Position Statement on In-hospital/Clinic Point-of-care Coagulation Testing for Anticoagulation Monitoring in Saudi Arabia.

Objectives: Hospital overload is a persistent occurrence in daily practice. Interventions such as point-of-care testing (POCT) are needed to alleviate the pressure faced by healthcare providers and administrators.

Methods: An invited panel of experts from Saudi Arabia was formed under the auspices of the Saudi Heart Association in order to discuss local treatment gaps in the management of patients receiving anticoagulation therapy.

The interobserver reliability of a novel qualitative point of care assay for heart-type fatty acid binding protein.

Background: Heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (h-FABP) may help to improve the early diagnosis of acute coronary syndromes in patients presenting to the Emergency Department (ED) with chest pain. A novel qualitative point of care h-FABP lateral flow immunoassay (True Rapid, FABPulous BV) could provide results to clinicians within just 5min. Given the qualitative nature of this test and prior to evaluation in a large diagnostic study, we aimed to determine inter-observer reliability when interpreted contemporaneously by staff in the ED.