Full and Modified Glasgow-Blatchford Bleeding Score in Predicting the Outcome of Patients with Acute Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding; a Diagnostic Accuracy Study

Introduction: Screening of high risk patients and accelerating their treatment measures can reduce the burden of the disease caused by acute upper gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding. This study aimed to compare the full and modified Glasgow-Blatchford Bleeding Score (GBS and mGBS) in prediction of in-hospital outcomes of upper GI bleeding.Methods: In the present retrospective cross-sectional study, the accuracy of GBS and mGBS models were compared in predicting the outcome of patients over 18 years of age with acute upper GI bleeding confirmed via endoscopy, presenting to the emergency departments of 3 teaching hospitals during 4 years.Results: 330 cases with the mean age of 59.07 ± 19.00 years entered the study (63.60% male). Area under the curve of GBS and mGBS scoring systems were 0.691 and 0.703, respectively, in prediction of re-bleeding (p = 0.219), 0.562 and 0.563 regarding need for surgery (p = 0.978), 0.549 and 0.542 for endoscopic intervention (p = 0.505), and 0.767 and 0.770 regarding blood transfusion (p = 0.753). Area under the ROC curve of GBS scoring system regarding need for hospitalization in intensive care unit (0.589 vs. 0.563; p = 0.035) and mortality (0.597 vs. 0.564; p = 0.011) was better but the superiority was not clinically significant.Conclusion: GBS and mGBS scoring systems have similar accuracy in prediction of the probability of re-bleeding, need for blood transfusion, surgery and endoscopic intervention, hospitalization in intensive care unit, and mortality of patients with acute upper GI bleeding

A Comparative Study on the Sedative Effect of Oral Midazolam and Oral Promethazine Medication in Lumbar Puncture

How to Cite This Article: Derakhshanfar H, Modanlookordi M, Amini A, Shahrami A. A Comparative Study of the Sedative Effect of Oral Midazolam and Oral Promethazine Medication in Lumbar Puncture. Iran J Child Neurol. 2013 Spring;7(2):11-16. ObjectiveLumbar puncture (LP) essentially is a painful and stressful procedure that indicated for diagnosis and therapeutic purposes. One way to reduce the anxiety is to administer an oral premedication. The aim of this study is to compare clinical effects of oral midazolam and oral promethazine in LP.Materials & MethodsThis prospective randomized controlled clinical trial study wasperformed on 80 children aged 2-7 years that were candidate for LP. They were divided into two randomized equal groups. First group received oral midazolam syrup 0.5 mg/kg and the other group received oral promethazine syrup 1mg/kg. Level of sedation, hemodynamic changes and any other complications were monitored every 5 minutes from 30 minutes before the start of the procedure.ResultsMidazolam group and promethazine group were similar in age, gender and weight. Midazolam had significantly shorter onset of sedation and also shorter duration to maximal sedation. The two groups were similar with respect to sedative effect at all time. The only complication that was significantly more in midazolam group was nausea and vomiting.ConclusionMidazolam syrup and promethazine syrup have same sedative effect in children. Both of these medications are easy to use in preschool children and none of them appeared to be superior to another. References1. Ellenby MS, Tegtmeyer K, Lai S, Braner DA. Lumbar Puncture. N Engl J Med 2006;28;355(13):e12.2. Crock C, Olsson C, Phillips R, Chalkiadis G, Sawyer S, Ashley D, et al. General anesthesia or conscious sedation for painful procedures in childhood cancer: The family’s perspective. Arch Dis Child 2003;88(3):253−7.3. Holdsworth MT, Raisch DW, Winter SS, Frost JD, Moro MA, Doran NH, et al. Pain and distress from Bone marrow aspirations and lumbar punctures. Ann Pharmacother 2003;37(1):17-22.4. Ellis JA, Villeneuve K, Newhook K, Ulrichsen J. Pain Management Practices for Lumbar Punctures: Are We Consistent? J Pediatr Nurs 2007 Dec;22(6):479-87.5. Mathai A, Nazareth M, Raju RS. Preanesthetic sedation of preschool children: comparison of intranasal midazolam versus oral promethazin. Anesth Essays Res 2011;5(1):67-71.6. McCann ME, Kain ZN. The management of preoperative anxiety in children: an update. Anesth Analg 2001; 93(1): 98–105.7. Kain ZN, Caldwell-Andrews AA. Psychological preparation of children undergoing surgery. Anesth Clinic NA 2005;23:597–614.8. Wolf AR, Rosenbarum A, Kain ZN, Larsson P, Lönnqvist PA. The place of premedication in pediatric practice. Paediatr Anaesth 2009;19(9):817-28.9. Yuen VM, Hui TW, Irwin MG, Yuen MK. A Comparison of Intranasal Dexmedetomidine and Oral Midazolam for Premedication in Pediatric Anesthesia: A Double-Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial. Anesth Analg 2008;106(6):1715–21.10. Funk W, Jakob W, Riedl T, Taeger K. Oral preanaestheticmedication for children: double blind randomized study of a combination of midazplam and ketamine vs midazolam or ketamine alone. Br JAnaesth 2000;84(3):355-4011. Mazurek MS. Sedation and Analgesia for Procedures outside the Operating Room. Semin in Pediatr Surg 2004;13(3):166-173.12. Jo SH, Hong HK, Chong SH, Lee HS, Choe H. H1 antihistamine drug promethazine directly blocks hERG K+ channel. Pharmacol Res 2009;60(5):429-37.13. Gutstein HB, Johnson KL, Heard MB, Gregory GA. Oral Ketamine Preanesthetic Medication in children, Anesthesiology 1992;76(1):28-33.14. Almenrader N, Passariello M, Coccetti B, Haiber R, Pietropaoli P. Premedication in children: a comparison of oral midazolam and oral clonidine. Pediatr Anesth 2007;17(12):1143–9.15. Singh N, Pandey RK, Saksena AK, Jaiswal JN. A comparative evaluation of oral midazolam with oral sedatives as  premedication in pediatric dentistry. J Clin Pediatr Dent 2002;26(2):161-4.16. Naziri F, Alijanpour E, Rabei SM, Seifi S, Mir M, Hosseinpour M, et al. Comparison of oral Midazolam with oral Promethazine on decreasing anxiety of children when separated from their parents before anesthesia. J Babol Univ Medl Sci  2007;9(4):29-32.17. Parkinson L, Hughes J, Gill A, Billingham I, Ratcliffe J, Choonara I. A randomized controlled trial of sedation in the critically ill. Paediatr Anaesth 1997;7(5): 405-10. 18. Crean P. Sedation and neuromuscular blockade in paediatric intensive care;practice in the United Kingdom and North America. Paediatr Anaesth 2004;14(6):439-42.19. Schmidt AP, Valinetti EA, Bandeira D, Bertacchi MF, Simões CM, Auler JO Jr. Effects of preanesthetic administration of midazolam, clonidine, or dexmedetomidine on postoperative pain and anxiety in children. Paediatr Anaesth 2007;17(7):667-74.20. Pfeil N, Uhlig U, Kostev K, Carius R, Schröder H, Kiess W, et al. Antiemetic edications in children with presumed infectious gastroenteritis--harmacoepidemiology in Europe and Northern America. J Pediatr 2008;153(5):659-62

True Vertigo Patients in Emergency Department; an Epidemiologic Study

Introduction: Vertigo prevalence is estimated to be 1.8% among young adults and more than 30% in the elderly. 13-38% of the referrals of patients over 65 years old in America are due to vertigo. Vertigo does not increase the risk of mortality but it can affect the patient’s quality of life. Therefore, this study was designed to evaluate the epidemiologic characteristics of vertigo patients referred to the emergency department (ED). Methods: In this 6-month retrospective cross-sectional study, the profiles of all vertigo patients referred to the ED of Imam Hossein Hospital, Tehran, Iran, from October 2013 to March 2014 were evaluated. Demographic data and baseline characteristics of the patients were recorded and then patients were divided into central and peripheral vertigo. The correlation of history and clinical examination with vertigo type was evaluated and screening performance characteristics of history and clinical examination in differentiating central and peripheral vertigo were determined. Results: 379 patients with the mean age of 50.69 ± 11.94 years (minimum 18 and maximum 86) were enrolled (58.13% female). There was no sex difference in vertigo incidence (p = 0.756). A significant correlation existed between older age and increase in frequency of central cases (p < 0.001). No significant difference was detected between the treatment protocols regarding ED length of stay (p = 0.72). There was a significant overlap between the initial diagnosis and the final decision based on imaging and neurologist’s final opinion (p < 0.001). In the end, 361 (95.3%) patients were discharged from ED, while 18 were disposed to the neurology ward. No case of mortality was reported. Conclusion: Sensitivity and specificity of history and clinical examination in differentiating central and peripheral vertigo were 99 (95% CI: 57-99) and 99 (95% CI: 97-99), respectively

Spontaneous Spinal Epidural Hematoma; a Case Report

Spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma (SSHE) is a rare entity can have several reasons. Its prevalence in population is 0.1 per 100,000 with the male to female ratio of 1/4:1. For the first time Jackson in 1869 reported a case of SSHE and after that it was declared as several hundred cases in literatures. Here, a case of SSHE was reported in a 52 year-old male referred to emergency department following severe low back pain

Diagnostic Value of Clinical Findings in Evaluation of Thoracolumbar Blunt Traumas

Introduction: Necessity of imaging for symptom-free conscious patients presented to emergency department (ED) following traumatic thoracolumbar spine injuries has been a matter of debate. The present study was aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of clinical findings in prediction of traumatic thoracolumbar injuries compared tocomputed tomography (CT) scan. Methods: The present diagnostic value study was carried out using non-random convenience sampling during the time between October 2013 and March 2014. All trauma patients > 15 years old underwent thoracolumbar CT scan were included. Correlation between clinical and CT findings was measured using SPSS 21.0 and screening performance characteristics of clinical findings in prediction of thoracolumbar fracture were calculated. Results: 169 patients with mean age of 37.8 ± 17.3 years (rage: 15-86) were evaluated (69.8% male). All fracture patients had at least 1 positive finding in history and physical examination. The fracture was confirmed in only 24.6% of the patients with positive findings in history or physical examination. In 37.5% of patients the location of fracture, matched the area of positive physical examinations. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, PLR, and NLR of clinical findings in comparison to thoracolumbar CT scan were 100 (95% CI: 89 - 100), 1.5 (95% CI: 0.2-6), 24.5 (95% CI: 18.3-31.9), 100 (95% CI: 19.7-100), 32.5 (95% CI: 24.6-43.03), and infinite, respectively. Conclusion: The results of the present study, show the excellent screening performance characteristics of clinical findings in prediction of traumatic thoracolumbar fracture (100% sensitivity). It could be concluded that in conscious patients with stable hemodynamic, who have no distracting pain and are not intoxicated, probability of thoracolumbar fracture is very low and near to zero in case of no positive clinical finding

Quality of Life in Emergency Medicine Specialists of Teaching Hospitals

Introduction: Quality of life (QOL) of emergency medicine specialists can be effective in providing services to patients. The aim of the present study was evaluating the lifestyle of emergency medicine practitioners, understanding their problems, and addressing the solutions to enhance and improve their lifestyles, in teaching hospitals in Iran. Method: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on emergency medicine physicians in 10 teaching hospitals of Iran in 2011. Emergency physicians with at least three years of experience who interested in the study, were enrolled in the project. All participants filled out the consent form and QOL questionnaires, then underwent physical examinations and some medical laboratory tests. Categorical variables were reported as percentages, while continuous variables expressed as means and standard deviations. p <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Totally, 100 subjects participated in the study, of whom 48 were male. The mean and standard deviation of the physicians’ age were 38.7±5.1 years. 43% of physicians had an average QOL, while 37% good. 96% of studied physicians had a good condition regarding habitual history, while 93% of them had a poor condition in performing screening tests. Exercise program and personal health in individuals with normal BMI were correlated with higher levels of QOL. BMI was higher in 40-50 years old subjects than youngers. Hypertension was present in five cases (5%), hypercholesterolemia in six (6%), hypertriglyceridemia in six (6%), increased LDL in four (4%), low HDL in four (4%), and impaired FBS in 4 (4%). Conclusion: The findings showed that 63% of studied emergency physicians had an average level of QOL and other ones good. The majority of physicians had undesirable situation regarding the performance of screening tests

Cause of Emergency Department Mortality; a Case-control Study

Introduction: Based on previous studies, cardiovascular diseases, traffic accidents, traumas and cancers are the most important etiology of mortalities in emergency departments (ED). However, contradictory findings have been reported in relation to mortality in emergency departments. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to evaluate the role of clinical factors in mortality among patients referring to an emergency department in a third-level hospital in Tehran, Iran. Methods: In the present case-control study, all the patients over 18 years of age were evaluated, referring to the ED of Imam Hossein Hospital, Tehran, Iran, from the beginning of 2009 to the end of 2010. The patients died in the ED were placed in the case group and those discharged or hospitalized in other hospital wards in the control group. Demographic data, background diseases, and the final diagnoses were recorded. Chi-squared test, multivariate logistic regression, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient were used to evaluate the relationship between the variables mentioned above and patient mortality. Results: A total of 2907 patients (969 (59.9% male) in the case and 1938 (62.2% male) in the control groups) were evaluated. Cardiovascular diseases (39.2%), severe traumas (18.5%), and cerebrovascular accidents (17.7%) were the most frequent etiology of patient mortality in ED. Multivariate regression analysis showed that presentation with cardiovascular complaints (OR=7.3; 95% CI: 3.5-16.1; p<0.001), a history of hypertension (OR=5.4; 95% CI: 1.2-12.3; p<0.001), severe trauma (OR=4.6; 95% CI: 2.0-13.2; p<0.001), age over 60 (OR=3.8; 95% CI: 1.8-7.8; p<0.01) and a final diagnosis of renal disease (OR=3.4; 95% CI: 2.1-6.4; p<0.001) were factors that increased the odds of mortality in patients referring to the ED. Multivariate regression analysis in patients over 60 years showed that sepsis was an independent factor increasing the risk of death (OR=2.9; 95% CI: 1.3-5.9; p=0.009). A patient’s risk of death increases with an increase in the number of risk factors in that patient (r2=0.96; p=0.02). Conclusion: It appears the odds of mortality in patients referring to ED with cardiovascular complaints, a history of hypertensive, severe trauma, age over 60 and a final diagnosis of renal disease are higher versus other patients. In addition, the patients’ odds of death increase with an increase in the number of risk factors. Such an increase is more noticeable at age over 60

Evaluation of Non-emergency Cases Using Emergency Department Services

مقدمه: بخش اورژانس به منظور ارایه خدمت به بیمارانی طراحی شده که از نظر شرایط فیزیولوژیک ناپایدار بوده و نیاز به بررسی و درمان مداوم براساس سیر بیماری دارند. از این رو بخش عمده ای از مراقبتهای بحرانی برای بیماران نیز در این بخش انجام می گیرد. با این حال تعدادی از بیماران مراجعه کننده به این بخش نیازی به اینگونه خدمات ندارند. مطالعه حاضر با هدف بررسي علل استفاده موارد غیر اورژانس از خدمات بخش اورژانس طراحی و اجرا شد. روش کار: این مطالعه مقطعی در بخش اورژانس بیمارستان امام حسین، تهران، ایران، از مردادماه سال 1393 تا مرداد ماه سال 1394 انجام گرفت. نمونه گیری به روش سرشماری انجام شد و کلیه بیمارانی که در بخش اورژانس پذیرش گردیدند بر اساس الگوریتم دپارتمان اورژانس دانشگاه نیویورک به موارد نیازمند خدمات اورژانس و سایر موارد تقسیم شدند. مواردی که بر اساس نتایج بررسی ها علت مراجعه نوعی بیماری بوده که نیازمند اقدامات اورژانس درمانی نبوده و از نظر سطح تریاژ در سطح چهارم و پنجم قرار داشتند پس از تایید پزشک وارد مطالعه شدند. جمع آوری اطلاعات توسط یک پرستار آموزش دیده و از طریق یک چک لیست انجام گرفت. يافته ها: در مطالعه حاضر 1500 بیمار با میانگین سنی 34/17±0/40 سال وارد مطالعه شدند (47/54 درصد زن). در نهایت 601 (1/40 درصد) مورد مراجعه غیراورژانسی بر اساس تعاریف مطالعه حاضر شناخته شد. تجدید نسخه به دلیل مخدوش بودن (7/16 درصد) و در دسترس نبودن پزشک معالج (07/14 درصد) شایعترین علل مراجعات غیر اورژانس به بخش اورژانس بودند. نتيجه گيری: بر اساس یافته های مطالعه حاضر به نظر می رسد که حدود 40 درصد موارد مراجعه کننده به بخش اورژانس مرکز مورد مطالعه را موارد غیراورژانس تشکیل دادند. تجدید نسخه بدلیل مخدوش بودن و در دسترس نبودن پزشک معالج شایعترین علل مراجعات غیر اورژانس بودند. جنسیت، زمان و ساعت مراجعه و همچنین داشتن سابقه بیماری به عنوان متغیرهای موثر بر مراجعات غیراورژانس مشخص شدند (001/0>p).Introduction: Emergency department (ED) has been designed to provide services for patients that are physiologically unstable and need continuous evaluation and treatment according to the process of their illness. Therefore, a major part of critical care is provided for patients in this department. However, a number of patients visiting ED do not need these kinds of services. The present study was done aiming to evaluate the causes of non-emergency cases using ED services. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in ED of Imam Hossein Hospital, Teran, Iran, from August 2014 to August 2015. Convenience sampling was used and all the patients admitted to ED were divided into groups of in need of emergency services and other, based on the algorithm of New York University ED. Cases that visited due to an illness that did not need emergency services based on the evaluations and were in levels 4 and 5 of triage were included in the study after approval of a physician. Data gathering was done by a trained nurse using a pre-designed checklist. Results: In the present study, 1500 patients with the mean age of 40.0 ± 17.34 years were evaluated (54.47% female). Finally, 601 (40.1%) cases were non-emergency visits based on the definitions of this study. Rewriting the prescriptions due to distortion (16.7%) and unavailability of their physician (14.07%) were the most common causes of non-emergency visits to ED. Sex, time of visit and positive past medical history were identified as variables influencing non-emergency referrals. Conclusion: Based on the findings of the present study, it seems that about 40% of visits to the studied ED were non-emergency cases. Rewriting the prescriptions due to distortion and unavailability of their physician were the most common causes of non-emergency visits. Sex and history of illness were found to be effective variables of non-emergency visits.

Investigating the effects of strategic positioning for development of modern banking services

During the past few years, there have been tremendous changes on banking services and many bank customers are able to do their daily banking activities using recent advances of technology such as internet banking, telephone banking, etc. In this paper, we present an empirical investigation on the effects of strategic positioning for development of modern banking services. The proposed study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale and distributes it among some 385 randomly selected people who live in Tehran in 2013. The questionnaire consists of seven factors including property positioning, advantage positioning, consumer positioning, user positioning, competitive advantage positioning, quality positioning and merchandise category positioning. Using Spearman correlation as well as stepwise regression technique, the study has determined positive and meaningful relationships between different components of strategy positioning development of modern banking services

The Accuracy of Plain Radiography in Detection of Traumatic Intrathoracic Injuries

Introduction: Rapid diagnosis of traumatic intrathoracic injuries leads to improvement in patient management. This study was designed to evaluate the diagnostic value of chest radiography (CXR) in comparison to chest computed tomography (CT) scan in diagnosis of traumatic intrathoracic injuries. Methods: Participants of this prospective diagnostic accuracy study included multiple trauma patients over 15 years old with stable vital admitted to emergency department (ED) during one year. The correlation of CXR and CT scan findings in diagnosis of traumatic intrathoracic injuries was evaluated using SPSS 20. Screening characteristics of CXR were calculated with 95% CI. Results: 353 patients with the mean age of 35.2 ± 15.8 were evaluated (78.8% male). Age 16-30 years with 121 (34.2%), motorcycle riders with 104 (29.5%) cases and ISS < 12 with 185 (52.4%) had the highest frequency among patients. Generally, screening performance characteristics of chest in diagnosis of chest traumatic injuries were as follows: sensitivity 50.3 (95% CI: 44.8 – 55.5), specificity 98.9 (95% CI: 99.5 – 99.8), PPV 97.8 (95% CI: 91.5 – 99.6), NPV 66.4 (95% CI: 60.2 – 72.03), PLR 44.5 (95% CI: 11.3 175.3), and NLR 0.5 (95% CI: 0.4 – 0.6). Accuracy of CXR in diagnosis of traumatic intrathoracic injuries was 74.5 (95% CI: 69.6 – 78.9) and its area under the ROC curve was 74.6 (95% CI: 69.3 – 79.8). Conclusion: The screening performance characteristics of CXR in diagnosis of traumatic intrathoracic injuries were higher than 90% in all pathologies except pneumothorax (50.3%). It seems that this matter has a great impact on the general screening characteristics of the test (74.3% accuracy and 50.3%sensitivity). It seems that, plain CXR should be used as an initial screening tool more carefully