J Korean Soc Clin Toxicol.  2011 Jun;9(1):26-29.

Availability of Toxicologic Screening Tests in the Emergency Department

• Um IK
• Park JS
• Han KS
• Cho H
• Choi SH
• Lee SW
• Hong YS

Abstract

PURPOSE
The role of a point of care test (POCT) is currently becoming important when treating patients and making decisions in the emergency department. It also plays a role for managing patients presenting with drug intoxication. But the availability of the test has not yet been studied in Korea. Therefore, we investigated the utility and the availability of POCT for drug screening used in the emergency department.
METHODS
This was a retrospective study for those patients with drug intoxication between January 2007 and December 2010 in an urban emergency department.
RESULTS
Between the study period, 543 patients were examined with a Triage(R)-TOX Drug Screen. Among those, 248 (45.7%) patients showed negative results and 295 (54.3%) patients showed positive results. The sensitivity of the test for benzodiazepine, acetaminophen and tricyclic antidepressants were 85.9%, 100%, 79.2%, respectively.
CONCLUSION
POCT of drug screening in emergency department showed good accuracy especially in patient with benzodiazepine, acetaminophen and tricyclic antidepressant intoxication. Therefore, it can be useful diagnostic tool for the management of intoxicated patients.

Keyword

Intoxication; Screening; Emergency department

MeSH Terms

Acetaminophen
Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic
Benzodiazepines
Drug Evaluation, Preclinical
Emergencies
Humans
Korea
Mass Screening
Retrospective Studies
Acetaminophen
Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic
Benzodiazepines