Does the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) represent the optimal tool for evaluating pain in the triage process of patients presenting to the ED? Results of a muticenter study.

Unlabelled: Pain evaluation at triage in Emergency Department (ED) is fundamental, as it influences significantly patients color code determination. Different scales have been proposed to quantify pain but they are not always reliable. This study aims to determine a) how important is for triage nurses pain measurement b) reliability of Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), the most used instrument to evaluate pain in Italian EDs, because it frequently shows higher pain scores than others scales.

Hypertension in diabetic pregnancy: impact and long-term outlook.

Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy can be chronic, pregestational or just diagnosed before the 20th week, or newly diagnosed in the second half of pregnancy. Any type of hypertension is more frequent in diabetic pregnancies with a different distribution among different types of diabetes. Most of the evidence is for pre-eclampsia associated with a marked increase in primary caesarean section, preterm birth and more need for neonatal intensive care.

[The plasma fibrinogen as a marker of subclinical carotid atherosclerosis].

Unlabelled: The aim of this study is to evaluate if plasma fibrinogen levels could correlate with carotid lesions.

Methods: We investigated the plasmatic levels of fibrinogen in 100 patients with asymptomatic carotid lesions, examined at ultrasound, and with at least one traditional cardiovascular risk factor.

Results: We found a significant correlation between plasma fibrinogen levels and severity of carotid lesions: intima-media thickness (p < 0.