Christopher L Hunter, Salvatore Silvestri, George Ralls, Linda Papa
BACKGROUND: Differentiating between cardiac and obstructive causes for dyspnoea is essential for proper management, but is difficult in the prehospital setting. OBJECTIVE: To assess if prehospital levels of end-tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO2) differed in obstructive compared to cardiac causes of dyspnoea, and could suggest one diagnosis over the other. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study among patients transported by emergency medical services during a 29-month period who were diagnosed with either obstructive pulmonary disease or congestive heart failure (CHF) by ICD-9 codes...
June 2015: Emergency Medicine Journal: EMJ