Evaluation of an international emergency medicine intervention in Tuscany.

Objective: To measure the effectiveness of a 9-month emergency medicine 'train the trainers' program in Tuscany, Italy.

Methods: A total of 81 physicians with emergency department experience completed a training course in Italy. The course included 120 h of didactic lectures, 700 h of clinical rotations and 30 h of practical workshops.

A comparison between the efficacy of lectures given by emergency and non-emergency physicians in an international emergency medicine educational intervention.

Objective: The Tuscan Emergency Medicine Initiative is an international collaboration designed to create a sustainable emergency medicine training and qualification process in Tuscany, Italy. Part of the program involves training all emergency physicians currently practicing in the region. This qualification process includes didactic lectures, clinical rotations and practical workshops for those with significant emergency department experience.

Usefulness of bedside testing for brain natriuretic peptide to identify right ventricular dysfunction and outcome in normotensive patients with acute pulmonary embolism.

Echocardiographic right ventricular (RV) dysfunction is a well-established prognostic indicator in patients with acute pulmonary embolism. However, the possibility of implementing a rapid and effective triage with biohumoral markers such as brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) may be of value. Sixty-one patients with a first documented episode of acute pulmonary embolism without shock and previous left ventricular dysfunction were prospectively studied.

Effectiveness of a multidisciplinary chest pain unit for the assessment of coronary syndromes and risk stratification in the Florence area.

Background: In patients seen at the emergency department (ED) with chest pain (CP), noninvasive diagnostic strategies may differentiate patients at high or intermediate risk from those at low-risk for cardiovascular events and optimize the use of high-cost resources. However, in welfare healthcare systems, the feasibility, accuracy, and potential benefits of such management strategy need further investigation.

Methods: A total of 13,762 consecutive patients with CP were screened, and their conditions were defined as high, intermediate, and low risk for short-term cardiovascular events.