In the past years, emergency rooms (ER) all over Germany, especially those of maximum-care hospitals, have been faced with an increasing number of patients. This is caused by a variety of factors, including demographic changes, inflexible ambulant services and an overreaching demand for healthcare services. ER...

Neonates nearly always experience their single largest day of blood loss on the day of birth due to admission laboratory testing. The term "admission laboratory testing" refers to the initial blood tests done when a baby is born and admitted to the NICU.  Total circulating blood volume in a 3.5 kg term newborn is 280...

The use of natriuretic peptides like B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal proBNP (NT-proBNP) has increased during the last decade and so has the medical evidence of their utility. This article highlights natriuretic peptide synthesis and release. Based on essential clinical trials the article gives medical...

With increasing age, an unspecific rise of fibrin degradation product in blood is observed. Thus, the D-dimer test to rule out thromboembolic events has a high false positive rate in elderly patients. In 2010, Douma et al introduced a formula to adjust D-dimer cut-off values for age in outpatients >50 years: Age ×...

Article reprinted with permission from NP Communications LLC/Medical Laboratory Observer, September 2013. Laboratorians responsible for arterial blood gas testing are focusing on sample integrity, operator safety, data accuracy, and workflow efficiency.  

Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding is becoming an increasingly international issue.  Although the problem is not only resolved by ED change management (but rather requires a system-wide solution recognizing the complex interdependencies of consumer expectations, human resources, information systems immaturity and...

BACKGROUND: Hospitals in countries with public health systems have recently adopted organizational changes to improve efficiency and resource allocation, and reducing inappropriate hospitalizations has been established as an important goal, as well as avoiding or buffering overcrowding in Emergency Departments. AIMS: ...

The term acidosis was first mentioned in the medical literature in 1898 in connection with the description of diabetic ketoacidosis. Alkalosis was first used in human medicine in 1922 by the English physiologist J. S. Haldane; it had been used in veterinary medicine somewhat earlier. In 1870, the Norwegians C. M....

Clinical biomarker studies seldom follow recommendations for the evaluation of new biomarkers. Therefore it is important to assess any published clinical value of a biomarker or comparison of two or more biomarkers and see whether or not the published study applies to your situation. If the published study does not...

Reprinted and translated by permission of Läkartidningen from “Serumlaktat - användbar analys inom akutsjukvården”, by Bengt R Widgren and Monique Ekhardt, 2011; vol 108: 475-477. Copyright 2011 by Author, Läkartidningen and AB Typoform, Sweden.Translated by Radiometer Medical ApS. In emergency care triage, diagnosis...