A tool for safer prescribing in vulnerable adults: the continuing development of the Medichec app and website.

AIMS AND METHOD: Adverse effects are a common concern when prescribing and reviewing medication, particularly in vulnerable adults such as older people and those with intellectual disability. This paper describes the development of an app giving information on side-effects, called Medichec, and provides a description of the processes involved in its development and how drugs were rated for each side-effect. Medications with central anticholinergic action, dizziness, drowsiness, hyponatraemia, QTc prolongation, bleeding and constipation were identified using the British National Formulary (BNF) and frequency of occurrence of these effects was determined using the BNF, product information and electronic searches, including PubMed. RESULTS: Medications were rated using a traffic light system according to how commonly the adverse effect was known to occur or the severity of the effect. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Medichec can facilitate access to side-effects information for multiple medications, aid clinical decision-making, optimise treatment and improve patient safety in vulnerable adults.

Pregnancy-specific Reference Intervals for BNP and NT-pro BNP-Changes in Natriuretic Peptides Related to Pregnancy.

CONTEXT: Cardiac disease is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the UK, so accurate cardiovascular diagnoses in pregnancy are essential. BNP (B-type natriuretic peptide) and NT-pro BNP (N-terminal-pro BNP) are useful clinical tools for investigating suspected peripartum cardiomyopathy but, as the pregnancy-specific reference intervals are undefined, it is uncertain how they should be interpreted in pregnant women. OBJECTIVES: To define trimester-specific 95% reference intervals for BNP and NT-pro BNP in pregnancy. METHODS: Longitudinal study of 260 healthy pregnant women, with sampling in each trimester. RESULTS: The upper reference limit for NT-pro BNP was 200 pg/mL in the first and second trimesters, and 150 pg/mL in the third. Levels were significantly reduced in overweight women in the third trimester (P = .0001), which supports the partitioning of reference intervals by body mass index (BMI). The upper limit for BNP was 50 pg/mL, with no detectable trimester-related differences. Although other biomarkers (hemoglobin and platelets) fell throughout pregnancy, both natriuretic peptides were initially elevated before falling by the third trimester, suggesting that the observed changes in natriuretic peptides are driven by dynamic interplay between cardiac strain and progressive hemodilution. NT-pro BNP in the first trimester was inversely associated with neonatal birthweight at term (P = .011). CONCLUSION: Cardiac biomarkers have an important role for investigating suspected disease in high-risk pregnant women, but a robust assessment of the levels expected in healthy pregnant women is an essential prerequisite to their application in clinical practice. This study has defined trimester- and BMI-specific reference intervals for NT-pro BNP and BNP, which may improve how women with suspected cardiovascular disease are investigated in pregnancy.

Pregnancy-specific reference intervals for C-reactive protein improve diagnostic accuracy for infection: A longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Infections are a major cause of maternal mortality. C-reactive protein (CRP), a commonly-used inflammatory marker, is widely used to inform diagnosis, but the upper limit of normal in pregnancy is uncertain. We have defined trimester-specific reference intervals for CRP and evaluated their diagnostic accuracy for infection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Development cohort: longitudinal study of pregnant women to determine 95% reference intervals. Evaluation cohort: diagnostic accuracy study to evaluate these intervals in 50 women with suspected intrauterine infection. RESULTS: In these 322 healthy pregnant women, CRP was substantially higher than in most non-pregnant populations. CRP was similar in each trimester, with an upper reference limit of 19 mg/L. CRP increased linearly with body mass index (p < 0.0001). The sensitivity and specificity of CRP for diagnosing chorioamnionitis were 73% and 86%, respectively. The overall diagnostic accuracy using the pregnancy-specific reference interval was significantly better than that of the existing standard (p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: CRP is a widely-used clinical tool in pregnancy, and a pregnancy-specific reference interval should be used to optimise diagnostic accuracy. Chorioamnionitis was used as an example of a localised infection with well-defined outcomes, but pregnancy-specific RIs for CRP should be considered in any clinical setting including pregnant women.

Cardiac-specific troponins in uncomplicated pregnancy and pre-eclampsia: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: The risk of myocardial infarction (MI) increases during pregnancy, particularly in women with pre-eclampsia. MI is diagnosed by measuring high blood levels of cardiac-specific troponin (cTn), although this may be elevated in women with pre-eclampsia without MI, which increases diagnostic uncertainty. It is unclear how much cTn is elevated in uncomplicated and complicated pregnancy, which may affect whether the existing reference intervals can be used in pregnant women. Previous reviews have not investigated high-sensitivity troponin in pregnancy, compared to older, less sensitive methods. METHODS: Electronic searches using the terms "troponin I" or "troponin T", and "pregnancy", "pregnancy complications" or "obstetrics". cTn levels were extracted from studies of women with uncomplicated pregnancies or pre-eclampsia. RESULTS: The search identified ten studies with 1581 women. Eight studies used contemporary methods that may be too insensitive to use reliably in this clinical setting. Two studies used high-sensitivity assays, with one reporting an elevation in troponin I (TnI) in pre-eclampsia compared to uncomplicated pregnancy, and the other only examining women with pre-eclampsia. Seven studies compared cTn between women with pre-eclampsia or uncomplicated pregnancy using any assay. Seven studies showed elevated TnI in pre-eclampsia compared to uncomplicated pregnancy or non-pregnant women. One study measured troponin T (TnT) in pregnancy but did not examine pre-eclampsia. CONCLUSION: TnI appears to be elevated in pre-eclampsia, irrespective of methodology, which may reflect the role of cardiac stress in this condition. TnI may be similar in healthy pregnant and non-pregnant women, but we found no literature reporting pregnancy-specific reference intervals using high-sensitivity tests. This limits broader application of cTn in pregnancy. There is a need to define reference intervals for cTn in pregnant women, which should involve serial sampling throughout pregnancy, with careful consideration for gestational age and body mass index, which cause dynamic changes in normal maternal physiology.

A pregnancy-specific reference interval for procalcitonin.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Sepsis is a leading cause of maternal death, and developing diagnostic tests for infection is increasingly important to reduce maternal mortality. The existing inflammatory markers, like C-reactive protein, are not specific for infection, which introduces diagnostic uncertainty. Procalcitonin (PCT) is used to accurately diagnose bacterial sepsis and differentiate it from other conditions, which is now particularly important given the vulnerability to COVID-19 in pregnancy. There are few studies of PCT in pregnancy as the reference interval for pregnant women is unknown. This study aimed to define the pregnancy-specific reference interval for PCT. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cross-sectional study of 323 healthy pregnant women, with longitudinal sampling in each trimester. RESULTS: The upper reference limit for PCT was 0.05 ng/mL and did not vary materially between any observed group of gestational age, body mass index, maternal age, mean arterial blood pressure or fetal sex. CONCLUSION: Our study has shown that levels of PCT are similar in pregnant and non-pregnant populations despite the physiological changes of normal pregnancy. Therefore, pregnancy should not preclude the use of PCT in pregnant women with suspected sepsis, or for guiding antibiotic therapy in women with a diagnosed bacterial infection at any stage of pregnancy.

Improving the quality of handover in a liaison psychiatry team.

Handover is a high risk point for errors in clinical care, in many cases leading to adverse events or near misses. The timely transfer of accurate and useful information between professionals is vital to ensure quality and safety, and to ensure the transfer of accountability for care. In this project standards were developed for quality handover between doctors in a liaison psychiatry department. The aim of these were to ensure adequate identification of patients, clear communication of tasks to be completed and relevant risk issues, as well as a guide to the priority of jobs. We measured compliance with these standards for all patients documented in the handover book during three week periods in 2013, 2014 (following delivery of education and guidance on handover to all doctors), and finally in 2015 after implementation of a proforma for handover. Handover documentation prior to the implementation of standards was of poor quality with significant absences of information. Key information to identify patients was frequently absent, for example hospital number was only recorded in 1% of cases. Only 81% of entries included the reason for the patient's referral, and 27% made no mention of the outstanding tasks for completion. Despite guidance and education of all doctors regarding the standards, there was no consistent improvement in compliance. It was particularly concerning that risk issues were only mentioned in 18% of cases, even when assessed immediately after education was given. Following introduction of the proforma compliance increased with overall completeness of handover improving from 40% to 71%. Without guidelines handover between shifts is of a poor quality, and often lacks key information to allow colleagues to identify patients and prioritise need. Education of those performing these handovers did not produce any benefits, either immediately following its delivery or in longer term follow up. The implementation of a template to aid clinicians in recording this data did produce improvements and received positive feedback from doctors.

Ivabradine, a novel treatment for clozapine-induced sinus tachycardia: a case series.

OBJECTIVES: Clozapine is the most efficacious treatment for treatment-resistant schizophrenia; however its use can be limited by intolerability. Sinus tachycardia is a common adverse event associated with clozapine use, which may lead to the premature discontinuation of clozapine. Traditionally, ß blockers are used to treat clozapine-associated tachycardia, though problems with intolerability and ineffectiveness can limit their utility. METHODS: In this article, we present two cases of patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia who developed symptomatic tachycardia associated with clozapine therapy. RESULTS: We demonstrate that the novel heart rate controlling agent ivabradine can be effectively and safely used to control the heart rate and to allow for continued treatment with clozapine. CONCLUSION: This is the first report in the literature demonstrating that ivabradine appears to be a well tolerated agent, which should be considered as a symptomatic treatment of clozapine-induced tachycardia if the use of a ß blocker fails due to a lack of response or intolerability.