Prevalence of Pulmonary Embolism Among Patients With COPD Hospitalized With Acutely Worsening Respiratory Symptoms.

Importance: The prevalence of pulmonary embolism in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and acutely worsening respiratory symptoms remains uncertain.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of pulmonary embolism in patients with COPD admitted to the hospital for acutely worsening respiratory symptoms.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Multicenter cross-sectional study with prospective follow-up conducted in 7 French hospitals.

Indications and potential pitfalls of anticoagulants in pulmonary hypertension: Would DOACs become a better option than VKAs?

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) comprises a cluster of severe conditions characterized by elevated mean pulmonary arterial pressure. While targeted therapies have been approved over the last twenty years for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and chronic-thrombo-embolic PH (CTEPH), the possible role of anticoagulant therapy as a supportive treatment PAH is still debated. In PAH, anticoagulant use remains frequent, although evidence appear to be poor (recommendation class IIb-C in international guidelines).

Screening cancer after venous thromboembolism: How many abnormal tests before diagnosing cancer? An analysis of practice.

Introduction: Since Trousseau, we knows that venous thrombemboembolism (VTE) can reveal occult cancer. Different strategies of cancer screening have been evaluated: they are often time-consuming, cause stress and anxiety, and frequently require second-look examinations (due to the risk of false positives), with ultimately a very low yield (about 5%). We evaluated the number of suspect cancer tests before reporting them to the number of cancers finally diagnosed, after a VTE, in the setting of practice's analysis.

Effect of Activated Charcoal on Rivaroxaban Complex Absorption.

Objective: To quantify the impact of activated charcoal (AC) on rivaroxaban exposure in healthy volunteers.

Methods: This was an open-label study with an incomplete cross-over design of single-dose rivaroxaban (40 mg) administered alone or with AC in 12 healthy volunteers. The study comprised three treatment periods in randomised sequence, one with rivaroxaban administered alone and two with AC given at 2, 5 or 8 h post-dose.

Direct oral anticoagulants: Current indications and unmet needs in the treatment of venous thromboembolism.

The treatment of acute venous thromboembolism (VTE) is being completely modified with the development of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs). Rivaroxaban, apixaban and edoxaban directly inhibit factor Xa, whereas dabigatran inhibits factor IIa. All these drugs are proposed orally, and share pharmacological similarities: fixed doses without any therapeutic drug monitoring, key role of the transporter proteins P-glycoprotein for all of them and metabolism mediated by CYP3A4 for the anti-Xa, short half-life with variable rate of renal elimination.

[Pulmonary hypertension in the elderly].

In the past decade, a significant improvement has been done in the management of pulmonary arterial hypertension, a devastating disease. Beside the aging population, one of the next challenges is to develop a specific management of a pulmonary hypertension's suspicion, in the aged patients. In fact, recent data have shown that if pulmonary hypertension were mostly related to chronic heart or lung failure, or pulmonary embolism, some elderly may in fact develop a real pulmonary arterial hypertension.