Department Blog - April 2025

Assistant Professors Jessica Downing MD, Daniel Haase MD, and Kevin Jones MD, Associate Professor Quincy Tran, MD, PhD, and colleagues from Shock Trauma authored “No Echo, no problem? Predictors of right heart strain among patients with pulmonary embolism,” published ahead of print on March 17 by the American Journal of Emergency Medicine. The article analyzes the vital signs and lab test values that, in combination, can help identify RHS in pulmonary embolism patients when a transthoracic echocardiogram cannot be obtained without delay. (Am J Emerg Med. 2025 July;93:37-47. Epub ahead of print.)

A lab test finding of Bandemia is a potential marker for severe infection. EM resident Matthew Jackson, MD, Assistant Professor Alexis Salerno, MD, and Professor Stephen Schenkel, MD, MPP, reported on a retrospective quality improvement study in “What happens to reporting when Bandemia becomes a critical alert?” in the January issue of The American Journal of Emergency Medicine. Their chart review examined the incidence of bandemia in two cohorts of ED patients, before and after the UMMC ED instituted its critical alert. (Am J Emerg Med. 2025 Jan;87:105-107. doi: 10.1016/j.ajem.2024.10.045. Epub 2024 Oct 28. PMID: 39541756.)

Instructor Rohit Menon, MD, and colleagues in the UMSOM Division of Cardiovascular Medicine authored “Skyrocketing troponin after a motor vehicle crash: a traumatic dilemma,” a case report illustrated with angiograms and intravascular ultrasound images and videos, published February 4 in the Journal of Invasive Cardiology.

Assistant Professor Jessica Downing, MD, and Associate Professor Quincy Tran, MD, PhD, are among the authors of “Rurality and Outcomes of Patients Undergoing Mechanical Thrombectomy for Acute Ischemic Stroke,” published in Critical Care Research and Practice. Analysis of 526 UMMC patients found that rural patients (who were transported over longer distances) and urban patients had similar odds of good neurologic outcome at 90 days after the procedure. (Crit Care Res Pract. 2025 Jan 30;2025:4995600. PMID: 39958465; PMCID: PMC11824784)

Professor Stephen Schenkel, MD, MPP, coauthored “Expanding Palliative Care Access ? Bridging Gaps in Diverse Clinical Settings” https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2829290 (doi: 10.1001/jama.2024.24947) an editorial published February 18 in JAMA to accompany a report published in the same issue on a large cluster-randomized trial of palliative care interventions in the EDs of 29 hospitals. Dr. Schenkel serves as an associate editor of JAMA. 2025 Feb 18;333(7):574-575.

Associate Professor Gentry Wilkerson, MD, co-wrote “Substance Use and Addiction Disorders: A Call for Increased Screening and Treatment in the Emergency Department,” an editorial for the special issue of the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine. (West J Emerg Med. 2025 Jan;26(1.1):1-2. doi: 10.5811/westjem.41808)