Variables associated with discordance between emergency physician and neurologist diagnoses of transient ischemic attacks in the emergency department.

Study Objective: Transient ischemic attack is a common clinical diagnosis in emergency department (ED) patients with acute neurologic complaints. Accurate diagnosis of transient ischemic attack is essential to help guide evaluation and avoid treatment delays. We seek to determine the prevalence of discordant diagnosis for patients receiving an ED diagnosis of transient ischemic attack compared with neurologist final diagnosis.

Can the ABCD2 risk score predict positive diagnostic testing for emergency department patients admitted for transient ischemic attack?

Background And Purpose: We sought to determine if the ABCD2 score, typically used for risk stratification, could predict having a positive diagnostic test in patients evaluated acutely for transient ischemic attack.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study for patients admitted from our emergency department with a new diagnosis of transient ischemic attack confirmed by a neurologist. ABCD2 scores were calculated and patients with a score of > or = 4 were placed in the high-risk cohort.

Interrater reliability of cardiac output measurements by transcutaneous Doppler ultrasound: implications for noninvasive hemodynamic monitoring in the ED.

Introduction: Hemodynamic monitoring is an important aspect of caring for the critically ill patients boarding in the emergency department (ED). The purpose of this study is to investigate the interrater agreement of noninvasive cardiac output measurements using transcutaneous Doppler ultrasound technique.

Methods: This is a prospective observational cohort study performed in a 32-bed adult ED of an academic tertiary center with approximately 65000 annual patient visits.