Physician awareness and attitudes regarding early warning score systems in mainland China: a cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION@#The purpose of this study was to assess the application of the early warning score system (EWS-S) and gauge physician awareness, perceptions of necessity and attitudes regarding these tools based on previously experienced unnoticed clinical deterioration (CDET).@*METHODS@#A cross-sectional survey was carried out via an online questionnaire at a large 3,500-bed Class 3A general hospital in China. A total of 299 physicians of adult general wards were asked to answer a translated questionnaire that was localised from the original version. Demographic profiles of patients were included as well as three other sections assessing awareness of CDET/EWS-S and gauging attitudes towards and perceptions of the necessity of EWS-S at our hospital.@*RESULTS@#A high level of physician awareness of the CDET problem was observed. Most physicians knew about the existence of a systematic assessment tool for clinical application. Physicians with previous experience in reanimation, unplanned transfer to intensive care unit (UTICU) and/or death tended to consider EWS-S necessary in attentive and well-trained staff (p < 0.05). Physicians who had previous experience with UTICU were more likely to recommend implementing EWS-S in their wards compared with those without such experience (p < 0.05).@*CONCLUSION@#Most physicians have positive attitudes towards EWS-S. However, their awareness should be further heightened. Physicians who had previous experience with CDET/UTICU were more likely to employ EWS-S in their clinical practices. To better facilitate the implementation of EWS-S in Chinese hospitals, existing facilities, policy supports, standardised managements and the development of information systems should be strengthened.

Predictive value of four score systems on the bleeding risk in atrial fibrillation patients treated with dabigatran / 中华心血管病杂志

Objective: To compare the predictive value of HAS-BLED, HEMORR2HAGES, ATRIA and ORBIT scores on the bleeding risk in nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) patients treated with dabigatran. Methods: Data of 942 NVAF patients participating a non-interventional prospective study of anticoagulant therapy with dabigatran, which was conducted in 12 centers from February 2015 to December 2017 in China, were analyzed. Complete HAS-BLED HEMORR2HAGES, ATRIA and ORBIT bleeding risk scores data and follow-up data were available in the enrolled patients. The endpoint of the study was bleeding events occurred during a 6 months follow-up. Cox proportional hazards models were constructed to analyze the associations between HAS-BLED, HEMORR2HAGES, ATRIA and ORBIT scores and risk of bleeding, and the area under the curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristics curves (ROC) of each score was used to set the predictive value for bleeding risk. Results: Among the 942 patients, the mean age was (65.3±11.2) years old, 542 (57.5%) were males. A total of 93 (9.9%) bleeding events occurred during follow up, 89 (9.4%) events were minor bleeding, and 4 (0.4%) events were major bleeding. Patients with a high-risk HAS-BLED score had a 1.87-fold increased risk of bleeding compared with low-risk patients (HR = 2.87, 95% CI:1.26-6.51, P = 0.012). There was no statistically significant difference between low-medium-high-risk grading in other scoring systems and bleeding risk (all P>0.05). The AUC (95%CI) of HAS-BLED, HEMORR2HAGES, ATRIA and ORBIT bleeding risk scores were 0.558 (0.525-0.590), 0.520 (0.487-0.553), 0.513(0.480-0.545), 0.523(0.490-0.555), respectively. The AUC of all bleeding score systems were of ≤ 0.700. Conclusion: Among the NVAF patients taking dabigatran in China, the HAS-BLED bleeding risk score is superior to other 3 bleeding risk score on predicting the bleeding risk in these patients, but its predictive value is still relatively low.

Clinical evaluation of preoperative pancreatic fistula scoring system in prediction of postoperative pancreatic fistula of pancreaticoduodenectomy / 中华普通外科杂志

Objective To explore the value of preoperative pancreatic fistula scoring system in prediction of the postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF) of pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD).Methods 491 patients from Jan 2012 to Jan 2017 undergoing PD were retrospectively analyzed,in reference to independent risk factors for POPF.At the same time,the sensitivity,specificity and accuracy of National Cancer Center Hospital score system (NCCH score system) for preoperative pancreatic fistula score system were evaluated prospectively from Jan 2015 to Jan 2017.Results 90 patients were diagnosed as having POPF,including 56 in grade A,26 in grade B and 8 in grade C.The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the gender (male),the pancreatic texture (soft),the non-pancreatic cancer and the main pancreatic duct diameter (smaller than 3 mm) were the independent risk factor for POPF.The results of ROC curve analysis showed that the sensitivity and specificity of the NCCH predictive scoring system were 93.1％ and 76.9％,respectively.The area under the curve was 0.910 (95％ CI:0.857-0.962).Conclusions The NCCH score systems can predict the POPF accurately.