METHODS: This prospective cohort study was conducted at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) from 1st October 2016 to 30th November 2017. Serial bedside ultrasound procedures were performed for 83 patients who were diagnosed as having dengue fever without warning signs and were initially treated as outpatients. Ultrasonography evidence of plasma leakage either pleural effusion, thickened gallbladder wall, ascites or pericardial effusion were compared with clinical findings and laboratory parameters for plasma leakage.
RESULTS: Of the 83 dengue patients, eventually 72.3% had dengue fever with warning signs and 6.0% had severe dengue fever. There were 38 patients who had subclinical plasma leakage at initial presentation, 84.2% and 7.9% of them then progressed to dengue fever with warning signs and severe dengue respectively. There was a minimal agreement between serial bedside ultrasound and haematocrit level in the detection of plasma leakage (observed kappa 0.135).
CONCLUSIONS: Serial bedside ultrasound is an adjunct procedure to physical examination and may detect plasma leakage earlier compared to haemoconcentration. The early usage of serial ultrasound is of paramount importance in detecting dengue patients who are at risk of progressing to severe dengue.
OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate efficacy of using a bismuth breast shield and optimized scanning parameter to reduce breast absorbed doses from CT thorax examination.
METHODS: Five protocols comprising the standard CT thorax clinical protocol (CP1) and four modified protocols (CP2 to CP5) were applied in anthropomorphic phantom scans. The phantom was configured as a female by placing a breast component on the chest. The breast component was divided into four quadrants, where 2 thermoluminescence dosimeters (TLD-100) were inserted into each quadrant to measure the absorbed dose. The bismuth shield was placed over the breast component during CP4 and CP5 scans.
RESULTS: The pattern of absorbed doses in each breast and quadrant were approximately the same for all protocols, where the 4th quadrant > 3rd quadrant > 2nd quadrant > 1st quadrant. The mean absorbed dose value in CP3 was reduced to almost 34% of CP1's mean absorbed dose. It was reduced even lower to 15% of CP1's mean absorbed dose when the breast shield was used in CP5.
CONCLUSION: This study showed that CT radiation exposure on the breast could be reduced by using a bismuth shield and low tube potential protocol without compromising the image quality.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a prospective cross-sectional study on the data obtained from Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (Hospital USM) from Jun 2018 until May 2019. Blood samples were taken via a single prick from venous blood and sent separately using 1ml heparinised syringe and were analysed immediately in ED using BGA (Radiometer, ABL800 FLEX, Denmark) and another sample was sent to the central laboratory of Hospital USM and analysed by BCA (Architect, C8000, USA). Only patients who had potassium levels ≥5.0mmol/L on blood gas results were included. A total of 173 sample pairs were included. The correlation and agreement were evaluated using Passing and Bablok regression, Linear Regression and Bland-Altman test.
RESULT: Of the 173 sample pairs, the median of potassium level based on BGA and BCA were 5.50mmol/L (IQR: 1.00) and 5.90mmol/L (IQR: 0.95) respectively. There was significant correlation between two measurements (p<0.001, r: 0.36). The agreement between the two measurements showed within acceptable mean difference which was 0.27 mmol/L with 95% limit of agreement were 1.21mmol/L to 1.73mmol/L.
CONCLUSION: The result of blood gas can be used as a guide for initial treatment of hyperkalaemia in critical cases where time is of the essence. However, BCA result is still the definitive value.