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The Journal of the Louisiana State... 2015A 23 year old Russian male cargo ship crew member arrived in the port of New Orleans after a one month voyage originating in central Africa. During the month at sea, he...
A 23 year old Russian male cargo ship crew member arrived in the port of New Orleans after a one month voyage originating in central Africa. During the month at sea, he developed fever up to 103 degrees Fahrenheit which was unsuccessfully managed with the antipyretic, dipyrone. He subsequently developed back and stomach pain, along with diarrhea. Upon the ship's arrival to New Orleans, he was transported to a local hospital where his axillary temperature was 104 degrees Fahrenheit. He was unresponsive, tachycardic and tachypneic with a plasma bicarbonate of 16mmol/L (24-32mmol/L).
Topics: Fever; Humans; Male; New Orleans; Travel
PubMed: 26741689
DOI: No ID Found -
Advances in Skin & Wound Care Jan 2015Increased local skin temperature is a classic sign of wound infection, repetitive trauma, and deep inflammation. Noncontact infrared thermometers can help to detect... (Observational Study)
Observational Study
OBJECTIVE
Increased local skin temperature is a classic sign of wound infection, repetitive trauma, and deep inflammation. Noncontact infrared thermometers can help to detect increases in skin surface temperatures; however, most scientifically tested devices are far too expensive for everyday wound care providers to use in routine clinical practice. This noninferiority study was conducted in an attempt to determine whether 4 less expensive, commercially available noncontact infrared thermometers have a similar level of accuracy as the scientifically accepted Exergen DermaTemp 1001 (Exergen Products, Watertown, Massachusetts).
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Using an observational study design, participants with open wounds were randomly selected from a chronic wound clinic (n = 108). Demographic data and wound location were documented for all participants. Skin temperatures were recorded using 5 noncontact infrared thermometers under consistent environmental conditions. The thermometer brands were as follows: Exergen DermaTemp, Mastercool MSC52224-A (Mastercool Inc, Randolph, New Jersey), ATD Tools 70001 Infrared Thermometer (ATD Tools Inc, Wentzville, Missouri), Mastercraft Digital Temperature Reader (Mastercraft Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada), and Pro Point Infrared Thermometer (Princess Auto, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada). Data analysis was based on the skin surface temperature difference (ΔT in degrees Fahrenheit) between the wound site and an equivalent contralateral control site.
OUTCOME MEASURES
One-way analysis of variance was used to compare the mean ΔT values for all the 5 thermometers, followed by post hoc analysis. Demographic data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Interrater reliability was assessed for consistency using the intraclass correlation coefficient.
MAIN RESULTS
No statistical difference was reported between the ΔT values for the 5 different thermometers (F4,514 = 0.339, P = .852). Post hoc analysis showed no significant difference when the thermometers were compared with the Exergen DermaTemp 1001, and Mastercool MSC52224-A (P = .987), ATD Tools 70001 Infrared Thermometer (P = .985), Mastercraft Digital Temperature Reader (P = .972), and Pro Point Infrared Thermometer (P = .774). The results for intraclass correlation demonstrated a high reliability and agreement between raters, as the intraclass correlation coefficient values for all thermometers were greater than 0.95.
CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study demonstrate that less expensive, industrial-grade noncontact infrared thermometers have reliable temperature readings to identify and quantify the temperature gradients that along with other signs may be associated with deep and surrounding wound infection or tissue injury due to repeated microtrauma.
Topics: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Equipment Design; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Reproducibility of Results; Skin Temperature; Skin Ulcer; Thermometers; Wound Infection
PubMed: 25502971
DOI: 10.1097/01.ASW.0000459039.81701.b2 -
Statistics in Medicine Jul 2014We provide a template for finding target allocation proportions in optimal allocation designs where the target will be invariant for both shifts in location and scale of...
We provide a template for finding target allocation proportions in optimal allocation designs where the target will be invariant for both shifts in location and scale of the response distributions. One possible application of such target allocation proportions is to carry out a response-adaptive allocation. While most of the existing designs are invariant for any change in scale of the underlying distributions, they are not location invariant in most of the cases. First, we indicate this serious flaw in the existing literature and illustrate how this lack of location invariance makes the performance of the designs very poor in terms of allocation for any drastic change in location, such as the changes from degrees centigrade to degrees Fahrenheit. We illustrate that unless a target allocation is location invariant, it might lead to a completely irrelevant and useless target for allocation. Then we discuss how such location invariance can be achieved for general continuous responses. We illustrate the proposed method using some real clinical trial data. We also indicate the possible extension of the procedure for more than two treatments at hand and in the presence of covariates.
Topics: Computer Simulation; Humans; Models, Statistical; Neuralgia, Postherpetic; Pain; Pregabalin; Research Design; gamma-Aminobutyric Acid
PubMed: 24549681
DOI: 10.1002/sim.6110