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Likelihood Ratio (LR) in Emergency Medicine

4/15/2012

Does Murphy’s sign and sonographic Murphy sign have the same clinical utility?

A 40 yo woman presented to the ED with upper quadrant pain since three hours after eating a tasty pizza. She is overweight, she presents feverish (38°C) her skin is nonicteric. The abdomen is soft, there is tenderness on the upper right quadrant, you perform a deep palpation in the subcostal area, and the patient stops breathing for pain. 




Is Murphy’s sign useful to make diagnosis of cholecystitis? What about the sonographic Murphy’s sign?

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4/05/2012

Diagnosis of pneumonia. Is it the time for a combined imaging strategy?

A 80 yo man is brought from an assisted-living facility because of fever, productive cough, tachycardia and dyspnoea. 
He has a history of dementia and hypertension.
He is cachectic, you hear ronchi on the left side. 



How should you approach this patient?

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