Clinical Prediction Tool to Assess the Likelihood of a Positive SARS-Cov-2 (COVID-19) Polymerase Chain Reaction Test in Patients with Flu-like Symptoms.

Introduction: The clinical presentation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) overlaps with many other common cold and influenza viruses. Identifying patients with a higher probability of infection becomes crucial in settings with limited access to testing. We developed a prediction instrument to assess the likelihood of a positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, based solely on clinical variables that can be determined within the time frame of an emergency department (ED) patient encounter.

[The impact of a better coordination between emergency and intensive care units in the care of critically ill patients].

The need for critical care services is increasing in Chile. Critical care beds and specialists in this area are scarce. In this article we discuss some aspects that hamper the care of critically ill patients from their arrival to the emergency department to their transfer to the ICU.

Accurate monitoring of intravascular fluid volume: A novel application of intrathoracic impedance measures for the guidance of volume reduction therapy.

Background: A significant proportion of patients admitted for acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) that undergo volume reduction therapy are discharged with unchanged or increased bodyweight suggesting that the endpoints for these therapies are not optimally defined. We aimed to identify vectors that can help monitor changes in intravascular fluid volume, that in turn may more accurately guide volume reduction therapy.

Methods: Data from six different impedance vectors and corresponding changes in intravascular volume derived from changes in hematocrit were obtained from 132 clinical congestion events in 56 unique patients enrolled in a multisite trial of early detection of clinical congestion events (DEFEAT PE).

A Novel Multiple Choice Question Generation Strategy: Alternative Uses for Controlled Vocabulary Thesauri in Biomedical-Sciences Education.

Multiple choice questions play an important role in training and evaluating biomedical science students. However, the resource intensive nature of question generation limits their open availability, reducing their contribution to evaluation purposes mainly. Although applied-knowledge questions require a complex formulation process, the creation of concrete-knowledge questions (i.