Bloody Brilliant! Diagnostic Management of Pulmonary Embolism and Frequency of Blood Donation

This week on The Rounds Table we are covering two important studies: diagnostic management of pulmonary embolism and safety of varying the frequency of whole blood donation. Kieran Quinn and Lauren Lacroix break it down for listeners.

Pulmonary embolism represents a diagnostic challenge in the Emergency Department for patients presenting with a variety of symptoms such as chest pain, dyspnea, hemoptysis, and syncope. Clinicians use tools to stratify patients into high and low risk categories, but because of the limitations of the D-dimer test, rates of CTPAs are high. This leads to increased radiation exposure and length of stays in the Emergency Department. Lauren guides listeners through a study which tests the safety of the YEARs diagnostic algorithm in excluding PE.

Next, Kieran takes the lead on the INTERVAL trial. As our Canadian Blood Services says, “Blood it’s in you to give.” There are 110 million annual donations worldwide. Yet, despite more than a century of blood donation, the efficiency and safety of different approaches to blood collection have not been properly evaluated. Determining an optimal frequency for donation is important. Kieran guides listeners through an RCT that examined the effects on donors of increasing the currently recommended frequency of blood donation.

Finally, the Good Stuff segment. Kieran takes listeners through a new technique used to detect clinically significant CVD before it ruptures and leads to ACS. Lauren shares an article on state of the art prosthetics taking athletes to new levels of performance.

Like what you hear? Rate us on iTunes! Chat with us on Twitter @roundstable and tweet at Kieran @kieranlquinn and Lauren @llacroix4