Exploring behaviors, treatment beliefs, and barriers to oral chemotherapy adherence among adult leukemia patients in a rural outpatient setting

Objective: Adherence to oral chemotherapy is essential for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and multiple myeloma (MM) to remain in remission. Few studies have used a Likert-type scale to measure medication adherence in CML and MM patients. We applied a validated treatment adherence tool, the ASK-12 (Adherence Starts with Knowledge®) survey, which assessed inconvenience and forgetfulness, treatment beliefs, and medication-taking behaviors recorded on a five-point Likert-type scale at two visits. Results: A medication adherence survey was administered to 42 newly diagnosed or pre-existing CML or MM patients at two outpatient oncology clinics affiliated with an academic medical center in rural eastern North Carolina. Thirty-one patients completed surveys at visit 1 and visit 2 (median 4.5 months apart). Most patients were treated for MM (65%), were non-Hispanic black (68%) and female (58%). Within subscales, mean adherence scores decreased between visits, signaling better adherence. Overall, visit scores were correlated (0.63, p = 0.001). Forgetting to take medication sometimes was the most common reason for non-adherence. Medication costs were not a barrier for MM patients. Greater patient–provider informed decision-making was identified as an opportunity for quality improvement among CML patients. The ASK-12 survey provided a strategy to obtain robust information on medication adherence

The BEST criteria improve sensitivity for detecting positive cultures in residual blood components cultured in suspected septic transfusion reactions

BACKGROUND: Culturing residual blood components after suspected septic transfusion reactions guides management of patients and cocomponents. Current practice, accuracy of provider vital sign assessment, and performance of the AABB culture criteria are unknown. A multicenter international study was undertaken to investigate these issues and develop improved culture criteria. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Retrospective data for all transfusion reactions resulting in residual blood component culture in 2016 were collected from participating hospitals. The performance of the AABB culture criteria were assessed for detection of positive culture results. Modifications to the AABB criteria including 1) recommending culturing in the setting of isolated high fevers, 2) defining hypotension and tachycardia using objective parameters, and 3) incorporating antipyretic use were tested to determine if modifications improved performance. Modifications associated with improvement were incorporate into the BEST criteria. The AABB and the BEST criteria were then tested against a data set enriched for positive culture results to determine which criteria were superior. RESULTS: Data were collected from 20 centers encompassing 779,143 transfusions, 3,187 reported transfusion reactions, and 1,104 cultured components. There was marked variation in reaction reporting and culturing rates (0.0%-100.0%). Of 35 total positive component cultures, only one of 35 (2.9%) had concordant patient cultures; 12 of 34 (35.3%) did not have patient cultures performed. The BEST criteria had better sensitivity for detection of a positive culture result compared to the AABB criteria (74% vs. 41%), although specificity decreased (45% vs. 65%). CONCLUSION: Compared to the AABB criteria, the BEST criteria have improved sensitivity for positive culture detection