Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major public health issue worldwide. A portable near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a non-invasive device to detect intracranial hematoma. The advantages of the NIRS include real time results and non-radiation exposure. However, sensitivity and specificity of the NIRS for intracranial hematoma are varied. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic properties of the NIRS in TBI patients to detect intracranial hematoma. This study was a diagnostic and prospective study conducted at the Emergency Department. The inclusion criteria were adult patients (age of 18 years or over) with moderate to high risk of all degrees of traumatic brain injury within 24 h after the injury. The primary endpoint of the study was a description of diagnostic properties of the NIRS compared with the CT brain. There were 47 patients enrolled in the study. Most of patients had Glasgow Coma Scale of 15 (44 patients; 93.62 %). Of those, 11 patients (23.40 %) had intracranial hematoma: subdural hematoma (n = 9), epidural hematoma (n = 1), intracerebral hematoma (n = 1), and subarachnoid hemorrhage (n = 3). One patient had subdural hematoma, epidural hematoma, intracerebral hematoma and subarachnoid hemorrhage. There were 31 patients had abnormal findings by the NIRS but only 11 patients had bleeding detected by the CT brain. There were 16 patients had negative results on both the NIRS and the CT brain. The sensitivity and specificity of the NIRS compared with the CT brain was 100 % and 44.4 %, respectively. The area under the ROC curve of the NIRS was 0.722. The median time to complete the NIRS examination was 3 min. In conclusion, the NIRS has high sensitivity and negative predictive value for intracranial hematoma detection in mild TBI patients with extra-axial hematomas.

Background and objectives: Acute heart failure is a common problem encountered in the emergency department (ED). More than 80% of the patients with the condition subsequently require lengthy and repeated hospitalization. In a setting with limited in-patient capacity, the patient flow is often obstructed. Appropriate disposition decisions must be made by emergency physicians to deliver effective care and alleviate ED overcrowding. This study aimed to explore clinical predictors influencing the length of stay (LOS) in patients with acute heart failure who present to the ED. Materials and Methods: We conducted prognostic factor research with a retrospective cohort design. Medical records of patients with acute heart failure who presented to the ED of Ramathibodi Hospital from January to December 2015 were assessed for eligibility. Thirteen potential clinical predictors were selected as candidates for statistical modeling based on previous reports. Multivariable Poisson regression was used to estimate the difference in LOS between patients with and without potential predictors. Results: A total of 207 patients were included in the analysis. Most patients were male with a mean age of 74.2 ± 12.5 years. The median LOS was 54.6 h (Interquartile range 17.5, 149.3 h). From the multivariable analysis, four clinical characteristics were identified as independent predictors with an increase in LOS. These were patients with New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class III/IV (+72.9 h, 95%Confidence interval (CI) 23.9, 121.8, p = 0.004), respiratory rate >24 per minute (+80.7 h, 95%CI 28.0, 133.3, p = 0.003), hemoglobin level <10 mg/dL (+60.4 h, 95%CI 8.6, 112.3, p = 0.022), and serum albumin <3.5 g/dL (+52.8 h, 95%CI 3.6, 102.0, p = 0.035). Conclusions: Poor NYHA functional class, tachypnea, anemia, and hypoalbuminemia are significant clinical predictors of patients with acute heart failure who required longer LOS.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has widely affected the global public health system, especially the emergency medical service (EMS), which has been the first responders since 2020. However, this pandemic persists with still limited studies on its impact on EMS. This study aimed to compare the number of EMS patients and the operation periods of Bangkok EMS in Thailand between 2020 (severe COVID-19 pandemic) and 2019 (prepandemic). Patients and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data of patients with severe COVID-19 were collected from the emergency medical information system of Bangkok EMS center. Data were compared between the two periods. The COVID-19 pandemic period (study period) spanned from January 01, 2020 to December 31, 2020, whereas the control period referred to the same period in the previous year (January 01, 2019 to December 31, 2019). Results: A total of 178,594 patients were serviced by EMS, with 93,288 during the study period and 85,306 during the control period. The study period had more EMS patients overall by 9.36% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 9.16– 9.55) and significantly more EMS patients per day, with a mean difference of 21.19 (254.90 ± 25.55 vs 233.71 ± 23.49; 95% CI: 17.63– 24.76, p < 0.001), than the control period. Furthermore, all EMS operation periods studied were significantly longer during the study period. Conclusion: During COVID-19 pandemic period, a significantly increased number of EMS patients compared to one during non-COVID-19 pandemic period for both traumatic and non-traumatic patients, as well as remarkably increased every EMS operation period of both groups during COVID-19 pandemic period were found in the present study. From this knowledge, provision of necessary EMS resources and preparation of emergency staff to be ready for management of future pandemics should be obtained to reduce EMS operation period in the future pandemics.

Objective: Difficult laryngoscopy is associated with difficult intubation, an increasing number of endotracheal intubation attempts, and adverse events. Clinical prediction of difficult airways in an emergency setting was limited in sensitivity and specificity. This study developed a new model for predicting difficult laryngoscopy in the emergency department. Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted using an exploratory model at the Emergency Medicine of Ramathibodi Hospital. The study was conducted from June 2018 to July 2020. The eligibility criteria were an age of ≥ 15 years who undergo intubation in the emergency department. Difficult laryngoscopy was defined as a Cormack–Lehane grade 3 and above. The predictive model and score were developed by multivariable logistic regression analysis. Results: A total of 617 patients met the eligibility criteria; 83 (13.45%) had difficult laryngoscopy. Five independent factors were predictive of difficult laryngoscopy. Significant factors were M: limited mouth opening, O: presence of obstructed airway, N: poor neck mobility, T: large tongue, and H: short hypo-mental distance. The difficult laryngoscopy score had an accuracy of 89%. A score of > 4 increased the likelihood ratio of difficult laryngoscopy by 7.62 times. Conclusion: The MONTH Difficult Laryngoscopy Score of > 4 was associated with difficult laryngoscopy.

Several prehospital trauma triage tools have been recently developed, but no standardized tools currently exist to identify trauma patients at risk of requiring resuscitative interventions (RIs) within the first 24 h post-injury and to prioritize their transport to high-level trauma facilities. This prognostic study employed a retrospective cohort design to evaluate the predictive performance of the Triage Revised Score (T-RTS), Glasgow Coma Scale, Age, and Systolic Blood Pressure Score (GAP), Mechanism, Glasgow Coma Scale, Age, and Systolic Blood Pressure Score (MGAP), National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS-2), Shock Index (SI), and Reverse Shock Index multiplied by Glasgow Coma Scale (rSIG) in predicting the need for RIs within 24 h. Data was retrieved from the electronic medical records of Ramathibodi Hospital, and the study included patients aged ≥ 15 years who were categorized as high-risk or life-threatening and subsequently transported to the emergency department. We used Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (AUROC) curve and calibration plots to assess the performance of prehospital trauma triage tools. There were 440 traumatic injury patients enrolled in the study, with 44 (10%) receiving RIs. T-RTS, GAP, MGAP, and NEWS-2 demonstrate good discriminative and predictive performance for RIs within 24 h after an injury (AUROC of 0.969, 0.949, 0.971, and 0.929, respectively, with the O:E ratio of 1). With the predefined standard cut-off values, the GAP score of less than 19 results in the highest accuracy for ruling out patients who do not need RIs (Specificity = 94.4% and NPV = 94.1%, p-value < 0.001). Several commonly used prehospital trauma triage tools demonstrate good predictive abilities for identifying the need for RIs. Among these, the GAP score with a threshold value of 19 serves as an optimal tool for identifying patients who require transfer to high-level trauma facilities.

Background: Sepsis causes high mortality in vulnerable groups such as hematologic malignancy (HM) patients. There are various early warning scores of sepsis, eg, qSOFA, SOFA, and Ramathibodi Early Warning Score (REWS). This study aimed to compare REWS, qSOFA, and SOFA in predicting severe complications in hematologic malignancy patients visiting ED. Methods: The study was conducted as a retrospective cohort study at the ED of Ramathibodi Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand. Adult HM patients suspected of sepsis and have visited ED between March 2016 and December 2019. Results: Among 124 patients in our cohort, 51 (41%) had serious complication in ED and 20 (16%) died within 28 days after admission. The AUROCs of SOFA and qSOFA indicate significantly higher predicting in serious complication in ED than REWS (SOFA, 0.81 [95% CI, 0.73– 0.89], qSOFA, 0.73 [95% CI, 0.65– 0.81], REWS, 0.62 [95% CI, 0.52– 0.72] p=0.004) while the predicting in 28-day mortality is not statistically significantly different (SOFA, 0.73 [95% CI, 0.60– 0.85], qSOFA, 0.69 [95% CI, 0.58– 0.80], REWS, 0.60 [95% CI, 0.44– 0.75] p=0.25). Conclusion: The SOFA score is highest in predicting severe complications among hematologic malignancy patients.