This is EM Case's EM Quick Hits podcast, where our team of experts and educators bring

a clear, concise, and condensed, practice-changing knowledge on all those EM topics you may not be totally comfortable with.

Cases, the latest evidence, procedural tips and tricks, pitfalls to avoid, and the key take-home

points and references on the EM cases website.

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Cerebral venous thrombosis is not a diagnosis that you're going to make every shift in the emergency department, but it is an important diagnosis. This is the DVT of the brain. You get clot

in the major veins or in the dural sinuses, then you're either going to get some

localized pain and swelling, or because the blood no longer drains from your head, you get

raised ICP, and a whole whack of problems. It'll happen in about 1 in 100,000 people per year,

so it's rare, but not so rare. In a city like Toronto, there'll be around 50 cases a

year, so we got to keep our eyes open. This segment was originally prompted by a new decision

rule that was just published this year that was supposed to help us diagnose CBT, but unfortunately,

that trial was just really bad with incredible bias.

And even with all the bias, the rule still sort of sucks, with a sensitivity, specificity,

just about 80%.

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