Systematic Review on the Impact of Guidelines Adherence on Antibiotic Prescription in Respiratory Infections.

Overuse and inappropriate antibiotic prescription for respiratory tract infections (RTI) are one of the major contributors to the current antibiotic resistance problem. Guidelines provide support to prescribers for proper decision-making. Our purpose is to review the impact of prescribers' exposure to guidelines in antibiotic prescription for RTIs. A systematic review was performed searching in the scientific databases MEDLINE PubMed and EMBASE for studies which exposed prescribers to guidelines for RTI and compared antibiotic prescription rates/quality before and after the implementation, with thirty-four articles included in the review. The selected studies consisted on a simple intervention in the form of guideline implementation while others involved multifaceted interventions, and varied in population, designs, and settings. Prescription rate was shown to be reduced in the majority of the studies, along with an improvement in appropriateness, defined mainly by the prescription of narrow-spectrum rather than broad-spectrum antibiotics. Intending to ascertain if this implementation could decrease prescription costs, 7 articles accessed it, of which 6 showed the intended reduction. Overall interventions to improve guidelines adherence can be effective in reducing antibiotic prescriptions and inappropriate antibiotic selection for RTIs, supporting the importance of implementing guidelines in order to decrease the high levels of antibiotic prescriptions, and consequently reduce antimicrobial resistance.

The HIPOGAIA study: Monitoring of oral anticoagulation with vitamin K antagonists in the municipality of Gaia. / Estudo HIPOGAIA: monitorização da hipocoagulação oral com dicumarínicos no concelho de Gaia.

INTRODUCTION: Anticoagulant therapy is an effective measure in preventing thromboembolic adverse events. Of the diseases in which this treatment is indicated, atrial fibrillation (AF) has the highest incidence worldwide, with a prevalence of 1.5-2%. OBJECTIVES: To assess the quality of monitoring of patients with non-valvular AF under oral anticoagulation with vitamin K antagonists in Vila Nova de Gaia healthcare units. METHODS: This was a retrospective observational analytical study of the population registered at the 37 healthcare units of the Vila Nova de Gaia and Espinho health center area under oral anticoagulation with vitamin K antagonists during 2014. The data were collected using TAONet(®) software. The variables studied were health units, age, gender, INR value, time in therapeutic range (TTR) and medication. TTR was calculated for each patient using the Rosendaal linear interpolation method. It was stipulated that each patient should have undergone at least six INR measurements. Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel(®) 2010 and SPSS(®) version 21, using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. RESULTS: A total of 479 patients with non-valvular AF were studied, corresponding to 5883 INR tests. Mean TTR was 67.4±6.5%, and 35.3% of patients exhibited poor control (TTR <60%). DISCUSSION: Our study showed moderate control of coagulation parameters, but better than in many international clinical trials and in another Portuguese observational study. Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement in anticoagulation monitoring in primary health care.

What is the effect on cardiovascular events of reducing hyperuricemia with allopurinol? An evidence-based review.

INTRODUCTION: High levels of uric acid (UA) have been associated with cardiovascular (CV) disease, but its role as an independent risk factor is the subject of debate. Treating hyperuricemia may be useful in reducing CV risk. OBJECTIVE: To review the evidence on the effect of treatment with allopurinol in patients with hyperuricemia on reducing CV events. METHODS: We searched medical databases for randomized controlled trials (RCT), cohort studies (CS) and case-control studies (CCS), meta-analyses, systematic reviews and guidelines, published between January 2002 and December 2013 in Portuguese and English. Level of evidence (LE) and strength of recommendation were graded according to the definitions used by the European Society of Cardiology. RESULTS: Out of 46 articles, one RCT, three CS and one CCS were included. In the RCT, treatment with allopurinol decreased CV events in patients with moderate chronic renal failure by 71% compared to controls (LE B). In one CS, patients treated with high doses had a greater reduction in CV events compared to low doses (LE B). The other two CS, in patients with heart failure (HF), found similar benefits in patients treated with high doses of allopurinol (LE B). In the CCS, in patients with HF and a history of gout, treatment with allopurinol reduced HF admission and all-cause mortality (LE B). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Prolonged treatment with high doses of allopurinol may be associated with a reduction in morbidity and mortality in high CV risk populations (class of recommendation IIa). More studies evaluating the effect of therapy with allopurinol in reducing CV events in patients with and without risk are needed.