Table 2.

Cohorts in missions involving patients with initially life-threatening vital signs.

Life-threatening vital signs (n = 2007)			Vital signs at start of tele-consultation (*)	Vital signs at end of tele-consultation (*)	Significant improvement in vital signs	Cases at start of tele-consultation	Cases at end of tele-consultation	Significant reduction in cases
Vital signs defined as life-threatening			Mean + sd	Mean + sd		n	n	p-value
Airway	not open					6	0	p = 0.0311
Breathing	SpO2 (%)	< 90	82.66 ± 10.18	93.11 ± 7.57	p < 0.0001	346	75	p < 0.0001
	RR (/min)	> 20	26.82 ± 5.05	23.66 ± 5.77	p < 0.0001	215	145	p < 0.0001
	RR (/min)	< 6	6	n.a		1	0
Circulation	BP (mmHg)	< 90	79 ± 7.98	104 ± 21.27	p < 0.0001	203	56	p < 0.0001
	BP (mmHg)	> 200	217 ± 13.12	182 ± 23.45	p < 0.0001	769	170	p < 0.0001
	HR (bpm)	< 50	41.66 ± 6.13	53.77 ± 21.31	p < 0.0001	145	81	p < 0.0001
	HR (bpm)	> 140	163.43 ± 22.58	136.82 ± 30.5	p < 0.0001	313	144	p < 0.0001
Disability	GCS (3–15)	< 9	6.26 ± 1.76	10.11 ± 3.77	p < 0.0001	88	27	p < 0.0001
	BG (mg/dl)	< 60	41.27 ± 11.35	87.09 ± 36.21	p < 0.0001	93	20	p < 0.0001
	BG (mg/dl)	> 500	552.9 ± 33.85	548.47 ± 35.34	p = 0.6955	19	18	p = 1
Environment	Temp (°C)	> 40	40.61 ± 0.46	40.52 ± 0.52	p = 0.4393	36	33	p = 0.8083

The left box shows the means and standard deviations for the vital signs in initially critically ill patients before and after teleconsultation. The right box shows the number of cases with initially life-threatening vital signs at the start and end of the teleconsultation.

Sd standard deviation, SpO₂ oxygen saturation, RR respiratory rate, BP blood pressure, HR heart rate, GCS Glasgow Coma Scale, BG blood glucose, Temp temperature.

*Unit depending on vital sign, n.a. = data was not available. Italicized p-values are significant.