Venous thromboembolism in the emergency department:A survey of current best practice awareness in physicians and nurses in China

BACKGROUND: For emergency department(ED) patients, risk assessment, prophylaxis, early diagnosis and appropriate treatment of venous thromboembolism(VTE) are essential for preventing morbidity and mortality. This study aimes to investigate knowledge amongst emergency medical staff in the management of VTE. METHODS: We designed a questionnaire based on multiple scales. The questionnaire was distributed to the medical and nursing clinical staff in the large urban ED of a medical center in Northern China. Data was described with percentages and the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare ranked data between different groups. The statistical analysis was done using the SPSS 22.0 software.RESULTS: In this survey, 180 questionnaires were distributed and 174 valid responses(response rate of 96.67%) were collected and analyzed. In scores of VTE knowledge, no signifi cant differences were found with respect to job(doctor vs. nurse), the number of years working in clinical medicine, education level, and current position, previous hospital experience and nurses' current work location within the ED. However, in pair wise comparison, we found participants who worked in ED for more than 5 years(n=83) scored signifi cantly higher on the questionnaire than those under 5 years(n=91)(95.75 vs. 79.97, P=0.039). There was a signifi cant difference in some questions based on gender, age, job, and nurse work location, number of working years, education level, and different ED working lifetime.CONCLUSION: Our survey has shown defi ciencies among ED medical staff in knowledge and awareness of the management of VTE. We recommend several changes be considered, such as the introduction of an interdisciplinary workshop for medical staff; the introduction of a standardized VTE protocol; a mandatory study module on VTE for new physicians and nurses; the introduction of a mandatory reporting system for adverse events(including VTE).

Age-cumulative Effect of REC8 Reduction on Meiotic Chromosome Segregation Errors in Mice

Objective:This study aimed to explore the relationship between cohesin subunit REC8 reduction and meiosis chromosome segregation errors in the ovary.Methods:Rec8^(+/-)mice were generated using CRIPSR/Cas9 gene editing.The association between age and REC8 expression levels in the ovary was determined by Western blotting.Chromosome segregation errors were investigated by immunofluorescence imaging of superovulated oocytes.Wild-type andRec8^(+/-)female mice at 5,8,20,36,and 40 weeks were used to evaluate ovarian reserve by ovarian clearing and immunolabeling.Results:Ovary REC8 expression levels gradually decreased with age,while chromosome segregation errors increased with age.Segregation errors were more common inRec8^(+/-)mice,suggesting an association with REC8 expression.The ovarian reserve capacity decreased significantly with age.The ovarian reserve inRec8^(+/-)mice was inferior to that of age-matched wild-type mice,indicating important roles of age and REC8 levels in the ovarian reserve.Conclusions:REC8 reduction has an age-cumulative effect on meiotic chromosome segregation errors in mouse ovaries.Rec8 haploinsufficiency poses a major challenge in generating normal and reproductive oocytes in aging mice.