Recommendations and guidance for providing pharmaceutical care services during COVID-19 pandemic: A China perspective.

BACKGROUND: The novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19), which was first detected in Wuhan City, has now became a pandemic that affecting patients around the world. Particularly, the community patient population are at high risk of infection and are facing potential failure of proper medication use during the pandemic. OBJECTIVE: To discuss community pharmacists' role and the content of pharmaceutical care (PC) during the novel coronavirus pandemic to promote effective prevention and control and safe drug use of the community patient population. METHOD: Collect and summarize the experience Chinese community pharmacies gained from providing pharmacy services during the COVID-19 outbreak, and taking patients' PC needs into consideration, analyze and discuss the methods and strategies that community pharmacies and pharmacists shall use to provide PC during the pandemic. RESULTS: Community pharmacy management teams shall support PC services by providing adequate supply of COVID-19 related medications and preventative products, following environment regulations, and providing sufficient staff trainings. Pharmacists shall use various approaches to provide PC services in drug dispensing, consulting and referrals, chronic disease management, safe use of infusions, patient education, home care guidance and psychological support to promote the COVID-19 pandemic control and ensure safe medication use of community patients during the pandemic. CONCLUSION: PC services in communities during the COVID-19 shall possess different properties due to disease characteristics and related change in patients' need. Community pharmacies shall work as a strong supporter of patient's medication and protective equipment supply. Community pharmacists shall be prepared to provide skilled and effective PC services for community patient population to ensure medication safety and promote the overall COVID-19 pandemic control.

[Real-time three dimensional echocardiography-based evaluation of left ventricular function in children with Kawasaki disease].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical significance of full volume real-time three-dimensional echocardiography (RT-3DE) in the assessment of general and local systolic functions of the left ventricle in children with Kawasaki disease (KD). METHODS: A total of 73 KD children (40 with and 33 without coronary artery lesions) and 35 healthy control children were recruited. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was measured by M-mode ultrasound and full volume RT-3DE imaging. A left ventricular volume-time curve and a segmental speed-time curve were generated. Differences between control subjects and patients with and without coronary artery lesions were analyzed. RESULTS: The M-mode ultrasound measurements of LVEF in KD patients with coronary artery lesions were significantly lower than in KD patients without coronary artery lesions and control children (P<0.05), while there was no significant difference between KD patients without coronary artery lesions and control children. RT-3DE measurements of LVEF were significantly different between the three groups analyzed (P<0.05): coronary artery lesion group < no coronary artery lesion group < control group. RT-3DE-based segmental ventricular wall analysis revealed that Tmsv16-SD and Tmsv12-SD in KD patients with coronary artery lesions were significantly higher than other two groups and Tmsv6-SD was also significantly higher than in the normal control group (P<0.05) and that Tmsv16-SD in KD patients without coronary artery lesions increased significantly compared with the normal control group (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: RT-3DE can be used in the quantitative evaluation of the left ventricular function and therefore has significant clinical implications.