Incidence and clinical impact of inappropriate periprocedural and perioperative management of antiplatelet therapy.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: There is little evidence on the impact of current recommendations on the use of antiplatelet therapy during the perioperative and periprocedural period in our setting. The aim of this study was to analyze the incidence and clinical impact of inappropriate use of antiplatelet therapy in a population of patients undergoing surgery or a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure in "real life" in Spain. METHODS: A prospective multicenter observational study of patients treated with antiplatelet agents requiring intervention was conducted. The incidence of thrombotic and hemorrhagic events at 30 days was analyzed according to peri-intervention management of antiplatelet therapy. RESULTS: We included 643 patients (31.9% women, 39.0% over 75 years of age), most of them (87.7%) receiving aspirin as antiplatelet therapy at a dose of 100mg/day. Indications for antiplatelet therapy were ischemic heart disease (44.9%), cerebrovascular disease (21.7%), and peripheral vascular disease (23.0%). Ischemic risk was low in 74.3%, while 51.6% had a low bleeding risk of the intervention. Periprocedural management was considered appropriate in 61.7% of cases. 30-day incidence of the combined primary endpoint of thrombotic events and major bleeding (12.1% versus 5.0%; p=0.002) and 30-day mortality (5.2% versus 1.5%; p=0.008) were significantly higher in patients with inappropriate periprocedural management of antiplatelet agents. CONCLUSIONS: Despite current recommendations for the use of antiplatelet drugs in the perioperative/periprocedural period, their implementation in the "real world" remains low. Inappropriate use is associated with an increased incidence of adverse events, both thrombotic and hemorrhagic.

Prospective observational registry of perioperative and periprocedural management of antithrombotic therapy in "real world": the REQXAA study.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: There is scarce real-world evidence on the management of perioperative antithrombotic treatment according to current recommendations. The aim of this study was to analyze the management of antithrombotic treatment in patients undergoing surgery or another invasive intervention and to assess the consequences of this management on the occurrence thrombotic or bleeding events. METHODS: This prospective, observational, multicenter and multispecialty study analyzed patients receiving antithrombotic therapy who underwent surgery or another invasive intervention. The primary endpoint was defined as the incidence of adverse (thrombotic and/or hemorrhagic) events after 30 days of follow-up with respect to management of perioperative antithrombotic drugs. RESULTS: We included 1266 patients (male: 63.5%; mean age 72.6 years). Nearly half of the patients (48.6%) were under chronic anticoagulation therapy (mainly for atrial fibrillation; CHA2DS2-VASC: 3.7), while 53.3% of the patients were under chronic antiplatelet therapy (mainly for coronary artery disease). Low ischemic and hemorrhagic risk was found in 66.7% and 51.9%, respectively. Antithrombotic therapy management was in line with current recommendations in only 57.3% of the patients. Inappropriate management of antithrombotic therapy was an independent risk factor for both thrombotic and hemorrhagic events. CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of recommendations on the perioperative/periprocedural management of antithrombotic therapy in real-world patients is poor. Inappropriate management of antithrombotic treatment is associated with an increase in both thrombotic and hemorrhagic events.

Clinical characteristics of COVID-19 hospitalized patients associated with mortality: A cohort study in Spain.

Background: The heterogeneity of patients with COVID-19 may explain the wide variation of mortality rate due to the population characteristics, presence of comorbidities and clinical manifestations. Methods: In this study, we analyzed 5342 patients' recordings and selected a cohort of 177 hospitalized patients with a poor prognosis at an early stage. We assessed during 6 months their symptomatology, coexisting health conditions, clinical measures and health assistance related to mortality. Multiple Cox proportional hazards models were built to identify the associated factors with mortality risk. Results: We observed that cough and kidney failure triplicate the mortality risk and both bilirubin levels and oncologic condition are shown as the most associated with the demise, increasing in four and ten times the risk, respectively. Other clinical characteristics such as fever, diabetes mellitus, breathing frequency, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, oxygen saturation, and troponin levels, were also related to mortality risk of in-hospital death. Conclusions: The present study shows that some symptomatology, comorbidities and clinical measures could be the target of prevention tools to improve survival rates.