Paucis Verbis: Blunt cardiac injury

Do you always get a troponin for patients who sustain blunt chest trauma?

Hopefully your answer is no. Of note, it is also NOT indicated as a screening test for those in whom you suspect a blunt cardiac injury (BCI). It can be normal in the setting of arrhythmias and it can be falsely elevated in the setting of catecholamine release or reperfusion injury from hypovolemic shock.

The initial screening test should include an ECG and a FAST ultrasound exam. If you have abnormal ECG findings, then a troponin is warranted (in addition to hospital admission).

Below summarizes a suggested algorithm from the recent EM Clinics of North America publication series. Definitive statements are challenging because there is no gold standard to diagnose BCI.

PV Card: Blunt Cardiac Injury

Adapted from [1]
Go to the ALiEM (PV) Cards for more resources.

Reference

Bernardin B, Troquet J. Initial management and resuscitation of severe chest trauma. Emerg Med Clin North Am. 2012;30(2):377-400, viii-ix. [PubMed]

By Michelle Lin, MD|2021-10-10T08:52:32-07:00Jun 29, 2012|ALiEM Cards, Cardiovascular, Trauma|

Paucis Verbis: Toxic alcohols – Isopropyl alcohol

Continuing on the theme of Toxic Alcohols (osmolal gap, ethylene glycol, methanol), this Paucis Verbis card focuses on isopropyl alcohol toxicity, which is commonly found in rubbing alcohols. In this toxic alcohol, fomipezole is actually NOT indicated because you want to have alcohol dehydrogenase convert the toxic parent compound (isopropyl alcohol) into the nontoxic metabolite (acetone).

Note that these are merely guidelines and you should tailor management plans with your toxicologist and nephrologist.

PV Card: Isopropyl Alcohol Toxicity

Adapted from [1, 2]
Go to ALiEM (PV) Cards for more resources.

References

Kraut J, Kurtz I. Toxic alcohol ingestions: clinical features, diagnosis, and management. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. 2008;3(1):208-225. [PubMed]
Jammalamadaka D, Raissi S. Ethylene glycol, methanol and isopropyl alcohol intoxication. Am J Med Sci. 2010;339(3):276-281. [PubMed]

By Michelle Lin, MD|2021-10-10T08:56:50-07:00Jun 22, 2012|ALiEM Cards, Tox & Medications|

Paucis Verbis: Toxic alcohols – Methanol

Continuing on the theme of Toxic Alcohols (osmolal gap, ethylene glycol), this Paucis Verbis card focuses on methanol toxicity. Useful are the American Academy of Clinical Toxicologists recommendations on when to administer an antidote (fomipezole) and when to perform hemodialysis. I redrew the flowchart based on what’s relevant to the ED in the initial stages.

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2021-10-19T19:44:59-07:00Jun 15, 2012|ALiEM Cards, Tox & Medications|

Paucis Verbis: Toxic alcohols – Ethylene glycol

Following last week’s Paucis Verbis card on calculating the osmolal gap, here is the first installment of the Toxic Alcohols cards. First up — ethylene glycol. There are useful American Academy of Clinical Toxicologists recommendations on when to administer an antidote (fomipezole) and when to perform hemodialysis.

Here’s a quick review of the metabolism of the different toxic alcohols. The parent compounds for ethylene glycol and methanol are innocuous and the metabolites are toxic.

PV Card: Ethylene Glycol Toxicity

Adapted from [1-3]
Go to ALiEM (PV) Cards for more resources.

See Dr. Leon Gussow’s great review on The Poison Review and tips of a recent Annals of EM4 paper on identifying a small subset of patients with ethylene glycol who did well despite NOT receiving hemodialysis.

References

Kraut J, Kurtz I. Toxic alcohol ingestions: clinical features, diagnosis, and management. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. 2008;3(1):208-225. [PubMed]
Jammalamadaka D, Raissi S. Ethylene glycol, methanol and isopropyl alcohol intoxication. Am J Med Sci. 2010;339(3):276-281. [PubMed]
Marraffa J, Cohen V, Howland M. Antidotes for toxicological emergencies: a practical review. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2012;69(3):199-212. [PubMed]
Levine M, Curry S, Ruha A, et al. Ethylene glycol elimination kinetics and outcomes in patients managed without hemodialysis. Ann Emerg Med. 2012;59(6):527-531. [PubMed]

By Michelle Lin, MD|2026-06-16T16:02:38-07:00Jun 8, 2012|ALiEM Cards, Tox & Medications|

Paucis Verbis: Approach to increased osmolal gap

We often talk about calculating the anion gap in the evaluation of patients. What about the osmolal gap? When do you calculate this? What’s the differential diagnosis for an increased gap?

I recently came upon a nice 2011 review in the American Journal of Kidney Disease called “Approach to the evaluation of a patient with an increased serum osmolal gap and high-anion-gap metabolic acidosis”. It’s always nice to revisit and review this concept. You’ll always learn something new. For instance, I didn’t know that salicylates cause anion gaps as well as osmolal gaps.

So don’t forget to calculate an osmolal gap for patients with an unexplained metabolic acidosis anion gap.

PV Card: Approach to Osmolal Gap

Adapted from [1]
Go to ALiEM Cards for more resources.

Reference

Kraut J, Xing S. Approach to the evaluation of a patient with an increased serum osmolal gap and high-anion-gap metabolic acidosis. Am J Kidney Dis. 2011;58(3):480-484. [PubMed]

By Michelle Lin, MD|2021-10-10T18:55:20-07:00Jun 1, 2012|ALiEM Cards, Tox & Medications|

Trick of the Trade: Ear foreign body

Sometimes classic techniques need to be revisited, especially when I get new photos from the collective readership. Let’s review a painless way to remove beads from the ear canal. You can’t exactly have the patient’s provider blow in the other ear to expulse the bead, similar to a nasal foreign body…

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2022-03-26T13:57:19-07:00May 22, 2012|ENT, Tricks of the Trade|

Paucis Verbis: Upper GI bleeding

Do you know what the Blatchford clinical prediction score is for upper GI bleeding? It can help you predict whether a patient with an upper GI bleed is severe and requires urgent intervention.

Hot off the presses, JAMA just came out with a great Clinical Rational Examination article on this topic. Thanks to Dr. Ryan Radecki (EMLitOfNote) for the heads up. The likelihood ratios and Blatchford risk stratification score are so useful that I’m breaking my PV rule to keep things down to the size of one index card. Note the absence of a NG lavage result to help you risk stratify for an upper GI bleed requiring urgent intervention using the Blanchard score.

Let’s say you have a patient with a Blanchard score of 0, as in the case of the JAMA example. Starting with a general 30% pretest probability that your upper GI bleed patient has a severe GI bleed, your post-test probability becomes <1% for a severe GI bleed.

PV Card: Upper GI Bleed

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Adapted from [1, 2]
Go to ALiEM (PV) Cards for more resources.

References

Kumar R, Mills A. Gastrointestinal bleeding. Emerg Med Clin North Am. 2011;29(2):239-52, viii. [PubMed]
Srygley F, Gerardo C, Tran T, Fisher D. Does this patient have a severe upper gastrointestinal bleed? JAMA. 2012;307(10):1072-1079. [PubMed]

By Michelle Lin, MD|2021-10-10T18:50:55-07:00May 18, 2012|ALiEM Cards, Gastrointestinal|