Relationships between seismic intensity and the prevalence of types of chest injury in patients admitted to our hospital after the Wenchuan and Lushan earthquakes.

a<p>Some patients suffered from more than one type of chest injury and therefore appear multiple times in this table. One patient with diaphragmatic hernia, one with thoracic duct injury, two with mediastinal emphysema and one with mediatinal effusion were not included in the analysis.</p><p>*Based on the likelihood ratio chi-squared test.</p

Comparison of the causes of chest injury in patients admitted to our hospital in the Wenchuan and Lushan earthquakes.

a<p>Patients with injuries reflecting multiple causes were classified according to the cause of their principal injury.</p><p>*Based on the Pearson chi-squared test or Fisher’s exact test.</p

Retrospective Cohort Analysis of Chest Injury Characteristics and Concurrent Injuries in Patients Admitted to Hospital in the Wenchuan and Lushan Earthquakes in Sichuan, China

<div><p>Background</p><p>The aim of this study was to compare retrospectively the characteristics of chest injuries and frequencies of other, concurrent injuries in patients after earthquakes of different seismic intensity.</p><p>Methods</p><p>We compared the cause, type, and body location of chest injuries as well as the frequencies of other, concurrent injuries in patients admitted to our hospital after the Wenchuan and Lushan earthquakes in Sichuan, China. We explored possible relationships between seismic intensity and the causes and types of injuries, and we assessed the ability of the Injury Severity Score, New Injury Severity Score, and Chest Injury Index to predict respiratory failure in chest injury patients.</p><p>Results</p><p>The incidence of chest injuries was 9.9% in the stronger Wenchuan earthquake and 22.2% in the less intensive Lushan earthquake. The most frequent cause of chest injuries in both earthquakes was being accidentally struck. Injuries due to falls were less prevalent in the stronger Wenchuan earthquake, while injuries due to burial were more prevalent. The distribution of types of chest injury did not vary significantly between the two earthquakes, with rib fractures and pulmonary contusions the most frequent types. Spinal and head injuries concurrent with chest injuries were more prevalent in the less violent Lushan earthquake. All three trauma scoring systems showed poor ability to predict respiratory failure in patients with earthquake-related chest injuries.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>Previous studies may have underestimated the incidence of chest injury in violent earthquakes. The distributions of types of chest injury did not differ between these two earthquakes of different seismic intensity. Earthquake severity and interval between rescue and treatment may influence the prevalence and types of injuries that co-occur with the chest injury. Trauma evaluation scores on their own are inadequate predictors of respiratory failure in patients with earthquake-related chest injuries.</p></div

Comparison of the prevalence of types of chest injury among patients admitted to our hospital in the Wenchuan and Lushan earthquakes.

<p>*Based on the Pearson chi-squared test, continuity-corrected chi-squared test or Fisher’s exact test.</p

Comparison of the ability of conventional injury severity scores to predict respiratory failure in patients admitted to our hospital from the Lushan earthquake.

<p>Abbreviations: AUC, area under the ROC curve; CII, chest injury index; ISS, injury severity score; NISS, new injury severity score; 95%CI, 95% confidence interval.</p>a<p>NISS vs. ISS, p = 0.880.</p>b<p>NISS vs. CII, p = 0.136.</p

Relationships between seismic intensity and cause of injury in patients admitted to our hospital after the Wenchuan and Lushan earthquakes.

<p>*Based on the likelihood ratio of the chi-squared test.</p

A computationally efficient formal method for discovering simultaneous masking in medical alarm

Numerous patient injuries and deaths have been caused by medical practitioners failing to respond to medical alarms. Simultaneous masking, where concurrently sounding medical alarms result in one or more being unhearable, is partially responsible for this problem. In previous work, we introduced a computational formal method capable of proving (formally verifying) if masking could occur in a modeled configuration of medical alarms. However, the scalability of the method limited the applicability and completeness of its analyses. In the work presented here, we show how we re-implemented the method to address these shortcomings. We evaluated the detection capabilities and scalability of the new version of the method with a series of realistic and synthetic case studies. Our results show that the new version of the method replicates and improves detection capabilities compared to the legacy method and does so with significant reductions in verification times. We discuss the patient safety implications of our results and explore directions for future research

Force time profile on 20 <i>μ</i>M TPA treated cells at the load rate of (a) 0.2 Hz, and (b) 100 Hz.

<p>Force time profile on 20 <i>μ</i>M TPA treated cells at the load rate of (a) 0.2 Hz, and (b) 100 Hz.</p

Young’s modulus of PC-3 cells treated by: (a) TPA, and (b) Vapronic-Acid, respectively.

<p>Young’s modulus of PC-3 cells treated by: (a) TPA, and (b) Vapronic-Acid, respectively.</p

Comparison of the immunofluorescence images of (a) control, (b) cells treated with MK, and (c) cells treated with Celebrex.

<p>Comparison of the immunofluorescence images of (a) control, (b) cells treated with MK, and (c) cells treated with Celebrex.</p