Åke Schwan

Upper respiratory tract infections in general practice: diagnosis, antibiotic prescribing, duration of symptoms and use of diagnostic tests

A diagnosis/antibiotic prescribing study was performed in 5 counties in Sweden for 1 week in November 2000. As part of this study, the characteristics and clinical management of patients with upper respiratory tract infections (n = 2899) in primary care were analyzed. Almost half of the patients were aged < 15 y and one-fifth of the patients consulted out of hours. Of all patients seeking primary care for upper respiratory tract infections, 56.0% were prescribed an antibiotic. Almost all patients who were given the diagnoses streptococcal tonsillitis, acute otitis media or acute sinusitis were prescribed antibiotics, compared to 10% of patients with common cold or acute pharyngitis. The most frequently prescribed antibiotic was penicillin V (79.2%) and this was even more pronounced out of hours, when the diagnoses otitis media and streptococcal tonsillitis were more frequently used. In patients with common cold and acute pharyngitis, the percentage who received antibiotics increased with increasing length of symptoms and increasing CRP levels. In patients with acute pharyngitis or streptococcal tonsillitis, antibiotics were prescribed less frequently provided streptococcal tests were performed. The management of patients with upper respiratory tract infections in general practice seems to be in good agreement with current Swedish guidelines. However, the study indicates some areas for improvement. The diagnosis of acute sinusitis seems to have been overestimated and used only to justify antibiotic treatment.

Diagnosis-prescribing surveys in 2000, 2002 and 2005 in Swedish general practice: Consultations, diagnosis, diagnostics and treatment choices

The aim of this study is to present diagnostic patterns, diagnostics used and antibiotic treatment in relation to guidelines in 3 repeated diagnosis-prescription studies conducted simultaneously in general practice in 5 Swedish counties, during 1 week in November 2000, 2002 and 2005. General practitioners (GPs) at the participating health centres were asked to complete a form for all patients with symptoms of an infectious disease. During the studied periods a total of 15,371 consultations was registered. Consultations with GPs diagnosed as respiratory tract infection (RTI), especially consultations for sore throat, decreased considerably between y 2000 and 2005. The percentage of patients allocated an RTI diagnosis and prescribed an antibiotic declined significantly from 54% to 49% and the decline was most pronounced among children. Penicillin V remained the dominant antibiotic prescribed throughout the study periods. For lower urinary tract infections there was a significant change in choice of prescribed antibiotics with an increase for pivmecillinam and nitrofurantoin and a decrease for trimethoprim, in accordance with recommendations. The results indicate a quite close adherence to current guidelines, with changes in the pattern of consultations as well as in the management of infectious diseases in general practice in Sweden.

The Use of CRP Tests in Patients with Respiratory Tract Infections in Primary Care in Sweden Can Be Questioned

A diagnosis-antibiotic prescribing study was performed in 5 counties in Sweden during 1 week in November in 2000 and 2002 respectively. As a part of the study, the use and results of C-reactive protein (CRP) tests in relation to duration of symptoms and antibiotic prescribing in 6778 patients assigned a diagnosis of respiratory tract infections were analysed. In almost half (42%) of the patients, a CRP test was performed. The majority of CRP tests (69%) were performed in patients assigned diagnosis upper respiratory tract infection, where the test is not recommended. Overall, there was a minor decrease in antibiotic prescribing when CRP was used (41%), in comparison to 44% of the patients where no CRP was performed (p<0.01). Patients assigned diagnoses implying a bacterial aetiology were prescribed antibiotics irrespective of result of CRP or length of symptoms before consultation. For patients assigned viral diagnoses, antibiotic prescribing increased with increasing duration of symptoms and increasing value of CRP. The use of CRP decreased antibiotic prescribing in patients assigned to viral diagnoses and with longstanding symptoms (p<0.001). However, 59% of the patients assigned viral diagnoses with CRP≥25 received antibiotics, which seems to indicate a misinterpretation of CRP and a non-optimal use of antibiotics.

Effect of Amlodipine Versus Felodipine Extended Release on 24-Hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure in Hypertension

Amlodipine and felodipine are calcium antagonists of the dihydropyridine type. The elimination half-life of amlodipine is longer than that of felodipine. To study whether the different elimination rates of the drugs were reflected in different duration of blood pressure (BP) control, we compared amlodipine and felodipine extended release (ER) by both conventional clinic BP 24 h after drug intake and 24 h ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM), with special reference to nighttime and morning blood pressure. Two hundred and sixteen patients with primary hypertension (supine diastolic BP, 95 to 115 mm Hg) were randomized to receive amlodipine or felodipine ER in a multicenter study. The starting dose of both drugs was 5 mg. If the target clinic diastolic BP (90 mm Hg) had not been achieved after 4 weeks the dose was increased to 10 mg. Twenty-four-hour ABPM was performed with the subjects taking placebo medication before randomization and after 4 and 8 weeks undergoing active treatment. Significantly more patients responded after 4 weeks of treatment with amlodipine (50%) as compared with felodipine (33%) (P = .013). ABPM during daytime (07:00 to 23:00) was similar during both treatments, but nighttime systolic (P = .026) and diastolic (P = .019) BP was more effectively reduced by amlodipine than by felodipine. After 8 weeks 82% achieved the target pressure with amlodipine and 69% with felodipine (P = .036 for the difference). Amlodipine seems to be more effective than felodipine when the drugs are compared in the same dose, with regard to the effect on clinic BP 24 h after dosing and to ambulatory BP during the night. The longer elimination half-life of amlodipine as compared to felodipine is the probable reason for this finding.

Less difference between office and ambulatory blood pressure in women than in men both before and during antihypertensive treatment.

In 199 subjects (56% women) with a diastolic blood pressure (BP) of 95-115 mmHg, 5 mg of either amlodipine or felodipine extended release (ER) was given for 4 weeks following 4 weeks of placebotreatment. BP was measured by conventional clinic BP technique and by 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring (Spacelab 90202/90207). Men and women had identical clinic BP at baseline and it was lowered equally much by 4 weeks of treatment (men: 158/101 and 147/93, women: 159/102 and 149/93 mmHg, respectively). However, ambulatory BP was higher in women than in men both before and after treatment (men: 145/91 and 134/85, women: 149/95 and 140/89 mmHg, respectively, p

Doctors' perspectives of responsibility for patient's drugs

Background and objective Patient adherence to prescribed treatmentfor chronic conditions has been estimated to be on average about 50%(1), drug related problems may cause as much as 30% of acuteadmittances to hospital care (2), and the costs have been estimated tobe of the same magnitude as the direct costs for pharmaceutical drugs.A reason for lack of adherence to the treatment and medication errorsmay be that patients with many drugs, especially when changes in thetreatment have occurred, may have knowledge gaps on the drugsrepresenting the actual prescribed treatment.E-prescribing, from the physicians’ electronic medical record(EMR) directly to the pharmacies, constitute[75% of all prescriptionsin Sweden and [70% of patients in Sweden store theirprescriptions electronically at the national prescription repository(NPR), accessible from any pharmacy in Sweden. Any new e-prescriptionwill automatically be stored in the NPR.However, the NPR may contain both prescriptions for the present,actual treatment, prescription duplicates, and prescriptions for previous,terminated or changed treatment. For patients with manymedications and/or many changes in the treatment it is obvious thatthe risk for medication errors is increased.The objective of the present study was to compare the prescribedtreatment in the EMR, the prescriptions in the NPR, and patient’sknowledge of her/his present prescribed treatment.Design Compare prescribed treatment in the EMR with the prescriptionsin the NPR, and patients knowledge of her/his presentprescribed treatment with regard to prescriptions; prescribed drug,strength; formula and dosing.Setting Ten HCCs in four cities in Sweden, February 2010.Main outcome measures Differences between the computerisedpatients health care journal record and the prescriptions in the NPR,and patients view of her/his actual present prescribed treatment withregard to prescriptions; prescribed drug, strength; formula and dosing.Results The results are available in March 2010.Conclusions Conclusion.References1. Adherence to long-term therapies: evidence for action. WHO,2003.2. Fryckstedt J, Asker-Hagelberg C. Drug-related problems commonat the medical acute care clinic—the cause of admission foralmost one-third of patients. [Lakemedelsrelaterade problemvanliga pa medicinakuten - Orsak till inlaggning hos nastan vartredje patient, enligt kvalitetsuppfoljning] Lakartidningen 2008;105(12–13): 894–898.European Society of Clinical Pharmacy international workshop on patient safety and pharmacy 10–11 May 2010, Uppsala, Sweden

Primary care and hospital doctors experiences of a shared electronic patient medical record system: Transfer of information about patients drug therapies

1. Department of Health. Pharmacy in England: Building on Strengths – Delivering the Future. London: The Stationery Office, 2008. 2. Bradley F et al. The challenge of integrating community pharmacists into the primary health care team: a case study of local pharmaceutical services (LPS) pilots and interprofessional collaboration. J Interprof Care 2008; 22(4): 387–398. 3. Scott J. Social Network Analysis: A Handbook. London: Sage Publications, 2000.