Late postpartum eclampsia as an obstetric complication seen in the ED.

Preeclampsia is a complication of pregnancy associated with hypertension and proteinuria. Preeclampsia may be associated with grand mal seizures and is termed eclampsia. Historically, eclampsia occurring more than 48 hours after delivery, known as late postpartum eclampsia, was thought to be uncommon; however, recent evidence suggests that its incidence is increasing.

Effectiveness of a multidisciplinary quality improvement initiative in reducing door-to-balloon times in primary angioplasty.

Primary angioplasty (PA) for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has emerged as the standard of care in hospitals with cardiac interventional facilities. The benefits from the PA are time dependent, but recent data raise concerns regarding the timeliness of delivery of care in AMI and the level of benefit achieved by current standards. We assessed the effectiveness of an extensive multidisciplinary quality improvement initiative in reducing door-to-balloon (DTB) times in PA.

Value of a single troponin T at the time of presentation as compared to serial CK-MB determinations in patients with suspected myocardial ischemia.

Background: Prior studies with cardiac markers have focused predominantly on subjects presenting to the emergency department with chest pain or unstable angina, and have relied on serial markers for the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction. We evaluated the diagnostic utility of a single cardiac troponin T (cTnT) determination at the time of presentation as compared to serial creatine kinase (CK) MB determinations in a broad spectrum of patients with suspected myocardial ischemia.

Methods: A total of 267 consecutive patients presenting to the emergency department with suspected myocardial ischemia had a single, blinded cTnT determination drawn at the time of presentation to the emergency department in addition to routine serial electrocardiographic and CK-MB determinations.