NEWS NICE issues rapid guideline on rare blood
clots linked to COVID-19 vaccination NICE has published a new rapid COVID-19 guideline to help healthcare staff identify and treat patients who develop the rare syndrome vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT) after receiving COVID-19 vaccinations. Thrombocytopenia is a condition where a person has a low platelet count, while thrombosis is the formation of blood clots. Although extremely rare, with only 14.2 cases occurring per million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, this condition can be very serious and requires swift diagnosis and urgent treatment.
This new guideline outlines how to
identify people with suspected VITT, and what tests should be carried out to confirm they have VITT. The recommendations also cover treatment options for people with VITT depending on how serious their syndrome is and how their symptoms react to treatment. The guideline recommends that healthcare staff refer people with suspected VITT who are acutely unwell to the emergency department immediately. If the person is not acutely unwell and results can be obtained and reviewed on the same day, then a full blood count should be performed in primary care. If these blood tests show a low platelet count then the person should then be referred to the emergency department on the same day. If blood tests indicate the person is unlikely to have VITT, then healthcare staff should discuss the signs and symptoms of VITT with them and provide advice on when and where to seek further medical attention if their symptoms persist or worsen. If a high clinical suspicion of VITT remain then they should consider repeating the full blood count after two to three days if symptoms worsen or discuss further tests with a clinical haematologist. VITT is confirmed using a test called an ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), that
Partnership to advance patient
measurement Seca is the first supplier of medical scales and measuring systems to enable user authentication using Imprivata. Medical scales are among the most represented and frequently used MedTech products in hospitals. Precise knowledge of the parameters of size and weight is of great importance in everyday hospital life – for example, for the dosage of medications or anaesthetics. At the same time, recording and documenting these parameters are simple but time-consuming and thus costly routine tasks that tie up valuable personnel resources.
detects a certain antibody that people with VITT have called platelet factor 4 (PF4). However, if healthcare staff suspect that a patient has VITT they should start treatment in consultation with a haematologist without waiting for ELISA results. If the person has developed thrombosis, healthcare staff should perform same-day imaging tests such as a CT scan to confirm where the blood clot is before starting treatment. Dr. Paul Chrisp, director of NICE’s Centre for Guidelines, said: “Although VITT is a very rare condition, it’s crucial that healthcare professionals feel supported and able to swiftly identify and treat the small number of people who do develop it. This is a living guideline, which can be continuously updated to incorporate the latest evidence and keep abreast of new developments. This guideline has not looked at the safety of COVID-19 vaccines; that is not NICE’s remit and the data from the MHRA shows the benefits of COVID vaccines far outweigh the risks.” The guideline can be read at: https://
www.nice.org.uk/guidance/indevelopment/ gid-ng10230
This is where integration solutions from Seca come in: user and patient are identified by barcode directly on the device and the measurement results are sent to the EMR.
In the future, facilities working with Imprivata Medical Device Access and Seca’s integration solutions will benefit from a unified authentication process: the common interface enables fast and secure user and patient authentication prior to each Seca measurement and weighing process using existing Imprivata credentials. This eliminates the need for different log-on procedures for different devices such as computers, medical scales or vital sign monitors. Daniel Johnston MRes, RN, clinical workflow specialist at Imprivata commented: “Our partnership and joint solution will enable an even faster and more efficient workflow for clinicians and care givers, while maintaining security and the ability to audit. Clinicians will be able to access devices swiftly with a tap of their badge, allowing their focus to be on the patient and not the IT system.”
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WWW.CLINICALSERVICESJOURNAL.COM
SEPTEMBER 2021
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