Coping with the Psychological Effects of Illness: Strategies to manage anxiety and depression Fran Smith – counselling psychologist specialised in helping people adjust to living with health problems. London Carina Eriksen – counselling psychologist worked at Institute of psychiatry, London Prof Robert Bor – lead clinical psychologist in medical specialties at the Royal … [Read more...]
Could too much TV kill you?
A Japanese study, just published in the journal 'Circulation', has shown that the risk of dying from pulmonary embolism increases with the more TV you watch. What kind of study was it? It was a 'prospective cohort' study which means following a group of people over many years to see what happens. This is considered superior (although it's much more expensive) to the commoner … [Read more...]
Reaching your diagnosis – heart valve conditions – aortic stenosis
In this Medical Monday series, we’re talking about how your doctor reaches a diagnosis of common conditions associated with coagulation. It may help if you first read the introduction, before reading about today's topic of heart valve conditions. Altogether we’re covering Introduction DVT, Deep Vein Thrombosis Post-thrombotic syndrome PE, Pulmonary Embolism … [Read more...]
Pharmacy Fashion – could you make this dress?
On our recent visit to Copenhagen for the European Haematology Association conference, I visited the Copenhagen medical museum. This was an amazing place, but what impacted me most of all was the dress that was displayed in the foyer. The dress is composed of 27,774 tablets and capsules, representing the pills a woman with metabolic syndrome might take over 10 … [Read more...]
Medical Journal – AF – How many pills?
Researchers looked at 18,201 people with atrial fibrillation, AF, and found the average number of drugs each person took was six, with 76.5% of people taking six or more drugs. Most of these drugs are not for their AF but for their other medical conditions. More than three quarters of patients with AF take six or more drugs. This is a worrying finding, as polypharmacy … [Read more...]
Medical Journal -Sexism in AF treatment?
A major problem for people with AF is that they are not put on anticoagulants when they should be. But the study we’re looking at today shows it is even worse for women: Women are 1.8 times as likely to be undertreated for AF as men. Where’s the study from? It's a recently published study (May 2016) from the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society by Mark … [Read more...]
ECG – What and Why?
Why would I have an ECG? An ECG is a fairly routine test so it may just be used to check you have no major heart issues. On the other hand it may be used to look for atrial fibrillation (AF) or a heart attack (blocked blood supply to some of your heart muscle). If you attend the hospital with chest pain of any sort, including a pulmonary embolism, you are likely to have an … [Read more...]
Reaching your diagnosis – Atrial fibrillation
In this Medical Monday series, we’re talking about how your doctor reaches a diagnosis of common conditions associated with coagulation. It may help if you first read the introduction, before reading about today's topic of Atrial Fibrillation. Altogether we’re covering Introduction DVT, Deep Vein Thrombosis Post-thrombotic syndrome PE, Pulmonary Embolism … [Read more...]
Echocardiography – What and Why?
Why would I have a heart echo? Echos are used to examine your heart as it beats in real time, rather than just getting a one-time static picture. In relation to coagulation this could be needed to look for possible pulmonary hypertension (related to pulmonary embolism) underlying heart disease in atrial fibrillation, problems with your heart valves or to see how … [Read more...]
Tragic case leads coroner to recommend our service
What happened? An elderly man was on warfarin for atrial fibrillation and had not had an INR test for sometime. He unfortunately developed gastro-intestinal bleeding and became very unwell. When he arrived at hospital his INR was 8.1. In spite of multiple blood transfusions he died the next day. This tragic story reinforces the importance of two areas we have covered in … [Read more...]
