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Grossman, Shamai

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Grossman

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Shamai

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Grossman, Shamai
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    Emergency department point-of-care ultrasonography improves time to pericardiocentesis for clinically significant effusions
    (The Korean Society of Emergency Medicine, 2017) Alpert, Evan Avraham; Amit, Uri; Guranda, Larisa; Mahagna, Rafea; Grossman, Shamai; Bentancur, Ariel
    Objective: Our objective was to determine the utility of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) to identify and guide treatment of tamponade or clinically significant pericardial effusions in the emergency department (ED). Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of non-trauma patients who were diagnosed with large pericardial effusions or tamponade by the ED physician using POCUS. The control group was composed of those patients later diagnosed on the medical wards or incidentally in the ED by other means such as a computed tomography. The following data were abstracted from the patient’s file: demographics, medical background, electrocardiogram results, chest radiograph readings, echocardiogram results, and patient outcomes. Results: There were 18 patients in the POCUS arm and 55 in the control group. The POCUS arm had a decreased time to pericardiocentesis (11.3 vs. 70.2 hours, P=0.055) as well as a shorter length of stay (5.1 vs. 7.0 days, P=0.222). A decreased volume of pericardial fluid was drained (661 vs. 826 mL, P=0.139) in the group diagnosed by POCUS. Conclusion: This study suggests that POCUS may effectively identify pericardial effusions and guide appropriate treatment, leading to a decreased time to pericardiocentesis and decreased length of hospital stay. Pericardial tamponade or a large pericardial effusion should be considered in all patients presenting to the ED with clinical, radiographic, or electrocardiographic signs of cardiovascular compromise.
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    Utility of Chest Radiography in Emergency Department Patients Presenting with Syncope
    (Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, 2016) Wong, Matthew; Chiu, David; Shapiro, Nathan; Grossman, Shamai
    Introduction: Syncope has myriad etiologies, ranging from benign to immediately life threatening. This frequently leads to over testing. Chest radiographs (CXR) are among these commonly performed tests despite their uncertain diagnostic yield. The objective is to study the distribution of normal and abnormal chest radiographs in patients presenting with syncope, stratified by those who did or did not have an adverse event at 30 days. Methods: We performed a post-hoc analysis of a prospective cohort of consecutive patients presenting to an urban tertiary care academic medical center with a chief complaint of syncope from 2003–2006. The frequency and findings for each CXR were reviewed, as well as emergency department and hospital discharge diagnoses, and 30-day outcome. Results: There were 575 total subjects, 39.7% were male, and the mean age was 57.2 (SD 24.6). Of the 575 subjects, 403 (70.1%) had CXRs performed, and 116 (20.2%) had an adverse event after their syncope. Of the 116 people who had an adverse event, 15 (12.9%) had a positive CXR, 81 (69.8%) had a normal CXR, and 20 (17.2%) did not have a CXR as part of the initial evaluation. Among the 459 people who did not have an adverse event, 3 (0.7%) had a positive CXR, 304 (66.2%) had a normal CXR, and 152 (33.1%) did not have a CXR performed. Fifteen of the 18 patients (83.4%) with an abnormal CXR had an adverse event. Eighty-one of the 385 patients (21.0%) with a normal CXR had an adverse event. Among those who had a CXR performed, an abnormal CXR was associated with increased odds of adverse event (OR: 18.77 (95% CI= [5.3–66.4])). Conclusion: Syncope patients with abnormal CXRs are likely to experience an adverse event, though the majority of CXRs performed in the work up of syncope are normal.
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    Use of Physician Concerns and Patient Complaints as Quality Assurance Markers in Emergency Medicine
    (Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, 2016) Gurley, Kiersten; Wolfe, Richard; Burstein, Jonathan; Edlow, Jonathan; Hill, Jason F.; Grossman, Shamai
    Introduction: The value of using patient- and physician-identified quality assurance (QA) issues in emergency medicine remains poorly characterized as a marker for emergency department (ED) QA. The objective of this study was to determine whether evaluation of patient and physician concerns is useful for identifying medical errors resulting in either an adverse event or a near-miss event. Methods: We conducted a retrospective, observational cohort study of consecutive patients presenting between January 2008 and December 2014 to an urban, tertiary care academic medical center ED with an electronic error reporting system that allows physicians to identify QA issues for review. In our system, both patient and physician concerns are reviewed by physician evaluators not involved with the patients’ care to determine if a QA issue exists. If a potential QA issue is present, it is referred to a 20-member QA committee of emergency physicians and nurses who make a final determination as to whether or not an error or adverse event occurred. Results: We identified 570 concerns within a database of 383,419 ED presentations, of which 33 were patient-generated and 537 were physician-generated. Out of the 570 reports, a preventable adverse event was detected in 3.0% of cases (95% CI = [1.52–4.28]). Further analysis revealed that 9.1% (95% CI = [2–24]) of patient complaints correlated to preventable errors leading to an adverse event. In contrast, 2.6% (95% CI = [2–4]) of QA concerns reported by a physician alone were found to be due to preventable medical errors leading to an adverse event (p=0.069). Near-miss events (errors without adverse outcome) trended towards more accurate reporting by physicians, with medical error found in 12.1% of reported cases (95% CI = [10–15]) versus 9.1% of those reported by patients (95% CI = [2–24] p=0.079). Adverse events in general that were not deemed to be due to preventable medical error were found in 12.1% of patient complaints (95% CI = [3–28]) and in 5.8% of physician QA concerns (95% CI = [4–8]). Conclusion: Screening and systemized evaluation of ED patient and physician complaints may be an underutilized QA tool. Patient complaints demonstrated a trend to identify medical errors that result in preventable adverse events, while physician QA concerns may be more likely to uncover a near miss.
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    Identifying Recent Adaptations in Large-Scale Genomic Data
    (Elsevier BV, 2013) Grossman, Shamai; Andersen, Kristian G; Shlyakhter, Ilya; Tabrizi, Shervin; Winnicki, Sarah; Yen, Angela; Park, Daniel J.; Griesemer, Dustin; Karlsson, Elinor K; Wong, Sunny H.; Cabili, Moran; Adegbola, Richard A.; Bamezai, Rameshwar N.K.; Hill, Adrian V.S.; Vannberg, Fredrik O.; Rinn, John; Lander, Eric; Schaffner, Stephen; Sabeti, Pardis
    Summary: Although several hundred regions of the human genome harbor signals of positive natural selection, few of the relevant adaptive traits and variants have been elucidated. Using full-genome sequence variation from the 1000 Genomes (1000G) Project and the composite of multiple signals (CMS) test, we investigated 412 candidate signals and leveraged functional annotation, protein structure modeling, epigenetics, and association studies to identify and extensively annotate candidate causal variants. The resulting catalog provides a tractable list for experimental follow-up; it includes 35 high-scoring nonsynonymous variants, 59 variants associated with expression levels of a nearby coding gene or lincRNA, and numerous variants associated with susceptibility to infectious disease and other phenotypes. We experimentally characterized one candidate nonsynonymous variant in Toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5) and show that it leads to altered NF-κB signaling in response to bacterial flagellin.
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    Physician Variability in Management of Emergency Department Patients with Chest Pain
    (Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, 2017) Smulowitz, Peter; Barrett, Orit; Hall, Matthew; Grossman, Shamai; Ullman, Edward; Novack, Victor
    Introduction: Chest pain is a common emergency department (ED) presentation accounting for 8–10 million visits per year in the United States. Physician-level factors such as risk tolerance are predictive of admission rates. The recent advent of accelerated diagnostic pathways and ED observation units may have an impact in reducing variation in admission rates on the individual physician level. Methods: We conducted a single-institution retrospective observational study of ED patients with a diagnosis of chest pain as determined by diagnostic code from our hospital administrative database. We included ED visits from 2012 and 2013. Patients with an elevated troponin or an electrocardiogram (ECG) demonstrating an ST elevation myocardial infarction were excluded. Patients were divided into two groups: “admission” (this included observation and inpatients) and “discharged.” We stratified physicians by age, gender, residency location, and years since medical school. We controlled for patient- and hospital-related factors including age, gender, race, insurance status, daily ED volume, and lab values. Results: Of 4,577 patients with documented dispositions, 3,252 (70.9%) were either admitted to the hospital or into observation (in an ED observation unit or in the hospital), while 1,333 (29.1%) were discharged. Median number of patients per physician was 132 (interquartile range 89–172). Average admission rate was 73.7±9.5% ranging from 54% to 96%. Of the 3,252 admissions, 2,638 (81.1%) were to observation. There was significant variation in the admission rate at the individual physician level with adjusted odds ratio ranging from 0.42 to 5.8 as compared to the average admission. Among physicians’ characteristics, years elapsed since finishing medical school demonstrated a trend towards association with a higher admission probability. Conclusion: There is substantial variation among physicians in the management of patients presenting with chest pain, with physician experience playing a role.
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    The Yield of Head CT in Syncope: A Pilot Study
    (Springer-Verlag, 2007) Bar, J. L.; Mottley, L.; Grossman, Shamai; Fischer, Christopher; Lipsitz, Lewis; Sands, Kenneth; Thompson, Sylvia V; Shapiro, Nathan; Zimetbaum, Peter; Thompson, Sally Wright
    Although head CT is often routinely performed in emergency department (ED) patients with syncope, few studies have assessed its value. Objectives: To determine the yield of routine head CT in ED patients with syncope and analyse the factors associated with a positive CT. Methods: Prospective, observational, cohort study of consecutive patients presenting with syncope to an urban tertiary-care ED (48 000 annual visits). Inclusion criteria: age >8 and loss of consciousness (LOC). Exclusion criteria included persistent altered mental status, drug-related or post-trauma LOC, seizure or hypoglycaemia. Primary outcome was abnormal head CT including subarachnoid, subdural or parenchymal haemorrhage, infarction, signs of acute stroke and newly diagnosed brain mass. Results: Of 293 eligible patients, 113 (39%) underwent head CT and comprise the study cohort. Ninety-five patients (84%) were admitted to the hospital. Five patients, 5% (95% CI=0.8%–8%), had an abnormal head CT: 2 subarachnoid haemorrhage, 2 cerebral haemorrhage and 1 stroke. Post hoc examination of patients with an abnormal head CT revealed focal neurologic findings in 2 and a new headache in 1. The remaining 2 patients had no new neurologic findings but physical findings of trauma (head lacerations with periorbital ecchymoses suggestive of orbital fractures). All patients with positive findings on CT were >65 years of age. Of the 108 remaining patients who had head CT, 45 (32%–51%) had signs or symptoms of neurologic disease including headache, trauma above the clavicles or took coumadin. Limiting head CT to this population would potentially reduce scans by 56% (47%–65%). If age >60 were an additional criteria, scans would be reduced by 24% (16%–32%). Of the patients who did not have head CT, none were found to have new neurologic disease during hospitalisation or 30-day follow-up. Conclusions: Our data suggest that the derivation of a prospectively derived decision rule has the potential to decrease the routine use of head CT in patients presenting to the ED with syncope.