Hong Kong Journal of Emergency Medicine

Diabetes mellitus is a disease associated with several complications in its acute and chronic stages.

The aim of the study was to determine the treatment-associated changes in optic nerve sheath diameter in patients admitted to the emergency department due to one of the acute hyperglycemic complications of diabetes mellitus.

Diabetic patients with serum glucose levels of 250 mg/dL or higher were included in the study. Healthy volunteers were included in the control group. Optic nerve sheath diameter was measured at 0th hour and at the end of the second hour. Blood samples were collected simultaneously with optic nerve sheath diameter measurements.

The study included 100 individuals. Group 1 included 50 patients and Group 2 included 50 healthy adults. Optic nerve sheath diameter was 4.5 ± 0.4 mm in Group 1 and 4.4 ± 0.5 mm in Group 2 in 0th hour, and no statistical difference was found between the groups (p = 0.162). In Group 1, optic nerve sheath diameter increased 0.6 ± 0.4 mm after the treatment. Of the patients in Group 1, 22 (44%) patients with diabetic ketoacidosis or hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state were assigned to Group 1A and 28 (56%) patients with isolated hyperglycemia were assigned to Group 1B. There was not a difference between the pre- and post-treatment optic nerve sheath diameter values of the patients in Group 1A and Group 1B. Optic nerve sheath diameter was observed to enlarge after treatment. The difference in optic nerve sheath diameter was 0.6 ± 0.4 mm in Group 1A and 0.5 ± 0.4 mm in Group 1B (p = 0.294).

Pre-treatment optic nerve sheath diameter values of the patients who were diagnosed with one of the acute hyperglycemic complications of diabetes mellitus are not different from healthy adults. Furthermore, optic nerve sheath diameter values do not change with the severity of the disease. However, optic nerve sheath diameter values change with treatment. For this reason, optic nerve sheath diameter can be used to following the development of brain edema.

Ischemic stroke is a leading cause of death and functional disability worldwide. Several clinical scores or stroke scales, biological test or markers, clinical signs, and radiological imaging have been performed to predict both worse neurologic outcome and mortality for ischemic stroke.

The aim of our study was to investigate the association between early Bispectral Index scores and in-hospital mortality in patients with ischemic stroke.

This is a comparative prospective methodological study, in which we evaluated the predictive accuracies of Bispectral Index, Glasgow Coma Scale, and Charlson Comorbidity Index for in-hospital mortality of patients with ischemic stroke. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was used for comparing the accuracy of the scoring systems, areas under receiver operating characteristic curves were calculated, and Youden J index was used for estimating associated cut-off values.

Among the 80 ischemic stroke patients, in-hospital mortality rate was 38.8% (n = 31). The areas under receiver operating characteristic curves were 0.984, 0.960, and 0.863 for Bispectral Index, Glasgow Coma Scale, and Charlson Comorbidity Index, respectively. The difference between areas under receiver operating characteristic curves for Bispectral Index and Glasgow Coma Scale was statistically similar. Besides, the difference between areas under receiver operating characteristic curves for Bispectral Index and Charlson Comorbidity Index, and the difference between areas under receiver operating characteristic curves for Glasgow Coma Scale and Charlson Comorbidity Index were statistically significant. The associated cut-off values were ⩽74, ⩽12, and >4 for Bispectral Index, Glasgow Coma Scale, and Charlson Comorbidity Index, respectively. For these cut-off points, sensitivity and specificity of Bispectral Index were 93.6% and 95.9%, sensitivity and specificity of Glasgow Coma Scale were 100.0% and 83.7%, and sensitivity and specificity of Charlson Comorbidity Index were 83.9% and 69.4%, respectively. However, accuracy of Bispectral Index was 95.0%, accuracy of Glasgow Coma Scale was 90.0%, and accuracy of Charlson Comorbidity Index was 75.0.

Knowledge of the risk factors for mortality in patients with ischemic stroke can help to identify which patients have a higher risk of fatal outcome. The Bispectral Index score improved discrimination and classified patients with higher mortality better than both Glasgow Coma Scale and Charlson Comorbidity Index.

Subarachnoid hemorrhages is an important emergency condition due to its high morbidity and mortality. Early diagnosis and rapid intervention are very important to prevent poor clinical outcome of this disease.

The aim of this study was to determine the value of glial fibrillary acidic protein in the diagnosis and prognosis of subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Patients presenting to the emergency department and undergoing computerized tomography and/or lumbar puncture due to suspicion of subarachnoid hemorrhage were included in this prospective study. Based on the computerized tomography–lumbar puncture results, cases were divided into subarachnoid hemorrhage group and non–subarachnoid hemorrhage control group. Subarachnoid hemorrhage patients were classified on the basis of severity of subarachnoid hemorrhage and were classified as good or poor clinical outcome groups based on Glasgow Outcome Scores. Glial fibrillary acidic protein levels were then compared.

A total of 111 patients were evaluated due to suspicion of subarachnoid hemorrhage and diagnosed with subarachnoid hemorrhage (n = 73) or without subarachnoid hemorrhage (n = 38). Cerebrospinal fluid glial fibrillary acidic protein levels were significantly higher in the subarachnoid hemorrhage group than in the non–subarachnoid hemorrhage group (p < 0.001) (median (25%–75%): 11.62 (2.64–68.04) and 2.26 (1.5–4.83), respectively). Serum glial fibrillary acidic protein levels of the subarachnoid hemorrhage patients with poor clinical outcomes were higher than those of subarachnoid hemorrhage patients with good clinical outcomes (p = 0.003) and cerebrospinal fluid glial fibrillary acidic protein levels were similar (p = 0.379). Glial fibrillary acidic protein levels at the time of presentation exhibited a low level of correlation with Glasgow coma score, World Federation of Neurological Surgeons scale, Hunter–Hess Scale, Ogilvy–Carter Scale, Glasgow Outcome Score, and modified Rankin score.

Cerebrospinal fluid glial fibrillary acidic protein levels may be a valuable diagnostic parameter at the time of presentation for diagnosis of subarachnoid hemorrhage. And also serum glial fibrillary acidic protein levels may be useful in predicting subarachnoid hemorrhage patients with poor clinical outcomes.

Non-traumatic headache accounts for up to 4.5% of all patients presenting to the emergency department. Non-traumatic headache is generally classified into two categories: primary and secondary headache disorders. Differentiating secondary from primary headache disorders is essential. SNOOP4 is known as a mnemonic for suggesting clinicians send neuroimaging to rule out serious conditions. Yet, the benefit of using this mnemonic in the emergency department is not well established. This study aimed to assess the significance of SNOOP4 in detecting serious causes of non-traumatic headache in adults presenting to the emergency department.

We conducted a prospective observational study of adult patients presenting to the emergency department of the single tertiary hospital over a period of 12 months. Patients with acute non-traumatic headache presented at the emergency department were included. A standard record form was used. Patients were investigated and treated following the pre-existing protocols. Results were interpreted by attending radiologists. Each factor, according to SNOOP4, was then evaluated for the ability to predict serious causes of non-traumatic headache.

A total of 90 patients were included in this study with complete details obtained on 83 (92.2%) patients. Of these, 63 (75.9%) were female. The mean age was 44.5 years (inter-quartile range: 27–58.5). The duration of the headache ranged from 10 min to 7 days. Out of 83, 27 (32.5%) had at least one SNOOP4 criterion. In all, 25 patients (30.1%) underwent neuroimaging. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of SNOOP4 were 77.8%, 73.0%, 25.9%, and 96.4% respectively.

SNOOP4 criteria show very high negative predictive value for excluding serious causes of acute non-traumatic headache in adult patients presenting to the emergency department.

The professional quality of life of healthcare professionals in emergency departments may be compromised during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study aims to examine professional quality of life and resilience as well as their relationships among emergency department healthcare professionals in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 outbreak.

This study employed a cross-sectional design. Healthcare professionals (doctors and nurses) working in emergency departments in Hong Kong were recruited via snowball sampling. The Professional Quality of Life Scale, version 5, and the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale were used to assess their positive (compassion satisfaction) and negative (secondary traumatic stress and burnout) aspects of professional quality of life and self-reported resilience. Socio-demographics and work-related characteristics were also analysed.

A total of 106 participants provided valid responses. The results showed an overall moderate level of compassion satisfaction, secondary traumatic stress and burnout among emergency department healthcare professionals. The mean score of the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale was 23.8. Backward linear regression analyses revealed self-reported resilience was the only significant predictor of compassion satisfaction (regression coefficient B = 0.875; p < 0.001), secondary traumatic stress (B = −0.294, p < 0.001) and burnout (B = −0.670; p < 0.001), explaining 70.6%, 18.5% and 59.8% of total variance, respectively.

Emergency department healthcare professionals in Hong Kong experienced an overall moderate level of professional quality of life during the COVID-19 outbreak. Those with a higher level of self-reported resilience had better compassion satisfaction and lower levels of secondary traumatic stress and burnout. The results support the importance of developing interventions that foster resilience among this group of emergency department healthcare professionals to combat COVID-19.

No previous studies have investigated the relationship between the optic nerve sheath diameter and raised intracranial pressure in pediatric patients or have evaluated the usefulness of optic nerve sheath diameter in ocular ultrasound and brain computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging. This study aimed to meta-analyze the diagnostic performance of optic nerve sheath diameter for the diagnosis of raised intracranial pressure in pediatric patients.

A database search of PubMed and EMBASE was performed to identify relevant studies. Bivariate modeling and hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristics modeling were performed to evaluate diagnostic performance. A pooled diagnostic odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval, not including 1, was considered informative. Subgroup analysis was performed according to the modality (ocular ultrasound vs brain computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging). We performed meta-regression analyses for heterogeneity exploration.

Eleven studies involving 546 patients were included. According to pooled diagnostic odds ratios, optic nerve sheath diameter was informative for the evaluation of raised intracranial pressure (diagnostic odds ratio, 47; 95% confidence interval, 11–206). Optic nerve sheath diameter showed a pooled sensitivity of 0.88 (95% confidence interval, 0.79–0.94), a pooled specificity of 0.86 (95% confidence interval, 0.70–0.95), and an area under the hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristics curve of 0.93 (95% confidence interval, 0.91–0.95) for the diagnosis of raised intracranial pressure. According to the subgroup analysis, ocular ultrasound (sensitivity, 0.91 (95% confidence interval, 0.81–0.96); specificity, 0.86 (95% confidence interval, 0.65–0.96)) showed higher sensitivity and comparable specificity than optic nerve sheath diameter measured on brain computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (sensitivity, 0.75 (95% confidence interval, 0.51–0.99); specificity, 0.91 (95% confidence interval, 0.74–1.00)). On meta-regression analysis, the study design, number of patients, and reference standard were the sources of heterogeneity.

Optic nerve sheath diameter may be a useful method for predicting raised intracranial pressure in pediatric patients. We recommend that the measurement of optic nerve sheath diameter should be performed using ocular ultrasound for a more accurate diagnosis of raised intracranial pressure in pediatric patients.