The NACA score as a predictor of ventricular cardiac arrhythmias - A retrospective six-year study

Use of bitemporal NACA score documentation in prehospital emergency medical services- a retrospective study

BACKGROUND

The assessment of illness severity in the prehospital setting is essential for guiding appropriate medical interventions. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) score is a validated tool commonly used for this purpose. However, the potential benefits of using bitemporal documentation of NACA scores to capture the dynamic changes in emergency situations remain uncertain. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential benefit of bitemporal NACA score documentation in the prehospital setting, specifically in assessing the dynamic changes of emergencies and facilitating quality improvement through enhanced documentation practices.

METHODS

In this retrospective study, data from prehospital emergency patients were analyzed who received care from the physician response unit between January 1, 2018, and May 31, 2021. Patient demographics, NACA scores, indications for emergency care, and changes in NACA scores were extracted from medical records. Statistical analyses were performed to examine the associations between NACA scores, emergency categories, indications, and changes in NACA scores.

RESULTS

The study included 4005 patients, predominantly categorized as NACA III (33.7% at initial assessment, 41.8% at subsequent assessment) and NACA IV (31.6% at initial assessment, 22.4% at subsequent assessment). There was a significant improvement in NACA scores during the provision of prehospital care (p < 0.01). Notably, prehospital emergencies attributed to internal medical, neurological, traumatic, and paediatric causes demonstrated significant improvements in NACA scores (p < 0.01). Gender-specific differences were also observed.

CONCLUSION

Our study suggests that the bitemporal documentation of NACA scores can be advantageous in the prehospital setting and may have implications for research, practice, and policy.

Arrhythmias Occurring in Children during HEMS Intervention: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Background

Arrhythmias in patients during medical transport remain a challenge for medical personnel. Helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) crews, as the only medical rescue teams in Poland to conduct rescue flights, keep detailed documentation of monitoring vital functions over short time intervals during the flight.

Aims

The aim of this study was to determine the characteristics of cardiac arrhythmia in pediatric patients (up to 12 years of age) transported by HEMS operatives, considering life-threatening rhythms and those that occur during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).

Methods

The analysis of HEMS medical documentation covered 90345 missions carried out from 2011 to 2020. Among all activations, 820 cases of arrhythmias in pediatric patients up to 12 years of age were extracted.

Results

Missions for males accounted for 60% of all activations (n = 492), while flights for females accounted for 40% (n = 328). A statistically significant relationship between the number of HEMS flights and the season was demonstrated (p = 0.015). During the study period, pediatric patients mostly experienced cardiac arrhythmias in the form of supraventricular tachycardia (sVT) (n = 504). Asystole (n = 178) and pulseless electrical activity (PEA) (n = 52) ranked second and third in terms of occurrence, respectively. A statistically significant relationship between the type of heart rhythm disorder and age was demonstrated (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

Heart rhythm disorders most often affected children between 0 and 3 years of age. As the patient's age increased, the incidence of arrhythmias decreased. Among pediatric patients, supraventricular tachycardia proved to be the predominant arrhythmia during the study period.

Emergency physician's dispatch by a paramedic-staffed emergency medical communication centre: sensitivity, specificity and search for a reference standard

Background

Some emergency medical systems (EMS) use a dispatch centre where nurses or paramedics assess emergency calls and dispatch ambulances. Paramedics may also provide the first tier of care “in the field”, with the second tier being an Emergency Physician (EP).

In these systems, the appropriateness of the decision to dispatch an EP to the first line at the same time as the ambulance has not often been measured. The main objective of this study was to compare dispatching an EP as part of the first line emergency service with the severity of the patient’s condition. The secondary objective was to highlight the need for a recognized reference standard to compare performance analyses across EMS.

Methods

This prospective observational study included all emergency calls received in Geneva’s dispatch centre between January 1st, 2016 and June 30th, 2019. Emergency medical dispatchers (EMD) assigned a level of risk to patients at the time of the initial call. Only the highest level of risk led to the dispatch of an EP. The severity of the patient’s condition observed in the field was measured using the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) scale. Two reference standards were proposed by dichotomizing the NACA scale. The first compared NACA≥4 with other conditions and the second compared NACA≥5 with other conditions. The level of risk identified during the initial call was then compared to the dichotomized NACA scales.

Results

97′861 assessments were included. Overall prevalence of sending an EP as first line was 13.11, 95% CI [12.90–13.32], and second line was 2.94, 95% CI [2.84–3.05]. Including NACA≥4, prevalence was 21.41, 95% CI [21.15–21.67], sensitivity was 36.2, 95% CI [35.5–36.9] and specificity 93.2 95% CI [93–93.4]. The Area Under the Receiver-Operating Characteristics curve (AUROC) of 0.7507, 95% CI [0.74734–0.75397] was acceptable. Looking NACA≥5, prevalence was 3.09, 95% CI [2.98–3.20], sensitivity was 64.4, 95% CI [62.7–66.1] and specificity 88.5, 95% CI [88.3–88.7]. We found an excellent AUROC of 0.8229, 95% CI [0.81623–0.82950].

Conclusion

The assessment by Geneva’s EMD has good specificity but low sensitivity for sending EPs. The dichotomy between immediate life-threatening and other emergencies could be a valid reference standard for future studies to measure the EP’s dispatching performance.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13049-021-00844-y.