Short summary

This will be a retrospective descriptive cohort study. We want to characterize the cohort of acute patients who have been treated by the Medical Emergency Care Unit (MECU) in Odense in the period of the 1th of January 2015 to the 31th of December 2018. Patients eligible for inclusion in the study are the patients who got a blood test performed on the prehospital ABL90 installed in the MECU car. 

Rationale

Until recently the treatment of prehospital emergency patients has been based on clinical examination and a few measurements of vital values. The implementations of diagnostic tools in the prehospital environment are increasing. A primary aim among others is the improved accuracy in both acute treatment and diagnose.

In most parts of Denmark a physician manned Medical Emergency Care Unit (MECU) are dispatched along with one or more ambulances in case of suspected severe illness. In the MECU in Odense a blood gas analyser, ABL90, has been placed inside the emergency vehicle since 2013. Among other things, it provides rates of oxygen and CO2 in the patients' blood. It also tells the level of lactate and the pH value of the blood test. Acute treatment can be initiated and modified on the basis of these analyses. This is a well known procedure in-hospital, but to our knowledge very few healthcare workers have this option in the prehospital environment.

Our study aim is to get a better understanding of the group of acutely ill patients offered these analyses. We want to characterize the patients according to age, sex, diagnoses, comorbidity and mortality rates. 

This study can contribute to the emerging knowledge of prehospital point of care diagnostic. Possibly, we want to assess the patients who had these analyses made in order to better evaluate the use of this diagnostic tool in the future.

Description of the cohort

Patients eligible for inclusion in the study are the patients who got a blood test performed on the prehospital ABL90 installed in the MECU car in the four years' period 1th of January 2015 to 31th of December 2018.

Data and biological material

Results of the patients' blood test analysed in the MECU's ABL90.

Register data from the Region of Southern Denmark.

Collaborating researchers and departments

The Prehospital Research Unit in The Region of Southern Denmark

• Professor Søren Mikkelsen, MD, PhD

Center of Prehospital and Emergency Research in The Region of Northern Jutland

• Professor Erika F. Christensen, MD, Consultant

Emergency Medicine Research Unit at Aabenraa Hospital

• Professor Christian Backer Mogensen, MD, PhD, MHM, Consultant

Department of Emergency Medicine Odense University Hospital

• Professor Annmarie Touborg Lassen, MD, PhD, DMScri