INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES To determine the proportion of patients with myocardial infarction (MI) not admitted to a coronary care unit (CCU), the variables associated with admission into a CCU, and whether admission to a CCU, and the availability of coronary angiography in the same hospital, were associated with 28-day case fatality. PATIENTS AND METHOD Population-based registry of MI in pa...

The aim was to compare time to thrombolysis for patients treated via three treatment pathways: thrombolysis in the emergency department (ED), thrombolysis following direct admission by ambulance officers to coronary care (CCU) and thrombolysis after transfer from ED to CCU. We used a retrospective study of time to thrombolysis for all patients receiving thrombolysis for acute myocardial infarct...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES A new noninvasive bladder stimulation technique has been described to obtain clean-catch urine (CCU) in infants aged <30 days. Objectives were (1) to determine proportion and predictive factors for successful CCU collections using a stimulation maneuver technique among infants <6 months and (2) to determine the proportion of bacterial contamination with this method. ...

Aim: We present our experience about surgical resection of carotid body tumor (CBT) and to define the role of colour coded ultrasound (CCU) and of somatostatin receptor scintigraphy (SRS) with Indium-111-DTPA-pentreotide (Octreoscan®) using both planar and single photon emission tomography (SPECT) technique. Methods: Twenty-three patients suffering from 27 CBTs were treated from 1997 to 2014. P...

The therapeutic results in acute myocardial infarction for two periods hnmediately preceding (pre-CCU) and after (post-CCU) establishment of a coronary care unit were compared. One hundred cases of proved myocardial infarction were selected at random from each time period. The coronary care unit reduced gross mortality from 33 percent (pre-CCU) to 16 percent (post-CCU). The reduction in mortali...

CONTEXT Intercessory prayer (praying for others) has been a common response to sickness for millennia, but it has received little scientific attention. The positive findings of a previous controlled trial of intercessory prayer have yet to be replicated. OBJECTIVE To determine whether remote, intercessory prayer for hospitalized, cardiac patients will reduce overall adverse events and length ...

BACKGROUND There is no simple and practical way to monitor sleep patterns in patients in acute care units. We designed this study to assess sleep patterns, energy expenditure and circadian rhythms of patients' skin temperature in the coronary care unit (CCU) utilizing a new portable device. MATERIAL/METHODS The SenseWear Armband (SWA) was used to record sleep duration, distribution over 24 hr...

OBJECTIVES To establish the feasibility of training paramedics of diagnose acute myocardial infarction by ECG before hospital admission and whether direct paramedic coronary care admission, arranged by very high frequency (VHF) radio communication with the coronary care unit (CCU), would reduce delay of thrombolysis treatment. DESIGN Prospective controlled study. SETTING District general ho...

AIMS   The optimal method for diagnostic collection of urine in children is unclear. National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence recommend specimens taken by clean catch urine (CCU) for identification of urinary tract infection (UTI). We investigated contamination rates for CCU, suprapubic aspiration (SPA), catheter specimen urine (CSU) and bag specimen urine (BSU) collections. METHO...