Researchers at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, have developed a treatment protocol to quickly and effectively diagnose brain bleeds in patients who are on blood thinners and bump their heads. The study treated 105 patients under the new protocol. As a result, diagnosis of brain bleeds occurred in half the time and treatments were started faster. Under this new system, death rate also was reduced from 40 percent to 11 percent.

The protocol includes rapid initial evaluation by a doctor or nurse, a CT scan performed on a priority basis, a blood transfusion and administration of vitamin K to help the blood clot, according to the report.

“These seem like relatively simple steps, but when combined they become a powerful force that helps save lives,” Emax Health quoted Greg Howells, M.D., director of Trauma Surgery. When the head bumps occur, many people can appear fine even if the injury is causing the brain to bleed. Previous studies have shown that people on blood thinners are four times more likely to die from a blow to the head than those not on blood thinners.

As a result of the study, more than 40 other hospitals across the country have asked about Beaumont’s treatment protocol for people on blood thinners who bump their heads.

SOURCE: Heparin Recall › Head injury protocol reduces death rate for patients on blood thinners

This new method is easier and less expensive than analytical methods used previously, such as nuclear magnetic resonance and capillary electrophoresis. Meyerhoff and his team detailed the research in the journal of Analytical Chemistry.

Oversulfated chondroitin sulfate in batches of heparin manufactured in China were responsible for serious allergic reactions that earlier this year killed more than 80 Americans and made thousands more ill.

Heparin was only one of the many products made in China in the past several months was were found to be unsafe for humans and animals. As a result, the FDA vowed to place more than 60 food and drug regulators worldwide over the next year as opposed to sending staffers on individual assignments to inspect foreign facilities. The agency’s first office opened in Beijing Wednesday. Additional Chinese outposts will open in the next few days in Shanghi and Guangzhou.

Earlier this week, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt and FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach joined China’s minister of health, Chen Zhu, in a workshop on food safety that focused on policy and government reforms, according to a CNN story about the opening of the Beijing office.

“The government should not just respond to the incident but find the root of it,” CNN quoted Chen in a news conference Wednesday in Beijing.

SOURCE: Heparin Recall › Researchers find new method to detect contaminant in heparin