ReportWire

Tag: Blood

  • New Orleans EMS uses unique lifesaving technique for 100th time Sunday morning

    New Orleans EMS uses unique lifesaving technique for 100th time Sunday morning

    [ad_1]

    The New Orleans EMS administered blood to a woman shot on Bourbon Street Sunday morning while she was still in the street. They say this is a rare ability for EMS services across the country and saves lives. Thomas Mauro was the paramedic who gave her the blood using a Lifeflow device. He was able to get blood into the victim in just 10 minutes as opposed to the normal 40 or so minutes it can take to get victims’ blood in a hospital. “Quick, rapid blood administration is the most important thing you can do besides getting them to the hospital as quickly as possible. I feel better now that I can make more of a difference than I could before,” Mauro said.This was the 100th time New Orleans EMS was able to use this service since it launched almost exactly a year ago. They say they are seeing much better outcomes for people facing trauma that received the treatment, as opposed to those who didn’t in years past.“My first ever blood administration the patient normally would not have done well but by the time we got that patient to the hospital they were talking, and they weren’t talking before,” Mauro said.They say other EMS services across the world are looking to them as an example and are trying to institute the practice in their own cities. “Regardless, you know New Orleans will probably continue to face challenges, but we will remain dedicated to rise to that and continue and giving residents and visitors in the state of New Orleans the care that they need. So, whether 100 was high or 100 was low, regardless of why we’re giving it, we were just happy to,” said New Orleans EMS Capt. Janick Lewis.The service is currently being paid for out of the EMS budget. Patients are not charged. Data is continuing to be collected to determine the effectiveness of the treatment, but members say it seems to be effective.

    NEW ORLEANS —

    The New Orleans EMS administered blood to a woman shot on Bourbon Street Sunday morning while she was still in the street. They say this is a rare ability for EMS services across the country and saves lives.

    Thomas Mauro was the paramedic who gave her the blood using a Lifeflow device. He was able to get blood into the victim in just 10 minutes as opposed to the normal 40 or so minutes it can take to get victims’ blood in a hospital.

    “Quick, rapid blood administration is the most important thing you can do besides getting them to the hospital as quickly as possible. I feel better now that I can make more of a difference than I could before,” Mauro said.

    This was the 100th time New Orleans EMS was able to use this service since it launched almost exactly a year ago. They say they are seeing much better outcomes for people facing trauma that received the treatment, as opposed to those who didn’t in years past.

    “My first ever blood administration the patient normally would not have done well but by the time we got that patient to the hospital they were talking, and they weren’t talking before,” Mauro said.

    They say other EMS services across the world are looking to them as an example and are trying to institute the practice in their own cities.

    “Regardless, you know New Orleans will probably continue to face challenges, but we will remain dedicated to rise to that and continue and giving residents and visitors in the state of New Orleans the care that they need. So, whether 100 was high or 100 was low, regardless of why we’re giving it, we were just happy to,” said New Orleans EMS Capt. Janick Lewis.

    The service is currently being paid for out of the EMS budget. Patients are not charged. Data is continuing to be collected to determine the effectiveness of the treatment, but members say it seems to be effective.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • FDA Approves Oral MEK Inhibitor Cobimetinib for Histiocytic Neoplasms, Research Led by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

    FDA Approves Oral MEK Inhibitor Cobimetinib for Histiocytic Neoplasms, Research Led by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the oral MEK inhibitor drug cobimetinib (Cotellic®) for the treatment of adult patients with the family of blood diseases known as histiocytic neoplasms (HN). These diseases include Erdheim-Chester disease, Rosai-Dorfman disease, and Langerhans cell histiocytosis. Cobimetinib is an oral inhibitor of MEK1 and MEK2, currently approved to treat melanoma.

    The approval was granted based on data collected by MSK in collaboration with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, from a single-institution phase 2 trial of single-agent cobimetinib for adults with histiocytic disorders. A rarity in the world of cancer research, the clinical trial that led to the approval was conducted solely at MSK.

    This work builds upon the approval of vemurafenib (Zelboraf®) in 2017 for the treatment of Erdheim-Chester disease, a type of histiocytosis. Vemurafenib targets the BRAF V600E mutation found in more than half of histiocytosis cases and was the first targeted therapy to be approved based on a basket trial, a novel tumor-agnostic clinical trial design pioneered at MSK.

    “The approval of cobimetinib represents the collective hard work of several years of investigation by many MSK researchers. There have been tremendous advances in the field of rare cancers as a result of research and trials conducted at MSK, and this approval is an excellent example of a practice-changing outcome,” said Eli L. Diamond, MD, neuro-oncologist and neurologist at MSK and principal investigator of the trial. “There has always been an unmet need for patients with histiocytosis, and we are thrilled that with this approval, these patients will now have access to a viable treatment option.”

    Histiocytosis is a family of blood diseases that affect both children and adults. These rare diseases are estimated to affect approximately 1 to 2 out of 200,000 people each year. The disease can infiltrate any part of the body, but most often presents in the brain. Before now, available treatment options for most adults with HN were limited and associated with poor long-term tolerance. Doctors at MSK care for more adults with histiocytosis than any other hospital in the United States.

    In October 2019, the FDA announced Breakthrough Therapy Designation to cobimetinib for MEK inhibition in HN, based on a trial published in Nature in March 2019 by a team of MSK researchers led by Dr. Diamond; Omar Abdel-Wahab, MD, hematologic oncologist and Director of the Center for Hematologic Malignancies at MSK; and David Hyman, MD, former Chief of the Early Drug Development Service at MSK. The team used genetic sequencing test MSK-IMPACT®, created by the Department of Pathology at MSK, to determine patients’ mutations.

    “Until now, no standard therapy has existed for the 50% of histiocytosis patients without the BRAF V600E mutation,” said Dr. Abdel-Wahab. “The research pioneered at MSK has led to a viable treatment option for adult patients who harbor this mutation. Looking ahead, we are working on advancing treatment options for pediatric patients with histiocytosis as we have done in adults.”

    [ad_2]

    Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

    Source link

  • Landmark Clinical Study Finds Aspirin as Effective as Commonly Used Blood Thinner to Prevent Life-Threatening Blood Clots and Death After Fracture Surgery

    Landmark Clinical Study Finds Aspirin as Effective as Commonly Used Blood Thinner to Prevent Life-Threatening Blood Clots and Death After Fracture Surgery

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — Patients who have surgery to repair bone fractures typically receive a type of injectable blood thinner, low-molecular-weight heparin, to prevent life-threatening blood clots, but a new clinical trial found that over-the-counter aspirin is just as effective. The findings, presented today at the Orthopaedic Trauma Association (OTA) annual meeting in Tampa, FL, could cause surgeons to change their practice and administer aspirin instead to these patients.

    The multi-center randomized clinical trial of more than 12,000 patients at 21 trauma centers in the U.S. and Canada, is the largest-ever trial in orthopedic trauma patients. The trial was co-led by the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and the Major Extremity Trauma Research Consortium (METRC) based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

    “We expect our findings from this large-scale trial to have an important impact on clinical practice, and potentially even change the standard of care,” said the study’s principal investigator Robert V. O’Toole, MD, the Hansjörg Wyss Medical Foundation Endowed Professor in Orthopaedic Trauma at UMSOM and head of the school’s Division of Orthopaedic Traumatology. “Orthopaedic trauma patients are commonly prescribed the blood thinner low-molecular-weight heparin to prevent blood clots for weeks following surgery. Not only does the medication need to be injected, it can also be quite expensive compared to aspirin.”

    Blood clots cause as many as 100,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Patients who experience fractures that require surgery – an estimated 1 million people in the U.S. annually – are at increased risk of developing blood clots in the veins, including a fatal pulmonary embolism, which is a clot in the lung. Current guidelines recommend prescribing low-molecular-weight heparin (enoxaparin), although research in total joint replacement surgery suggested a potential benefit of aspirin as a less-expensive, widely available option.

    Dr. O’Toole, who is also Chief of Orthopaedics at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), presented the results of the landmark clinical trial at the OTA annual meeting. The $12 million study was funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), (PCS-1511-32745), an independent, nonprofit organization that finances research to help patients and clinicians make better-informed healthcare decisions.

    The study enrolled 12,211 patients with leg or arm fractures that necessitated surgery or pelvic fractures regardless of the specific treatment. Half were randomly assigned to receive 30 mg of injectable low-molecular-weight heparin twice daily. The other half received 81 mg of aspirin twice daily. The follow-up period after surgery was 90 days.

    The main finding of the study was that aspirin was “noninferior,” or no worse, than low-molecular-weight heparin in preventing death from any cause – 47 patients in the aspirin group died compared with 45 patients in the heparin group. Secondary outcomes noted no differences in non-fatal pulmonary embolism. The incidence of bleeding complications and all other safety outcomes was similar in both groups.  Of all the outcomes studied, the one potential difference noted was fewer blood clots in the legs in the low-molecular-weight heparin group. This relatively small difference was driven by clots lower in the leg, which are of unclear clinical importance.

    “With data from more than 12,000 patients, this study provides clear evidence that aspirin is a viable option for preventing blood clots in the lung and death in patients who require surgery for orthopaedic trauma,” said Andrew Pollak, MD, the James Lawrence Kernan Professor and Chair of the Department of Orthopedics at UMSOM and Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer for the 11-hospital University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS).

    The trial was called PREVENTion of CLots in Orthopaedic Trauma, or PREVENT CLOT. Patients enrolled in the trial were treated at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at UMMC and 20 other trauma centers in 15 other states and two in Canada. Recruitment started in April 2017 and continued through 2021. Deborah Stein, MD, MPH, Professor of Surgery at UMSOM and Director of Adult Critical Care Services at UMMC, and Renan Castillo, PhD, an Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, are co-principal investigators.

    “This exciting trial, the largest ever conducted in orthopedic trauma patients, provides important guidance to surgeons in helping to prevent potentially fatal blood clots after fracture surgery by using a medication that is both inexpensive and easy to administer,” said Mark T. Gladwin, MD, Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, Baltimore, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine.

     

    About the University of Maryland School of Medicine

    Now in its third century, the University of Maryland School of Medicine was chartered in 1807 as the first public medical school in the United States. It continues today as one of the fastest growing, top-tier biomedical research enterprises in the world — with 46 academic departments, centers, institutes, and programs, and a faculty of more than 3,000 physicians, scientists, and allied health professionals, including members of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and a distinguished two-time winner of the Albert E. Lasker Award in Medical Research. With an operating budget of more than $1.3 billion, the School of Medicine works closely in partnership with the University of Maryland Medical Center and Medical System to provide research-intensive, academic, and clinically based care for nearly 2 million patients each year. The School of Medicine has nearly $600 million in extramural funding, with most of its academic departments highly ranked among all medical schools in the nation in research funding. As one of the seven professional schools that make up the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus, the School of Medicine has a total population of nearly 9,000 faculty and staff, including 2,500 students, trainees, residents, and fellows. The combined School of Medicine and Medical System (“University of Maryland Medicine”) has an annual budget of over $6 billion and an economic impact of nearly $20 billion on the state and local community. The School of Medicine, which ranks as the 8th highest among public medical schools in research productivity (according to the Association of American Medical Colleges profile), is an innovator in translational medicine, with 606 active patents and 52 start-up companies. In the latest U.S. News & World Report ranking of the Best Medical Schools, published in 2021, the UM School of Medicine is ranked #9 among the 92 public medical schools in the U.S., and in the top 15 percent (#27) of all 192 public and private U.S. medical schools. The School of Medicine works locally, nationally, and globally, with research and treatment facilities in 36 countries around the world. Visit medschool.umaryland.edu

     

    [ad_2]

    University of Maryland School of Medicine

    Source link