transported to hospital by ambulance with shortness of breath are a complex and seriously ill group with a broad range of diagnoses. Understanding the characteristics of these patients, the range of diagnoses and their outcome can help inform training and planning of services

Fuzzy keyword search over encrypted data in the public key setting

Searchable encryption is used to support searches over encrypted data stored on cloud servers. Traditional searchable encryption only supports exact keyword search instead of more flexible fuzzy keyword search. To solve this problem, a recent emerging paradigm, named fuzzy keyword searchable encryption, has been proposed. There have been some proposals designed for fuzzy keyword search in the symmetric key setting, but none efficient schemes in the public key setting. In this paper, we propose a new primitive of interactive public key encryption with fuzzy keyword search (IPEFKS), which supports efficient fuzzy keyword search over encrypted data in the public key setting. We construct and implement a homomorphic encryption based IPEFKS scheme. To compare this scheme with the existing ones, we implement LWW-FKS, which, to the best of our knowledge, is the most efficient among the existing schemes. The experimental results show that IPEFKS is much more efficient than LWW-FKS. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.Searchable encryption is used to support searches over encrypted data stored on cloud servers. Traditional searchable encryption only supports exact keyword search instead of more flexible fuzzy keyword search. To solve this problem, a recent emerging paradigm, named fuzzy keyword searchable encryption, has been proposed. There have been some proposals designed for fuzzy keyword search in the symmetric key setting, but none efficient schemes in the public key setting. In this paper, we propose a new primitive of interactive public key encryption with fuzzy keyword search (IPEFKS), which supports efficient fuzzy keyword search over encrypted data in the public key setting. We construct and implement a homomorphic encryption based IPEFKS scheme. To compare this scheme with the existing ones, we implement LWW-FKS, which, to the best of our knowledge, is the most efficient among the existing schemes. The experimental results show that IPEFKS is much more efficient than LWW-FKS. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Clinical Diagnostic Study of a Novel Injection Molded Swab for SARS-Cov-2 Testing

10.1007/s40121-020-00391-6INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND THERAPY1021015-102

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hyperacute stroke treatment: experience from a comprehensive stroke centre in Singapore

10.1007/s11239-020-02225-1JOURNAL OF THROMBOSIS AND THROMBOLYSIS503596-60

Design and Multicenter Clinical Validation of a 3-Dimensionally Printed Nasopharyngeal Swab for SARS-CoV-2 Testing

10.1001/jamaoto.2020.5680JAMA OTOLARYNGOLOGY-HEAD & NECK SURGERY1475418-42

Epidemiology, prehospital care and outcomes of patients arriving by ambulance with dyspnoea: An observational study

© 2016 The Author(s). Background: This study aimed to determine epidemiology and outcome for patients presenting to emergency departments (ED) with shortness of breath who were transported by ambulance. Methods: This was a planned sub-study of a prospective, interrupted time series cohort study conducted at three time points in 2014 and which included consecutive adult patients presenting to the ED with dyspnoea as a main symptom. For this sub-study, additional inclusion criteria were presentation to an ED in Australia or New Zealand and transport by ambulance. The primary outcomes of interest are the epidemiology and outcome of these patients. Analysis was by descriptive statistics and comparisons of proportions. Results: One thousand seven patients met inclusion criteria. Median age was 74 years (IQR 61-68) and 46.1 % were male. There was a high rate of co-morbidity and chronic medication use. The most common ED diagnoses were lower respiratory tract infection (including pneumonia, 22.7 %), cardiac failure (20.5%) and exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (19.7 %). ED disposition was hospital admission (including ICU) for 76.4 %, ICU admission for 5.6 % and death in ED in 0.9 %. Overall in-hospital mortality among admitted patients was 6.5 %. Discussion: Patients transported by ambulance with shortness of breath make up a significant proportion of ambulance caseload and have high comorbidity and high hospital admission rate. In this study, >60 % were accounted for by patients with heart failure, lower respiratory tract infection or COPD, but there were a wide range of diagnoses. This has implications for service planning, models of care and paramedic training. Conclusion: This study shows that patients transported to hospital by ambulance with shortness of breath are a complex and seriously ill group with a broad range of diagnoses. Understanding the characteristics of these patients, the range of diagnoses and their outcome can help inform training and planning of services