Venous vs arterial blood gases in the assessment of patients presenting with an exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical correlation between arterial and venous blood gas (VBG) values in patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. METHODS: A prospective study of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease presenting to the ED with acute ventilatory compromise was done. Patients were included if their attending physician considered arterial blood gas sampling important in their initial assessment. Data from arterial and venous samples were compared using Spearman correlation and bias plot (Bland-Altman) methods. RESULTS: Ninety-four patients were enrolled in the study. Eighty-nine patients had complete data sets for analysis. Arterial hypercarbia was present in 30 patients (33.7%; range, 51-140.19 mm Hg). All cases of arterial hypercarbia were detected using VBG sampling when a screening cutoff of 45 mm Hg was applied (sensitivity, 100%; 95% confidence interval, 88.7%-100% and specificity, 34%; 95% confidence interval, 23.1%-46.6%). Bias plot revealed moderate agreement between arterial and venous Pco(2) with an average difference of 8.6 mm Hg and 95% limits of agreement of -7.84 to 25.05 mm Hg. For pH, mean difference between each group was 0.039 (range, -0.12 to 0.03). Linear regression analysis for pH demonstrated very close equivalence with a regression coefficient of 0.955, and Spearman correlation showed significant correlation of 0.826 (P = .001). CONCLUSION: Venous pH and HCO(3) values show excellent correlation with arterial values. Using a previously validated screening cutoff of 45 mm Hg, venous CO(2) has 100% sensitivity in detecting arterial hypercarbia. There is insufficient agreement between venous and arterial CO(2) for VBG to replace arterial blood gas in determining the degree of hypercarbia.

Primary-care prescribing of anti-osteoporotic-type medications following hospitalisation for fractures.

PURPOSE: We examined the prescribing of antiosteoporotic medications pre- and post hospital admission in patients with fragility fractures as well as factors associated with prescribing of these treatments following admission. METHODS: We identified all patients aged ≥ 55 years at a large teaching hospital between 2005 and 2008 with a fracture using the Hospital In-Patient Enquiry (HIPE) system. These data were linked to prescribing data from the Health Service Executive Primary Care Reimbursement Services (HSE-PCRS) scheme before and after discharge (821 patients). Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the likelihood of prescription of antiosteoporotic medication pre- and post discharge in relation to year of discharge, age, gender, and type of fracture. RESULTS: Prescribing of antiosteoporotic treatment before fracture increased from 2.6% [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.23-2.93%] in 2005 to 10.6% (95% CI 9.32-11.86) by 2008, whereas post fracture prescribing increased from 11% (95% CI 9.64-12.36) to 47% (95% CI 43.6-50.3). In patients discharged from hospital in 2007, postfracture prescribing was 31.8% (95% CI 28.66-35.02) at 12 months, increasing to 50.3% (95% CI 46.6-53.9) at 24 months. The highest rate of prescribing was in the 65- to 69-year age group [odds ratio (OR) 8.51, 95% CI 1.75-41.35]. Patients discharged in 2008 were eight times more likely to be treated than patients discharged in 2005 (OR 8.01, 95% CI 4.55-14.09). CONCLUSION: The percentage of patients on antiosteoporotic treatment post fracture increased significantly from 2005 to 2008. This may be largely due to the introduction of the Osteoporosis Clinic to the hospital in 2005.

Adherence and persistence to urate-lowering therapies in the Irish setting.

To identify adherence and persistence levels with urate-lowering therapies using the national administrative pharmacy claim database. This was a retrospective, pharmacy claims-based analysis of dispensed anti-gout medications on the Irish national HSE-PCRS scheme database between January 2008 and December 2012. Adherence is defined by the medication possession ratio (MPR), and patients were considered to be adherent if the MPR ≥80 % (good adherers) in any given time period. Persistence was defined as continued use of therapy with no periods exceeding a refill gap of >63 days (9 weeks). Logistic regression analysis was used to predict odd ratios (OR) and 95 % confidence interval (CI) for persistence and adherence in relation to age, gender and level of comorbidity. There was a 53 % increase in the number of patients prescribed anti-gout medications between 2008 and 2012 with an increase of 27 % in the associated ingredient cost of these medications. Allopurinol accounted for 87 % of the prescribing and febuxostat accounted for a further 9 %. In patients who started on 100 mg allopurinol, only 14.6 % were titrated to the 300 mg dose. For all those initiating urate-lowering therapies, 45.8 % of patients were persistent with treatment at 6 months decreasing to 22.6 % at 12 months. In multivariate analysis, females had poorer adherence (OR = 0.83 (0.77-0.90)), and increasing age was associated with increased adherence (OR = 4.19 (2.53-6.15)) Increasing comorbidity score was associated with increased adherence and persistence at 6 months (OR = 0.68 (0.59-0.79)). Adherence with anti-gout medications in this study cohort was relatively low. Sustained treatment for gouty arthritis is essential in the prevention of serious adverse outcomes.Significance and Innovations-Poor adherence to medications prescribed to patients for the management of chronic diseases such as gout is an ongoing problem which urgently needs to be addressed.-Some of the reasons identified for poor adherence to anti-gout medications include the risk of flare of acute gout with the initiation of urate-lowering therapy (ULT), poor response to ULT and persistence of attacks of acute gout, suboptimal dosing of allopurinol therapy and intolerance of allopurinol.-The results of this study identified adherence and persistence rates of approximately 50 % at 6 months which is in line if not lower than many of the other published studies to date which have measured adherence and persistence using pharmacy claims databases.-The results of poor adherence and persistence affect both the health of the patients with financial implications for the healthcare service.