Publications by authors named "Raul Lopez Izquierdo"

Objectives: Point-of-care testing available in prehospital settings requires the establishment of new medical decision points. The aim of the present work was to determine the cut-off of the lactate threshold that activates alert triggers for all-cause 2-day mortality.

Design: Multicentre, prospective, ambulance-based, observational study.

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Background: The study of the inclusion of new variables in already existing early warning scores is a growing field. The aim of this work was to determine how capnometry measurements, in the form of end-tidal CO2 (ETCO2) and the perfusion index (PI), could improve the National Early Warning Score (NEWS2).

Methods: A secondary, prospective, multicenter, cohort study was undertaken in adult patients with unselected acute diseases who needed continuous monitoring in the emergency department (ED), involving two tertiary hospitals in Spain from October 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023.

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Introduction: The use of medications by emergency medical services (EMS) is increasing. Conventional scores are time-consuming and therefore difficult to use in an emergency setting. For early decision-making, an easy-to-use score based on the medications administered by the EMS may have prognostic value.

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How prehospital medication predicts patient outcomes is unclear. The aim of this work was to unveil the association between medication burden administration in prehospital care and short, mid, and long-term mortality (2, 30, and 365 day) in unselected acute diseases and to assess the potential of the number of medications administered for short, mid, and long-term mortality prediction. A prospective, multicenter, ambulance-based, cohort study was carried out in adults with unselected acute diseases managed by emergency medical services (EMS).

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Background And Objectives: To analyze the ability of prehospital lactate levels to predict 2-day in-hospital mortality in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI), severe TBI (Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) ≤ 8 points), and mild or moderate TBI (GCS ≥ 9 points). Second, 90-day mortality was also explored.

Methods: This was a prospective, multicenter, emergency medical services (EMSs) delivery, ambulance-based, derivation-validation cohort study developed in 5 tertiary hospitals (Spain), from November 1, 2019, to July 31, 2022.

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Article Synopsis
  • - This study investigates how well high-sensitivity troponin tests using point-of-care testing (POCT) devices can diagnose non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) compared to standard lab tests in emergency department patients with chest pain.
  • - Conducted in two hospitals in Spain, the research involved 201 patients and found a strong correlation between POCT and laboratory results, with high diagnostic accuracy (AUC over 0.9) and faster testing times using POCT.
  • - The findings indicate that high-sensitivity troponin POCT devices can effectively match laboratory methods for diagnosing NSTEMI, potentially leading to quicker clinical decisions and improved resource use in emergency settings.
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Emergency medical services (EMSs) face critical situations that require patient risk classification based on analytical and vital signs. We aimed to establish clustering-derived phenotypes based on prehospital analytical and vital signs that allow risk stratification. This was a prospective, multicenter, EMS-delivered, ambulance-based cohort study considering six advanced life support units, 38 basic life support units, and four tertiary hospitals in Spain.

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Aim: The development of predictive models for patients treated by emergency medical services (EMS) is on the rise in the emergency field. However, how these models evolve over time has not been studied. The objective of the present work is to compare the characteristics of patients who present mortality in the short, medium and long term, and to derive and validate a predictive model for each mortality time.

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Objectives: Identifying host response biomarkers implicated in the emergence of organ failure during infection is key to improving the early detection of this complication.

Methods: Twenty biomarkers of innate immunity, T-cell response, endothelial dysfunction, coagulation, and immunosuppression were profiled in 180 surgical patients with infections of diverse severity (IDS) and 53 with no infection (nIDS). Those better differentiating IDS/nIDS in the area under the curve were combined to test their association with the sequential organ failure assessment score by linear regression analysis in IDS.

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Background: This study aimed to evaluate three prehospital early warning scores (EWSs): RTS, MGAP and MREMS, to predict short-term mortality in acute life-threatening trauma and injury/illness by comparing United States (US) and Spanish cohorts.

Methods: A total of 8,854 patients, 8,598/256 survivors/nonsurvivors, comprised the unified cohort. Datasets were randomly divided into training and test sets.

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Objectives: To develop and validate a risk model for 1-year mortality based on variables available from early prehospital emergency attendance of patients with infection.

Material And Methods: Prospective, observational, noninterventional multicenter study in adults with suspected infection transferred to 4 Spanish hospitals by advanced life-support ambulances from June 1, 2020, through June 30, 2022. We collected demographic, physiological, clinical, and analytical data.

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Article Synopsis
  • A multicenter study in Spain analyzed the relationship between end-tidal CO2 (ETCO2) and perfusion index (PI) with in-hospital mortality for patients in the emergency department, involving 687 adult patients from October 2022 to June 2023.
  • The study found that the overall in-hospital mortality rate was 6.8%, with significant differences in median ETCO2 and PI values between survivors and nonsurvivors, suggesting these measures reflect patient prognosis.
  • The findings highlighted that PI and respiratory rate independently correlate with mortality, outperforming standard vital signs in predicting patient outcomes.
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Background: A myriad of early warning scores (EWSs) exist, yet there is a need to identify the most clinically valid score to be used in prehospital respiratory assessments to estimate short-term and midterm mortality, intensive-care unit admission, and airway management in life-threatening acute respiratory distress.

Methods: This is a prospective, observational, multicentre, ambulance-based, external validation study performed in 44 ambulance services and four hospitals across three Spanish provinces (ie, Salamanca, Segovia, and Valladolid). We identified adults (ie, those aged 18 years and older) discharged to the emergency department with suspected acute respiratory distress.

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Objectives: Identifying patients with COVID-19 who are at risk of poor evolution is key to early decide on their hospitalization. We evaluated the combined impact of nucleocapsid (N)-antigenemia profiled by a rapid test and antibodies against the S1 subunit of the SARS-CoV S protein (S1) on the hospitalization risk of patients with COVID-19.

Methods: N-antigenemia and anti-S1 antibodies were profiled at admission to the emergency department in 146 patients with COVID-19 using the Panbio® antigen Rapid Test and the SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin G II Quant/SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin G assay from Abbott.

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The identification and appropriate management of patients at risk of suffering from acute chest pain (ACP) in prehospital care are not straightforward. This task could benefit, as occurs in emergency departments (EDs), from cardiac enzyme assessment. The aim of the present work was to derive and validate a scoring system based on troponin T (cTnT), N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), and D-dimer to predict 1-year mortality in patients with ACP.

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Objective: The aim was to explore the association of demographic and prehospital parameters with short-term and long-term mortality in acute life-threatening cardiovascular disease by using a hazard model, focusing on elderly individuals, by comparing patients under 75 years versus patients over 75 years of age.

Design: Prospective, multicentre, observational study.

Setting: Emergency medical services (EMS) delivery study gathering data from two back-to-back studies between 1 October 2019 and 30 November 2021.

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Background And Importance: Lactate is an already recognized biomarker for short-term mortality. However, how glycemia and diabetes affect the predictive ability of lactate needs to be revealed.

Objective: To determine how hypoglycemia, normoglycemia, and hyperglycemia modify the predictive ability of lactate for short-term mortality (3 days).

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Prehospital emergency medical services (EMS) are the main gateway for trauma patients. Recent advances in point-of-care testing and the development of early warning scores have allowed EMS to improve patient classification. We aimed to identify patients presenting with major trauma involving life-saving interventions (LSI) using the modified Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (mSOFA) score in the prehospital scenario, and to compare these results with those of other trauma scores.

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Purpose: The aim of the study is to evaluate the predictive factors for a poor prognosis in patients with facial paralysis evaluated in the rehabilitation department of a tertiary hospital.

Methods: We have conducted a prospective cohort study. Patients who required elective botulinum toxin infiltration, surgical treatment, or follow-up appointments longer than 6 months due to incomplete recovery were considered to have a poor prognosis.

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Background: Information for treatment or hospital derivation of prehospital seizures is limited, impairing patient condition and hindering patients risk assessment by the emergency medical services (EMS). This study aimed to determine the associated factors to clinical impairment, and secondarily, to determine risk factors associated to cumulative in-hospital mortality at 2, 7 and 30 days, in patients presenting prehospital seizures.

Methods: Prospective, multicentre, EMS-delivery study involving adult subjects with prehospital seizures, including five advanced life support units, 27 basic life support units and four emergency departments in Spain.

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Objective: This study aimed to determine the long-term mortality (one-year follow-up) associated with patients transferred by Emergency Medical Services (EMS), and to reveal the determinants (causes and risk factors).

Methods: This was a multicenter, prospective, observational, controlled, ambulance-based study of adult patients transferred by ambulance to emergency departments (EDs) from October 2019 through July 2021 for any cause. A total of six Advanced Life Support (ALS) units, 38 Basic Life Support (BLS) units, and five hospitals from Spain were included.

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