Publications by authors named "S Alter"
Article Synopsis
- - This study focused on community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children, aiming to identify mucosal biomarkers that can aid in determining the severity and cause of the illness.
- - Researchers analyzed cytokine levels in nasopharyngeal samples from 182 children with CAP and 26 healthy controls, finding that those with atypical bacteria and influenza virus had significantly elevated cytokine concentrations compared to those with typical bacteria.
- - The findings suggest that differences in inflammatory and antiviral cytokine levels correlate with disease severity in CAP, indicating that mucosal biomarkers might be helpful for better assessing and classifying the condition in pediatric patients.
Article Synopsis
- - This study investigates the incidence of delayed intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) in older patients (65+) who suffered head trauma and were on anticoagulant medications, noting that delayed ICH rates post-injury range widely in existing literature.
- - Conducted across two emergency departments with 3,425 enrolled patients, the findings showed a very low incidence of delayed ICH at 0.4%, and no significant difference in rates between patients on anticoagulants and those not on them.
- - The results suggest that delayed ICH is uncommon in this population, which could influence clinical decision-making and management strategies for geriatric patients with blunt head trauma.
Alcohol use is associated with intracranial hemorrhage in older emergency department head trauma patients.
J Am Coll Emerg Physicians Open
August 2024
Objectives: Falls are common in adults aged 65 years and older and are the leading cause of traumatic brain injuries in this age group. Alcohol use may increase the risk of falls as well as the severity of resultant injuries. The aim of this study was to examine the association between self-reported alcohol use and the prevalence of intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) in this patient group.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Several clinical decision rules have been devised to guide head computed tomography (CT) use in patients with minor head injuries, but none have been validated in patients 65 years or older. We aimed to derive and validate a head injury clinical decision rule for older adults.
Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of an existing dataset of consecutive emergency department (ED) patients >65 years old with blunt head trauma.
Educational concepts: A longitudinal interleaved curriculum for emergency medicine residency training.
J Am Coll Emerg Physicians Open
June 2024
Traditionally, emergency medicine (EM) residency programs teach non-adult emergency department activities (such as pediatric EM, point-of-care ultrasound [PoCUS], emergency medical services, and others) in a block format. In this way, a resident may have a 1-month pediatric EM rotation and then not have any further pediatric EM exposure until their next pediatric rotation 6‒9 months later. Furthermore, some rotations are only allotted for 1-month during the entire residency.
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