Women's experiences with early pregnancy loss in the emergency room: A qualitative study.

Objectives: To understand the reasons why women present to the Emergency Room (ER) for Early Pregnancy Loss (EPL)-related care, how they perceive care and counseling there, and their overall experience during and after their visit.

Study Design: This qualitative study utilized semi-structured telephone interviews. Participants were recruited in a large urban ER; women who experienced EPL were interviewed by telephone about their experiences 1-3 weeks after their visit.

The intracavitary ECG method for positioning the tip of central venous catheters: results of an Italian multicenter study.

Purpose: The aim of this multicenter study was to assess the feasibility, safety, and accuracy of the intracavitary ECG method for real-time positioning of the tip of different types of central venous catheters.

Methods: A total of 1444 catheter insertions in adult patients were studied in eight Italian centers (539 ports, 245 PICCs, 325 tunneled CVCs, 335 non-tunneled CVCs). Patients with no visible P wave at the standard baseline ECG were excluded.

Effect of recent cocaine use on the specificity of cardiac markers for diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction.

We evaluated whether recent cocaine use alters the specificity of CK-MB, myoglobin, and cardiac troponin I for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in patients who are seen in the emergency department for chest pain. Patients <60 years old with potential myocardial ischemia underwent a standardized history and physical examination and routine CK-MB assays every 8 to 12 hours and had study serum obtained at presentation for CK-MB, myoglobin, and cardiac troponin I immunoassays, as well as benzoylecgonine, cocaine's main metabolite. We enrolled 97 patients, 19 (20%) of whom had recent used cocaine.

The distribution of ethanol in postmortem blood specimens.

Ethanol was determined by gas chromatography in a variety of tissues and body fluids secured at autopsy in 61 cases. The specimens tested included right and left heart blood, femoral blood, pericardial fluid, cerebrospinal fluid, vitreous humor, urine, stomach contents, and brain. Statistical analysis of the cases revealed no significant differences among the various blood sites tested.

Attempted murder with pancuronium.

A nurse was accused of attempting to murder her anesthesiologist husband on two occasions by administering to him a neuromuscular blocking agent. In both episodes, urine specimens were obtained from the victim shortly after the suspected assaults. The samples were initially tested fluorometrically using Rose Bengal dye as a pairing agent.

The production of amitriptyline from nortriptyline in formaldehyde-containing solutions.

The stability of nortriptyline in aqueous solutions containing various concentrations of formaldehyde was investigated. Amitriptyline, as a reaction product, was determined by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) in these experiments. Factors that may contribute to this phenomenon, including pH, formaldehyde concentration, and incubation time were evaluated.