Anticoagulant therapy clinic: moving towards Advanced Nursing Practice

English Abstract; Journal Article;There is currently around one million people receiving oral anticoagulants in Spain. The drug most used is acenocoumarol, which requires coagulation monitoring to ensure that the patient is within its normal therapeutic range. Patients usually start this treatment in a hospital clinic and, when they are stabilised, they are referred to primary care, where they are followed-up by their community nurses. The usual practice is that nurses are responsible for changes in the dose when the patients are outside the range. This practice is not performed by hospital nurses, despite having sufficient experience and knowledge to adequately manage these types of patients. An Advanced Nursing Practice model has been introduced into the Haematology management unit of the Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria, Málaga. This involves various aspects of attention and care of patients on anticoagulant therapy, and includes adjusting the doses of their treatment following a catalogue of therapeutic and diagnostic ranges.YesEn la actualidad, en nuestro país, alrededor de un millón de personas reciben anticoagulación oral. El fármaco más empleado es el acenocumarol, que requiere de controles de coagulación para constatar que el paciente se encuentra dentro de su rango terapéutico. Los pacientes suelen empezar este tratamiento en una consulta hospitalaria y, cuando se encuentran estabilizados, son derivados a Atención Primaria (AP), donde son seguidos por sus enfermeras comunitarias. La práctica habitual es que estas enfermeras asuman los cambios de dosis cuando los pacientes están fuera de rango; no obstante este aspecto no es realizado por las enfermeras hospitalarias a pesar de disponer suficiente experiencia y conocimientos para un adecuado manejo de este tipo de pacientes. En la UGC de hematología del Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria de Málaga se ha implantado un modelo de Enfermería de Práctica Avanzada que incluye diversos aspectos de la atención y cuidados a los pacientes en terapia antitrombótica, entre los que se encuentran la dosificación de su tratamiento siguiendo un catálogo de rangos terapéuticos y diagnósticos

Incidence, characteristics and clinical profile of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in patients with pre-existing primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) in Spain.

Infections are one of the well-known precipitating factors for relapses in patients with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can sometimes lead to or be associated with thrombocytopenia due to an increase in peripheral platelet destruction from inflammatory hyperactivation. Currently, we do not know if SARS-CoV-2 infection modifies the natural evolution of chronic or persistent ITP or if previous immunosuppression of patients with ITP influences the incidence and severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in this group. The present study was an observational, multicentre, national series of 32 adult patients with pre-existing ITP and subsequent SARS-CoV-2 infection, collected by the Spanish ITP Group [Grupo Español de Trombocitopenia Inmune (GEPTI)]

The database of the PREDICTS (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems) project

The PREDICTS project—Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)—has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used this evidence base to develop global and regional statistical models of how local biodiversity responds to these measures. We describe and make freely available this 2016 release of the database, containing more than 3.2 million records sampled at over 26,000 locations and representing over 47,000 species. We outline how the database can help in answering a range of questions in ecology and conservation biology. To our knowledge, this is the largest and most geographically and taxonomically representative database of spatial comparisons of biodiversity that has been collated to date; it will be useful to researchers and international efforts wishing to model and understand the global status of biodiversity