March 2018; papers of the month

Welcome to March's papers of the month. We know we're biased but we've got 3 more superb papers for you this month!

First up we review a paper looking at oxygen levels in patient's with a return of spontaneous circulation following cardiac arrest, is hyperoxia bad news for this patient cohort as well as the other areas we've recently covered?

Secondly we have a look at a paper reviewing the association between time to i.v. furosemide and outcomes in patients presenting with acute heart failure, you may want to have a listen to our previous podcast on the topic first here.

Lastly, when you see a pregnant patient with a suspected thromboembolic event, can you use a negative d-dimer result to rule out the possibility? We review a recent paper looking at biomarker and specifically d-dimers ability to do this. 

We'd love to hear from you with any thoughts or feedback you have on the podcast. And we've now launched of Critical Appraisal Lowdown course, so if you want to gain some more skills in critical appraisal make sure you go and check out our online course here.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Association Between Early Hyperoxia Exposure AfterResuscitation from Cardiac Arrest and Neurological Disability: A Prospective Multi-Center Protocol-Directed Cohort Study. Roberts BW. Circulation. 2018

The DiPEP (Diagnosis of PE in Pregnancy) biomarker study: An observational cohort study augmented with additional cases to determine the diagnostic utility of biomarkers for suspectedvenous thromboembolism during pregnancy and puerperium. Hunt BJ. Br J Haematol. 2018

Time to Furosemide Treatment and Mortality in PatientsHospitalized With Acute Heart Failure. Matsue Y . J Am Coll Cardiol. 2017

MDCALC; Framingham Heart Failure Diagnostic Criteria

REBEL.EM; Door to Furosemide in AHF

Modified Rankin Scale