The Influence of Cervical Collar Immobilization on Optic Nerve Sheath Diameter.

Background: Prior research has revealed that cervical collars elevate intracranial pressure (ICP) in patients with traumatic brain injury. Two recent small studies evaluated the change in optic sheath nerve diameter (ONSD) measured by ultrasound as a proxy for ICP following cervical collar placement in healthy volunteers.

Objective: We sought to validate the finding that ONSD measured by ultrasound increases after cervical collar placement within an independent data set.

A prospective study to assess the association of body mass index and contamination of urinalysis samples.

Background: There is a commonly held belief that overweight women are more likely to offer contaminated urine samples (UAs) in the emergency department (ED) than women with normal body mass index (BMI). However, there is a paucity of research evaluating this potential concern.

Objective: We hypothesized that patients with higher BMI would be more likely to provide contaminated urine samples than women with low BMI.