Painkillers, contraception, and blood clots

There’s a slight extra risk of blood clots for women on hormonal contraception who are taking NSAIDs. In any given week (according to a study by those shifty Danes)…

• .004% (that’s 4/1000^ths of a percent!) of women not taking hormonal contraception will have a blood clot.
• .011% (1/100^th of a percent) of women using “medium-risk” contraception will.
• .023% (2/100^ths of a percent) of women using “high-risk” contraception will.

High risk: estrogen/progestin patches, vaginal rings, and pills containing either 50 mcg estrogen or third-or fourth-generation progestins.

Medium risk: all other combined oral contraceptives and the medroxyprogesterone injection.

Low risk: progestin-only tablets, implants, and hormone intrauterine devices.

So it seems to fall into “something to be aware of” rather than “something to be afraid of.”

Lie down for your BP

Take blood pressure readings while lying down. It seems (per a study out of Harvard Med) that even if your blood pressure is normal while seated, your risk of heart attack, stroke, heart failure, or premature death is greater if your BP is high while you’re lying down.

“If blood pressure is only measured while people are seated upright, cardiovascular disease risk may be missed if not measured also while they are lying supine on their backs,” said the lead researcher. (Is there any other way to be supine^*?)

^* As opposed to incline or alpine

At home, dentist-free tooth test

This is not just a shameless plug for GPhA’s upcoming point-of-care certificate course. It’s also pretty interesting.

University of Cincinnati engineers have developed a prototype test for tooth decay. Yep, no dentist required — it uses saliva, and it tests for the specific bacteria that causes gingivitis and periodontitis.

They hope it can eventually be turned into an at-home test. (So be ready for it and all the other tests that are available. Register for the NASPA Pharmacy-based Point-of-Care Test & Treat Certificate Program on October 8!)

Two outta three ain’t is bad

Covid is on the rise again, and now the CDC is warning that the second of the seasonal respiratory disease squad — RSV — is on the rise “in Florida and Georgia, particularly.”

In mid-August, Georgia saw RSV hospitalization for kids under 4 more than triple. (The good news is the numbers are still low; the bad news is that the data are several weeks old; the worse news is “the majority of those hospitalizations were among children less than a year old.” 😓)

Remind your patients that there are now RSV vaccines for pregnant women that are designed to protect their babies.

Vaccine quickies

Vaccine cuts flu risk in half

Early data from the southern hemisphere’s flu season show that this year’s vaccine was about 52% effective, which is usually at least something of an indicator of how well it will perform here.

Two birds, one stone

It’s safe and effective to get the flu vaccine and Covid booster at the same time, according to Israeli researchers. There might be a slight loss of effectiveness (emphasis on “slight”), but that’s more than made up for by increased adherence.

Hepatitis: If C, then B

If you know someone who’s got hepatitis C, you might suggest they get revaccinated for hep B. It seems (say Minnesota Medical School researchers) that having hep C makes the hepatitis B vaccine less effective — even after the hep C is cured.

The research team recommends individuals with hepatitis C be checked for hepatitis B immune protection. If none is present, they should be offered a vaccine after treating hepatitis C.

A human(ish) kidney in a pig

Xenotransplantation — putting a pig’s organ in a human — would be great if it worked. So far, though, no joy. But now scientists in China have done something new: For the first time, they’ve grown a solid (mostly) human organ inside another species, a major step to someday being able to grow organs for human transplant.

More than 1,800 embryos were then transferred into surrogate sows, of which five were harvested for study within the first 28 days. All five had normal kidneys consistent with their level of development, and the organs contained 50 percent to 60 percent human-derived cells. That’s the highest percentage of human cells yet observed in any organ grown inside a pig.