clarification of what study protocol you want us to assume for

clarification of what study protocol you want us to assume for

by Laura Koth -

question 2c

are we to assume that the pts get ddimer first and only if + >500 do they get the gold standard test CTA?

I don't understand question c as written because the stem describes a ccs for people who happened to have both a CTA and ddimer done, not a specific protocol for diagnosing patients using these tests.

Re: clarification of what study protocol you want us to assume for

by Kerstin Kolodzie -

Hi Laura,

please pay attention to the question 2c:

"Assume the emergency physicians treating the adolescent patients in this study followed diagnostic protocols similar to those described in the question stem."

And then in the question stem:

"For this reason, several diagnostic protocols for patients with symptoms suggestive of PE recommend first obtaining a plasma D-Dimer level, which is a measure of increased clotting activity in the blood, and then obtaining a CTPA for patients with a D-Dimer level ≥ some threshold. "

I don't think you need anything other than the information provided in the question to answer your question.

Best,

Kerstin

Re: clarification of what study protocol you want us to assume for

by Kerstin Kolodzie -

Hi Laura,

I take the freedom to move your email reply back to the forum so everybody can benefit from our discussion.

Hi Kerstin,
As far as I can tell, you have re-pasted the original question.
When you say several protocols, can you be more specific as to which protocol you are using and what the protocol is?
If not, then I can write up a bunch of different scenarios for all the possible protocols. Maybe I should I interpret your response that this is what you are meaning.

My answer:

The commonality of the "several protocols" is described in the question stem: "... recommend first obtaining a plasma D-Dimer level, which is a measure of increased clotting activity in the blood, and then obtaining a CTPA for patients with a D-Dimer level ≥ some threshold. "

Yes, you can make up any protocol that meets these criteria!

Best,

Kerstin