Plos One
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Review Meta Analysis
Efficacy and safety of direct oral anticoagulants approved for cardiovascular indications: Systematic review and meta-analysis.
Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) have emerged as promising alternatives to vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) for patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) or venous thromboembolism (VTE). Few meta-analyses have included all DOACs that have received FDA approval for these cardiovascular indications, and their overall comparisons against VKAs have shortcomings in data and methods. We provide an updated overall assessment of the efficacy and safety of those DOACs at dosages currently approved for NVAF or VTE, in comparison with VKAs. ⋯ Patients receiving DOACs for NVAF had predominantly superior efficacy and safety. Patients who were treated with DOACs for acute VTE had non-inferior efficacy, but an overall superior safety profile.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Pressure-support ventilation or T-piece spontaneous breathing trials for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - A randomized controlled trial.
Little is known about the best strategy for weaning patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) from mechanical ventilation. Spontaneous breathing trials (SBT) using a T-piece or pressure-support ventilation (PSV) have a central role in this process. Our aim was to compare T-piece and PSV SBTs according to the duration of mechanical ventilation (MV) in patients with COPD. ⋯ The SBT technique did not influence MV duration for patients with COPD. For the difficult/prolonged weaning subgroup, the T-piece may be associated with a longer time to liberation, although this should be clarified by further studies.
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Comparative Study
Clinical phenotypes and outcomes of pulmonary hypertension due to left heart disease: Role of the pre-capillary component.
In pulmonary hypertension (PH), both wedge pressure elevation (PAWP) and a precapillary component may affect right ventricular (RV) afterload. These changes may contribute to RV failure and prognosis. We aimed at describing the different haemodynamic phenotypes of patients with PH due to left heart disease (LHD) and at characterizing the impact of pulmonary haemodynamics on RV function and outcome PH-LHD. ⋯ In PH-LHD, haemodynamic characterization according to DPG and PVR provides important information on disease severity, predisposition to RV failure and prognosis. Patients presenting the CpcPH phenotype appear to have haemodynamic profile closer to PAH but with worse prognosis. In PH-LHD, Ca and NTproBNP were independent predictors of survival.
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Review Meta Analysis
The impact of pharmacists-led medicines reconciliation on healthcare outcomes in secondary care: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Adverse drug events (ADEs) impose a major clinical and cost burden on acute hospital services. It has been reported that medicines reconciliation provided by pharmacists is effective in minimizing the chances of hospital admissions related to adverse drug events. ⋯ Pharmacists-led interventions were effective in reducing medication discrepancies. However, these interventions did not lead to a significant reduction in potential and preventable ADEs and healthcare utilization.
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Sport-related concussion (SRC), a mild form of traumatic brain injury (TBI), is a common injury in contact sports. Health care professionals rely on subjective criteria (e.g., symptoms), as there is no objective marker for identification of athletes with SRC. Blood-based biomarkers have shown promise as diagnostic and prognostic tools following TBI and SRC. ⋯ Further, no difference was found between preseason baseline and all post-SRC samples for tau (p = 0.22) or NF-L (p = 0.98). The total number of symptoms reported on the Standardized Assessment of Concussion- 3rd Edition (SCAT3) and associated symptom severity scores increased from preseason to 6-days post-SRC but returned to baseline values at 14-days (p = 0.02 and p = 0.003, respectively). These results suggest that the severity of neuronal injury in this cohort of contact sport athletes with clinical uncomplicated SRC was too low to be detected by tau and NF-L measurements in blood samples obtained at 6- and 14-days post-injury.