Introduction: New oral anticoagulants (NOACs) have shown comparable efficacy to warfarin in the treatment of patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE), stroke and atrial fibrillation (AF). Various studies on quality-of-life improvement in rural patients following the switch from vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) to NOACs have produced inconclusive results. The aim of the study is to assess the impact of switching from warfarin to NOACs on remotely living patients' quality of life and the burden of travel.
Methods: A questionnaire was provided to the patient by their pharmacists. The questionnaire assessed their travel burden and their level of satisfaction with their treatment.
Results: The switch from warfarin to NOACs reduced the burden of travel in 75% of patients. A total of 66% of patients were hesitant about the efficacy of their warfarin treatment. The inconvenience caused due to international normalized ratio (INR) monitoring was reduced in 83% of patients; 70% and 72% of patients strongly agreed that NOACs improved their adherence and treatment satisfaction, respectively. The average number of patients' travels for INR testing for warfarin monitoring was 7.27 trips/year. The average number of trips made by the patient to obtain their NOACs and warfarin scripts was 2.1 and 4.81 trips/year, respectively.
Conclusion: The switch from warfarin, a VKA, to NOACs in patients who live in remote areas without medical services improved their quality of life, decreased their travel burden, and increased their treatment satisfaction and adherence. Switching to NOACs reduced the number of trips travelled by patients to obtain their anticoagulation scripts and/or to adjust their doses.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.24608 | DOI Listing |
Target Oncol
January 2025
Hematology-Oncology Service, Department of Medicine, Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM), 1000, rue Saint-Denis, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Background: BERIL-1 was a randomized phase 2 study that studied paclitaxel with either buparlisib, a pan-class I PIK3 inhibitor, or placebo in patients with recurrent or metastatic (R/M) head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC). Considering the therapeutic paradigm shift with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) now approved in the first-line setting, we present an updated immunogenomic analysis of patients enrolled in BERIL-1, including patients with immune-infiltrated tumors.
Objective: The objective of this study was to identify biomarkers predictive of treatment efficacy in the context of the post-ICI therapeutic landscape.
J Gen Intern Med
January 2025
Department of Neurology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Background: Previous reports suggest patient and caregiver lack of awareness of dementia. Little is known about how this varies by ethnicity and how informal (family) caregiver burden is associated with knowing a dementia diagnosis.
Objective: To investigate whether participants with probable dementia were aware of a diagnosis provided by a physician and how this differed among Mexican American and non-Hispanic White participants; whether having a primary care physician was associated with dementia diagnosis unawareness; and the association of dementia diagnosis unawareness with caregiver burden.
Eur J Neurol
January 2025
Department of Clinical Laboratory and Internal Medicine, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
Background And Purpose: Clinical manifestations of Lyme borreliosis (LB), caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (Bbsl), include erythema migrans, Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB), carditis, and arthritis. LB is a notifiable disease in Japan with <30 surveillance-reported LB cases annually, predominately from Hokkaido Prefecture. However, LB, including LNB, may be under-diagnosed in Japan since diagnostic tests are not readily available.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMJ Open
December 2024
Neuroimmunology and Neuromuscular Diseases Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milano, Italy
Objectives: To provide comprehensive information on the burden of myasthenia gravis (MG) in Italy, including the unmet needs of patients and several other aspects related to the disease, based on skilled viewpoints of MG experts.
Design: Iterative analysis conducted in accordance with the best practices of the Delphi method, including anonymity, controlled feedback, and statistical stability of consensus.
Setting And Participants: 24 clinicians, 18 public health experts and 4 patient associations experts completed all the Delphi iterations between 18 April and 3 July 2023, for a total of 46 participants from several Italian Regions.
Eur J Radiol Open
June 2025
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Medical Faculty and University Hospital Duesseldorf, Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf, Düsseldorf 40225, Germany.
Objective: [F]FDG imaging is an integral part of patient management in CAR-T-cell therapy for recurrent or therapy-refractory DLBCL. The calculation methods of predictive power of specific imaging parameters still remains elusive. With this retrospective study, we sought to evaluate the predictive power of the baseline metabolic parameters and tumor burden calculated with automated segmentation via different thresholding methods for early therapy failure and mortality risk in DLBCL patients.
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