Routine Oxygen Therapy Does Not Improve Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction-Insights From the Randomized DETO2X-AMI Trial.

Background: After decades of ubiquitous oxygen therapy in all patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI), recent guidelines are more restrictive based on lack of efficacy in contemporary trials evaluating hard clinical outcomes in patients without hypoxemia at baseline. However, no evidence regarding treatment effects on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) exists. In this study, we investigated the impact of routine oxygen supplementation on HRQoL 6-8 weeks after hospitalization with acute MI. Secondary objectives included analyses of MI subtypes, further adjustment for infarct size, and oxygen saturation at baseline and 1-year follow-up. Methods: In the DETermination of the role of Oxygen in suspected Acute Myocardial Infarction (DETO2X-AMI) trial, 6,629 normoxemic patients with suspected MI were randomized to oxygen at 6 L/min for 6-12 h or ambient air. In this prespecified analysis, patients younger than 75 years of age with confirmed MI who had available HRQoL data by European Quality of Life Five Dimensions questionnaire (EQ-5D) in the national registry were included. Primary endpoint was the EQ-5D index assessed by multivariate linear regression at 6-10 weeks after MI occurrence. Results: A total of 3,086 patients (median age 64, 22% female) were eligible, 1,518 allocated to oxygen and 1,568 to ambient air. We found no statistically significant effect of oxygen therapy on EQ-5D index (-0.01; 95% CI: -0.03-0.01; p = 0.23) or EQ-VAS score (-0.57; 95% CI: -1.88-0.75; p = 0.40) compared to ambient air after 6-10 weeks. Furthermore, no significant difference was observed between the treatment groups in EQ-5D dimensions. Results remained consistent across MI subtypes and at 1-year follow-up, including further adjustment for infarct size or oxygen saturation at baseline. Conclusions: Routine oxygen therapy provided to normoxemic patients with acute MI did not improve HRQoL up to 1 year after MI occurrence. Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01787110.

Competence in metered dose inhaler technique among community pharmacy professionals in Gondar town, Northwest Ethiopia: Knowledge and skill gap analysis.

BACKGROUND: When compared to systemic administration, if used correctly inhalers deliver a smaller enough percent of the drug right to the site of action in the lungs, with a faster onset of effect and with reduced systemic availability that minimizes adverse effects. However, the health professionals' and patients' use of metered dose inhaler is poor. OBJECTIVE: This study was aimed to explore community pharmacy professionals' (pharmacists' and druggists') competency on metered dose inhaler (MDI) technique. METHOD: A cross sectional study was employed on pharmacy professionals working in community drug retail outlets in Gondar town, northwest Ethiopia from March to May 2017. Evaluation tool was originally taken and adapted from the National Asthma Education and Prevention Programmes of America (NAEPP) step criteria for the demonstration of a metered dose inhaler to score the knowledge/proficiency of using the inhaler. RESULT: Among 70 community pharmacy professionals approached, 62 (32 pharmacists and 30 druggists/Pharmacy technicians) completed the survey with a response rate of 85.6%. Only three (4.8%) respondents were competent by demonstrating the vital steps correctly. Overall, only 13 participants got score seven or above, but most of them had missed the essential steps which included steps 1, 2, 5, 6, 7 or 8. There was a significant difference (P = 0.015) in competency of demonstrating adequate inhalational technique among respondents who took training on basic inhalational techniques and who did not. CONCLUSION: This study shown that, community pharmacy professionals' competency of MDI technique was very poor. So as to better incorporate community pharmacies into future asthma illness management and optimize the contribution of pharmacists, interventions would emphasis to improve the total competence of community pharmacy professionals through establishing and providing regular educational programs.

Target Organ Damage and the Long Term Effect of Nonadherence to Clinical Practice Guidelines in Patients with Hypertension: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: There was limited published data on target organ damage (TOD) and the effect of nonadherence to practice guidelines in Ethiopia. This study determined TOD and the long term effect of nonadherence to clinical guidelines on hypertensive patients. METHODS: An open level retrospective cohort study has been employed at cardiac clinic of Gondar university hospital for a mean follow-up period of 78 months. Multivariate Cox regression was conducted to test associating factors of TOD. RESULTS: Of the total number of 612 patients examined, the overall prevalence of hypertensive TOD was 40.3%. The presence of comorbidities, COR = 1.073 [1.01-1.437], AOR = 1.196 [1.174-1.637], and nonadherence to clinical practice guidelines, COR = 1.537 [1.167-2.024], AOR = 1.636 [1.189-2.251], were found to be predicting factors for TOD. According to Kaplan-Meier analysis patients who were initiated on appropriate medication tended to develop TOD very late: Log Rank [11.975 (p = 0.01)]. CONCLUSION: More than forty percent of patients acquired TOD which is more significant. Presence of comorbidities and nonadherence to practice guidelines were correlated with the incidence of TOD. Appropriate management of hypertension and modification of triggering factors are essential to prevent complications.