« Previous Next » Annals of Emergency Medicine
Volume 52, Issue 6 , Pages 754-763 , December 2008

Risk Prediction With Procalcitonin and Clinical Rules in Community-Acquired Pneumonia: Answers to the July 2008 Journal Club Questions

General relationships of relevant variables. PSI, Pneumonia Severity Index; CURB-65, Confusion, Uremia, Respiratory Rate, low blood pressure, age 65 or older; AMS, altered mental status; low BP, low b

General relationships of relevant variables. PSI, Pneumonia Severity Index; CURB-65, Confusion, Uremia, Respiratory Rate, low blood pressure, age 65 or older; AMS, altered mental status; low BP, low blood pressure; Temp, temperature; RR, respiratory rate; HR, heart rate; Na, sodium level; HCT, hematocrit; Gluc, glucose; BUN, blood urea nitrogen; pO2, pulse oximetry.
- Full-Size Image
- Download to PowerPoint
Fagan Nomogram.

Fagan Nomogram.
- Full-Size Image
- Download to PowerPoint

Editor's Note: You are reading answers to the fourth installment of Annals of Emergency Medicine Journal Club. The questions and the article they are about (Huang et al. Ann Emerg Med. 2008;52:48-58) were published in the July 2008 issue.¹ We thank Dr. Huang and his colleagues for sharing additional data with us, which we used in answering question 4.Information about journal club can be found at http://www.annemergmed.com/content/journalclub.Readers should recognize that these are suggested answers. We hope they are accurate; we know that they are not comprehensive. There are many other points that could be made about these questions or about the article in general. Questions are rated “novice,” () “intermediate,” () and “advanced” () so that individuals planning a journal club can assign the right question to the right student. The “novice” rating does not imply that a novice should be able to spontaneously answer the question. “Novice” means we expect that someone with little background should be able to do a bit of reading, formulate an answer, and teach the material to others. Intermediate and advanced questions also will likely require some reading and research, and that reading will be sufficiently difficult that some background in clinical epidemiology will be helpful in understanding the reading and concepts.We are interested in receiving feedback about this feature. Please e-mail journalclub@acep.org with your comments.