New test to identify heart failure in emergency medicine found superior to current standards

piggy submitted, created time 2 weeks 5 days (www.reuters.com)

A new blood test to identify heart failure patients in most dire need of treatment when they turn up at an emergency room complaining of shortness of breath proved better than current tests, according to results of a study unveiled on Tuesday.

The pivotal trial of the test developed by privately held German company Brahms AG succeeded in its goal of demonstrating superiority over tests considered the current gold standard.

"I think that this is clearly significantly better than what we have now," Dr. W

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Doctors unprepared to protect themselves from violent patients

sea-maid submitted, created time 5 months 4 weeks (careers.bmj.com)

One in three doctors is attacked at work every year, yet few of these will have been trained on how to handle the situation. General practitioners, doctors working in accident and emergency departments, psychiatrists, and doctors in training are the most at risk.

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Child alcohol use floods Scottish emergency rooms

Hands-only CPR greatly increases survival odds

DanyC submitted, created time 8 months 17 hours (www.sfgate.com)

The new guidelines, published in the journal Circulation, recognize that recent research has shown no real advantage to conventional mouth-to-mouth CPR in outside-the-hospital cardiac arrest cases. In addition, studies show that bystanders are often reluctant to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on strangers, but are more likely to try rapid chest compression.

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