Introduction: Acute heart failure (AHF) is a common emergency department (ED) presentation and may be associated with poor outcomes. Conversely, many patients rapidly improve with ED treatment and may not need hospital admission. Because there is little evidence to guide disposition decisions by ED and admitting physicians, we sought to create a risk score for predicting short-term serious outcomes (SSO) in patients with AHF. Methods: We conducted prospective cohort studies at 9 tertiary care hospital EDs from 2007 to 2019, and enrolled adult patients who required treatment for AHF. Each patient was assessed for standardized real-time clinical and laboratory variables, as well as for SSO (defined as death within 30 days or intubation, non-invasive ventilation (NIV), myocardial infarction, coronary bypass surgery, or new hemodialysis after admission). The fully pre-specified, logistic regression model with 13 predictors (age, pCO2, and SaO2 were modeled using spline functions with 3 knots and heart rate and creatinine with 5 knots) was fitted to the 10 multiple imputation datasets. Harrell's fast stepdown procedure reduced the number of variables. We calculated the potential impact on sensitivity (95% CI) for SSO and hospital admissions and estimated a sample size of 170 SSOs. Results: The 2,246 patients had mean age 77.4 years, male sex 54.5%, EMS arrival 41.1%, IV NTG 3.1%, ED NIV 5.2%, admission on initial visit 48.6%. Overall there were 174 (7.8%) SSOs including 70 deaths (3.1%). The final risk scale is comprised of five variables (points) and had c-statistic of 0.76 (95% CI: 0.73-0.80): 1.Valvular heart disease (1) 2.ED non-invasive ventilation (2) 3.Creatinine 150-300 (1) ≥300 (2) 4.Troponin 2x-4x URL (1) ≥5x URL (2) 5.Walk test failed (2) The probability of SSO ranged from 2.0% for a total score of 0 to 90.2% for a score of 10, showing good calibration. The model was stable over 1,000 bootstrap samples. Choosing a risk model total point admission threshold of >2 would yield a sensitivity of 80.5% (95% CI 73.9-86.1) for SSO with no change in admissions from current practice (48.6% vs 48.7%). Conclusion: Using a large prospectively collected dataset, we created a concise and sensitive risk scale to assist with admission decisions for patients with AHF in the ED. Implementation of this risk scoring scale should lead to safer and more efficient disposition decisions, with more high-risk patients being admitted and more low-risk patients being discharged.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic introduced challenges to the use of simulation, including limited personal protective equipment and restricted time and personnel. Our use of video for in situ simulation aimed to circumvent these challenges and assist in the development of a protocol for protected intubation and simultaneously educate emergency department (ED) staff. We video-recorded a COVID-19 respiratory failure in situ simulation event, which was shared by a facilitator both virtually and in the ED. The facilitator led discussions and debriefs. We followed this with in situ run-throughs in which staff walked through the steps of the simulation in the ED, handling medications and equipment and becoming comfortable with use of isolation rooms. This application of in situ simulation allowed one simulation event to reach a wide audience, while allowing participants to respect social distancing, and resulted in the education of this audience and successful crowdsourcing for a protocol amidst a pandemic.

Introduction: Despite recent advances in resuscitation, some patients remain in ventricular fibrillation (VF) after multiple defibrillation attempts during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Vector change defibrillation (VC) and double sequential external defibrillation (DSED) have been proposed as alternate therapeutic strategies for OHCA patients with refractory VF. The primary objective was to determine the feasibility, safety and sample size required for a future cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) with crossover comparing VC or DSED to standard defibrillation for patients experiencing refractory VF. Secondary objectives were to evaluate the intervention effect on VF termination and return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC). Methods: We conducted a pilot cluster RCT with crossover in four Canadian paramedic services and included all treated adult OHCA patients who presented in VF and received a minimum of three defibrillation attempts. In addition to standard cardiac arrest care, each EMS service was randomly assigned to provide continued standard defibrillation (control), VC or DSED. Services crossed over to an alternate defibrillation strategy after six months. Prior to the launch of the trial, 2,500 paramedics received in-person training for VC and DSED defibrillation using a combination of didactic, video and simulated scenarios. Results: Between March 2018 and September 2019, 152 patients were enrolled. Monthly enrollment varied from 1.4 to 6.1 cases per service. With respect to feasibility, 89.5% of cases received the defibrillation strategy they were randomly allocated to, and 93.1% of cases received a VC or DSED shock prior to the sixth defibrillation attempt. There were no reported cases of defibrillator malfunction, skin burns, difficulty with pad placement or concerns expressed by paramedics, patients, families, or ED staff about the trial. In the standard defibrillation group, 66.6% of cases resulted in VF termination, compared to 82.0% in VC and 76.3% of cases in the DSED group. ROSC was achieved in 25.0%, 39.3% and 40.0% of standard, VC and DSED groups, respectively. Conclusion: Findings from our pilot RCT suggest the DOSE VF protocol is feasible and safe. VF termination and ROSC were higher with VC and DSED compared to standard defibrillation. The results of this pilot trial will allow us to inform a multicenter cluster RCT with crossover to determine if alternate defibrillation strategies for refractory VF may impact patient-centered, clinical outcomes

Introduction: Several recent observational studies have presented concerning data regarding the safety of cardioversion (CV) for acute atrial fibrillation and flutter (AAFF). We conducted this systematic review to determine whether it is safe to cardiovert AAFF patients without prescribing oral anticoagulation (OAC) post-CV for those who are CHADS-65 negative. Methods: We conducted a librarian assisted search of MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane from inception through November 23, 2019. We included observational studies and randomized trials reporting thromboembolic (TE) events (i.e. stroke, transient ischemic attack, or systemic thromboembolism) within 30 days following CV in patients with AAFF, where onset of symptoms was <48 hours. Two reviewers independently screened studies and extracted data. The main outcome was risk of TE events within 30 days post-CV, stratified by OAC use. Risk of bias was assessed with the Quality in Prognostic Studies (QUIPS) tool. The primary analysis was based on prospective studies and the secondary analysis was based on retrospective studies. We performed meta-analyses for TE events where 2 or more studies were available, by applying the DerSimonian-Laird random-effects model. We implemented analyses stratified by study design using Open MetaAnalyst and generated the forest plots. Results: Our search yielded 969 titles; 74 were selected for full-text review and 20 studies were included in the review. The primary meta-analysis of 6 prospective studies, including two randomized trials, found a TE event rate of 0.15% (2 TE events/1,314 CVs). Within this prospective group, lack of OAC use was associated with a decreased risk of TE events (RR = 2.15 where RR >1 indicates increased risk of TE events with OAC compared to no OAC; 95% CI 0.50 to 9.31; I2 = 0%). Five of the 6 prospective studies had a low or moderate risk of bias in all QUIPS domains. Secondary meta-analysis of 6 retrospective studies revealed a TE event rate of 0.53% (56 TE events/10,521 CVs). This subgroup showed a trend favouring OAC use with decreased risk of TE events (RR = 0.34 where RR <1 suggests decreased risk of TE events with OAC; 95% CI 0.17 to 0.72; I2 = 0%). Conclusion: In the primary analysis of prospective studies, we found a low TE event rate following CV of AAFF, irrespective of OAC use. This contradicts previous analyses of retrospective studies. Our study supports the longstanding practice of not necessarily prescribing OAC post-CV in the ED for AAFF patients who are CHADS-65 negative.

A 32-year-old male presents with diffuse myalgias, weakness, and dark urine for 1 day. The patient states he recently started a new exercise program. He is hemodynamically stable, and his physical examination reveals diffuse muscle tenderness. His creatine kinase (CK) returns at 8,000 international units per liter (IU/L), and his urinalysis reveals blood but only three red blood cells (RBCs) on microscopy.