Towards evidence based emergency medicine: Best BETs from the Manchester Royal Infirmary. BET 1: Is ultrasound or chest x ray best for the diagnosis of pneumothorax in the emergency department?

ED transthoracic ultrasound is better than plain x ray in the diagnosis of pneumothorax in the supine patient. CT thorax is the gold standard for diagnosis.

Towards evidence based emergency medicine: best BETs from the Manchester Royal Infirmary. Oral methionine compared with intravenous n-acetyl cysteine for paracetamol overdose.

A short cut review was carried out to establish whether methionine was better than n-acetyl cysteine at reducing the severity of liver damage after paracetamol overdose. Thirty nine papers were found using the reported search, of which two presented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these best papers are tabulated.