Stopping anticoagulation for isolated or incidental pulmonary embolism: the STOPAPE RCT protocol.

Research Question: Is withholding anticoagulation for patients with isolated or incidental subsegmental pulmonary embolism clinically and cost-effective compared with full anticoagulation for 3 months?

Background: There has been an increase in the diagnosis of subsegmental pulmonary embolism since the advent of computed tomography pulmonary angiogram to investigate patients with suspected pulmonary embolism. Subsegmental pulmonary embolism is not often detectable with older nuclear medicine-based diagnostic imaging for ventilation/perfusion mismatch. The case fatality of pulmonary embolism has reduced as subsegmental pulmonary embolism diagnoses from computed tomography pulmonary angiogram have increased.

Implementation of genotype-guided dosing of warfarin with point-of-care genetic testing in three UK clinics: a matched cohort study.

Background: Warfarin is a widely used oral anticoagulant. Determining the correct dose required to maintain the international normalised ratio (INR) within a therapeutic range can be challenging. In a previous trial, we showed that a dosing algorithm incorporating point-of-care genotyping information ('POCT-GGD' approach) led to improved anticoagulation control.