From Medscape (7.1.16, open access, click to open) - Amal Mattu’s "Three Must-Read Emergency Medicine Articles of 2015”.
The first two are practice changing articles and well worth a read:
The issue of using age-adjusted D-dimer threshold (top normal level = age × 10 ng/mL rather than a generic 500 ng/mL cutoff) for patients older than 50 years, comes up again and appears to be the way to go. I am not sure how to use this in the Australian setting as we have cutoffs which differ between hospitals.
Enjoy,
Danny
Danny Ben-Eli, BSc, MD, FACEM
Emergency Physician
The first two are practice changing articles and well worth a read:
- Cardiac Arrest: A Treatment Algorithm for Emergent Invasive Cardiac Procedures in the Resuscitated Comatose Patient.
- Evaluation of Patients With Suspected Acute Pulmonary Embolism: Best Practice Advice From the Clinical Guidelines Committee of the American College of Physicians.
The issue of using age-adjusted D-dimer threshold (top normal level = age × 10 ng/mL rather than a generic 500 ng/mL cutoff) for patients older than 50 years, comes up again and appears to be the way to go. I am not sure how to use this in the Australian setting as we have cutoffs which differ between hospitals.
Enjoy,
Danny
Danny Ben-Eli, BSc, MD, FACEM
Emergency Physician