Browsing by Author "Fulkerson, Daniel H."
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Item Brodifacoum contamination of synthetic cannabinoid causing unexplained coagulopathy in multiple trauma: A case report(Elsevier, 2024-04-01) Thomas, Anthony V.; Johnson, Mackenzie L.; Tincher, Anna M.; Zackariya, Saniya; Khan, Hassaan; Rizvi, Uzma; Thomas, Scott G.; Noveroske, Timothy W.; Fulkerson, Daniel H.; Moore, Ernest E.; Walsh, Mark M.; Medicine, School of MedicineAn 18-year-old female presented to the emergency department after a motor vehicle collision. Initial imaging revealed a liver laceration. Subsequent labs showed significantly elevated prothrombin time, international normalized ratio, and activated partial thromboplastin time. Thromboelastography demonstrated a flatline tracing. The patient denied use of anticoagulation but admitted to synthetic cannabinoid use. It was believed the patient had taken synthetic cannabinoid contaminated by brodifacoum. She was therefore given prothrombin complex concentrate and vitamin K with blood products. The patient underwent sequential embolization, laparotomy, thoracotomy, and repair of the vena cava with a shunt. Thirty minutes postoperatively, her coagulation tests and thromboelastography were much improved. Two and a half hours postoperatively, it was determined she had sustained non-survivable injuries. The patient experienced brain death due to prolonged hypotension as a result of hemorrhagic shock with bleeding exacerbated by brodifacoum. To our knowledge, this is the first case reported of a trauma-induced coagulopathy exacerbated by brodifacoum-contaminated synthetic cannabinoid. Her coagulopathy was clearly not due to trauma alone and contributed greatly to the difficulty in controlling hemorrhage. The synthetic cannabinoid-associated coagulopathy rendered her otherwise potentially survivable injuries fatal. Given the frequency of multiple trauma and the recent increase in the prevalence of synthetic cannabinoid, it can be expected that the incidence of trauma complicated by synthetic cannabinoid-associated coagulopathy will increase in the near future. For patients that present with prolonged prothrombin time and/or activated partial thromboplastin time, it is important to inquire about recent synthetic cannabinoid use.Item A Case Series of Thromboelastography-Guided Anticoagulation in COVID-19 Patients with Inherited and Acquired Hypercoagulable States(Hindawi, 2021-08-03) Thomas, Anthony V.; Lin, Kevin P.; Stillson, John E.; Bunch, Connor M.; Speybroeck, Jacob; Wiarda, Grant; Al-Fadhl, Hamid; Gillespie, Laura; Zamlut, Mahmud; Fulkerson, Daniel H.; Khan, Rashid Z.; Kwaan, Hau C.; Walsh, Mark M.; Emergency Medicine, School of MedicineOne of the complications of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is hypercoagulability. For this reason, patients presenting with COVID-19 are often put on therapeutic or intermediate anticoagulation upon hospitalization. A common issue of this anticoagulation is the progression to hypocoagulability resulting in hemorrhage. Therefore, monitoring the hemostatic integrity of critically ill COVID-19 patients is of utmost importance. In this case series, we present the cases of three coagulopathic COVID-19 patients whose anticoagulation was guided by thromboelastography (TEG). In each case, TEG permitted the clinical team to simultaneously prevent thrombotic and hemorrhagic events, a difficult task for COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit. The first two cases illustrate the utility of TEG to guide anticoagulant dosing for COVID-19 patients when the activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) is inaccurate. The first case was a severely ill COVID-19 patient with end-stage renal disease and a falsely elevated aPTT secondary to hypertriglyceridemia. The second case was a severely ill COVID-19 patient with chronic pulmonary disease who demonstrated a falsely elevated aPTT due to polycythemia and hemoconcentration. In both cases, TEG was sensitive to the hypercoagulability caused by the metabolic derangements which enabled the goal-directed titration of anticoagulants. The last case depicts a severely ill COVID-19 patient with an inherited factor V Leiden mutation who required abnormally high dosing to achieve therapeutic anticoagulation, guided by TEG. Hypercoagulopathic COVID-19 patients are difficult to anticoagulate without development of hypocoagulopathy. Treatment of these patients demands goal-directed therapy by diligent laboratory monitoring. This can be accomplished by the use of TEG coupled with aPTT to guide anticoagulation. This case series illustrates the necessity for active hemostatic monitoring of critically ill COVID-19 patients.Item Corrigendum: Iatrogenic air embolism: pathoanatomy, thromboinflammation, endotheliopathy, and therapies(Frontiers Media, 2024-02-06) Marsh, Phillip L.; Moore, Ernest E.; Moore, Hunter B.; Bunch, Connor M.; Aboukhaled, Michael; Condon, Shaun M., II; Al-Fadhl, Mahmoud D.; Thomas, Samuel J.; Larson, John R.; Bower, Charles W.; Miller, Craig B.; Pearson, Michelle L.; Twilling, Christopher L.; Reser, David W.; Kim, George S.; Troyer, Brittany M.; Yeager, Doyle; Thomas, Scott G.; Srikureja, Daniel P.; Patel, Shivani S.; Añón, Sofía L.; Thomas, Anthony V.; Miller, Joseph B.; Van Ryn, David E.; Pamulapati, Saagar V.; Zimmerman, Devin; Wells, Byars; Martin, Peter L.; Seder, Christopher W.; Aversa, John G.; Greene, Ryan B.; March, Robert J.; Kwaan, Hau C.; Fulkerson, Daniel H.; Vande Lune, Stefani A.; Mollnes, Tom E.; Nielsen, Erik W.; Storm, Benjamin S.; Walsh, Mark M.; Medicine, School of Medicine[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1230049.].Item Impact of a clinical pharmacist on ultrasound-guided venous thromboembolism screening in hospitalized COVID-19 patients: a pilot prospective study(BMC, 2021) Gillespie, Laura; Khan, Rashid Z.; Stillson, John E.; Bunch, Connor M.; Shariff, Faisal Salim; Speybroeck, Jacob; Grisoli, Anne; Wierman Schmidt, Meredith; Phyu, Htay; Jablonski, Jason; Wells, Byars; Fulkerson, Daniel H.; Oancea, Lyndsay; Leiser, Abraham; Walsh, Mark; Medicine, School of MedicineBackground The recognition, prevention and treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE) remains a major challenge in the face of the recent COVID-19 pandemic which has been associated with significant cardiovascular, renal, respiratory and hematologic complications related to hypercoagulability. There has been little literature thus far on the utility of screening ultrasound and the role of the clinical pharmacist in treating these patients. Methods We present a prospective pilot program of thirty-one consecutive COVID-19 patients who were provided four extremity screening ultrasounds for VTE on admission. This was coordinated by a clinical pharmacist as part of a multidisciplinary approach. Quantitative and qualitative data were recorded with the goal of describing the utility of the clinical pharmacist in ultrasound screening. Data collected include demographics, information on clinical symptoms or signs at presentation, and laboratory and radiologic results during the hospitalization from each individual electronic medical record. Results Nine of the thirty-one patients presented with VTE. Of the nine patients, there were twenty-two total clotted vessels, all of which were asymptomatic. The clinical pharmacist, as the coordinator for a multidisciplinary COVID-19 associated coagulopathy management team, drafted a screening and treatment protocol for anticoagulation prophylaxis and therapy of VTE after ultrasound findings. Conclusion VTE screening of hospitalized COVID-19 patients reveals a significant number of asymptomatic VTEs and justifies diagnostic, prophylactic, and treatment measures coordinated by a clinical pharmacist.Item Markers of Futile Resuscitation in Traumatic Hemorrhage: A Review of the Evidence and a Proposal for Futility Time-Outs during Massive Transfusion(MDPI, 2024-08-09) Walsh, Mark M.; Fox, Mark D.; Moore, Ernest E.; Johnson, Jeffrey L.; Bunch, Connor M.; Miller, Joseph B.; Lopez-Plaza, Ileana; Brancamp, Rachel L.; Waxman, Dan A.; Thomas, Scott G.; Fulkerson, Daniel H.; Thomas, Emmanuel J.; Khan, Hassaan A.; Zackariya, Sufyan K.; Al-Fadhl, Mahmoud D.; Zackariya, Saniya K.; Thomas, Samuel J.; Aboukhaled, Michael W.; Futile Indicators for Stopping Transfusion in Trauma (FISTT) Collaborative Group; Medicine, School of MedicineThe reduction in the blood supply following the 2019 coronavirus pandemic has been exacerbated by the increased use of balanced resuscitation with blood components including whole blood in urban trauma centers. This reduction of the blood supply has diminished the ability of blood banks to maintain a constant supply to meet the demands associated with periodic surges of urban trauma resuscitation. This scarcity has highlighted the need for increased vigilance through blood product stewardship, particularly among severely bleeding trauma patients (SBTPs). This stewardship can be enhanced by the identification of reliable clinical and laboratory parameters which accurately indicate when massive transfusion is futile. Consequently, there has been a recent attempt to develop scoring systems in the prehospital and emergency department settings which include clinical, laboratory, and physiologic parameters and blood products per hour transfused as predictors of futile resuscitation. Defining futility in SBTPs, however, remains unclear, and there is only nascent literature which defines those criteria which reliably predict futility in SBTPs. The purpose of this review is to provide a focused examination of the literature in order to define reliable parameters of futility in SBTPs. The knowledge of these reliable parameters of futility may help define a foundation for drawing conclusions which will provide a clear roadmap for traumatologists when confronted with SBTPs who are candidates for the declaration of futility. Therefore, we systematically reviewed the literature regarding the definition of futile resuscitation for patients with trauma-induced hemorrhagic shock, and we propose a concise roadmap for clinicians to help them use well-defined clinical, laboratory, and viscoelastic parameters which can define futility.Item Preventing Thrombohemorrhagic Complications of Heparinized COVID-19 Patients Using Adjunctive Thromboelastography: A Retrospective Study(MDPI, 2021-07-14) Bunch, Connor M.; Thomas, Anthony V.; Stillson, John E.; Gillespie, Laura; Khan, Rashid Z.; Zackariya, Nuha; Shariff, Faadil; Al-Fadhl, Mahmoud; Mjaess, Nicolas; Miller, Peter D.; McCurdy, Michael T.; Fulkerson, Daniel H.; Miller, Joseph B.; Kwaan, Hau C.; Moore, Ernest E.; Moore, Hunter B.; Neal, Matthew D.; Martin, Peter L.; Kricheff, Mark L.; Walsh, Mark M.; Medicine, School of MedicineBACKGROUND: The treatment of COVID-19 patients with heparin is not always effective in preventing thrombotic complications, but can also be associated with bleeding complications, suggesting a balanced approach to anticoagulation is needed. A prior pilot study supported that thromboelastography and conventional coagulation tests could predict hemorrhage in COVID-19 in patients treated with unfractionated heparin or enoxaparin, but did not evaluate the risk of thrombosis. METHODS: This single-center, retrospective study included 79 severely ill COVID-19 patients anticoagulated with intermediate or therapeutic dose unfractionated heparin. Two stepwise logistic regression models were performed with bleeding or thrombosis as the dependent variable, and thromboelastography parameters and conventional coagulation tests as the independent variables. RESULTS: Among all 79 patients, 12 (15.2%) had bleeding events, and 20 (25.3%) had thrombosis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified a prediction model for bleeding (adjusted R2 = 0.787, p < 0.001) comprised of increased reaction time (p = 0.016), decreased fibrinogen (p = 0.006), decreased D-dimer (p = 0.063), and increased activated partial thromboplastin time (p = 0.084). Multivariate analysis of thrombosis identified a weak prediction model (adjusted R2 = 0.348, p < 0.001) comprised of increased D-dimer (p < 0.001), decreased reaction time (p = 0.002), increased maximum amplitude (p < 0.001), and decreased alpha angle (p = 0.014). Adjunctive thromboelastography decreased the use of packed red cells (p = 0.031) and fresh frozen plasma (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Significantly, this study demonstrates the need for a precision-based titration strategy of anticoagulation for hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Since severely ill COVID-19 patients may switch between thrombotic or hemorrhagic phenotypes or express both simultaneously, institutions may reduce these complications by developing their own titration strategy using daily conventional coagulation tests with adjunctive thromboelastography.Item Thromboelastography-Guided Anticoagulant Therapy for the Double Hazard of Thrombohemorrhagic Events in COVID-19: A Report of 3 Cases(International Scientific Information, 2021) Bunch, Connor M.; Thomas, Anthony V.; Stillson, John E.; Gillespie, Laura; Lin, Kevin P.; Speybroeck, Jacob; Kwaan, Hau C.; Fulkerson, Daniel H.; Zamlut, Mahmud; Khan, Rashid; Walsh, Mark M.; Medicine, School of MedicineBACKGROUND: The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), often manifests a coagulopathy in severely ill patients, which may cause hemorrhage and/or thrombosis of varying severity. This report comprises the cases of 3 patients with COVID-19-associated coagulopathy who were evaluated with thromboelastography (TEG) and activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) to enable personalized anticoagulant therapy. CASE REPORT: Three patients presented with COVID-19 pneumonia, confirmed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, who developed thrombohemorrhagic coagulopathy. Case 1: A 72-year-old woman on long-term warfarin therapy for a history of venous thromboembolism developed a right upper lobe pulmonary embolus, despite an international normalized ratio of 6.4 and aPTT of 120.7 s. TEG enabled successful anticoagulation with heparin, and her pulmonary infarct was no longer present 2 weeks later. Case 2: A 55-year-old woman developed a rectus sheath hematoma while on heparin, and TEG demonstrated increased fibrinolysis despite COVID-19 patients more commonly undergoing fibrinolytic shutdown. Case 3: A 43-year-old woman had significant thrombus burden while severely hypocoagulable according to laboratory testing. As the venous thrombi enlarged in a disseminated intravascular coagulopathic-like state, the heparin dose was escalated to achieve a target aPTT of 70 to 80 s, resulting in a flat line TEG tracing. CONCLUSIONS: These 3 cases of COVID-19 pneumonia with complex and varied clinical histories demonstrated the clinical value of TEG combined with the measurement of aPTT to facilitate personalized anticoagulation, resulting in good clinical outcomes.Item Traumatic Brain Injury as an Independent Predictor of Futility in the Early Resuscitation of Patients in Hemorrhagic Shock(MDPI, 2024-07-03) Al-Fadhl, Mahmoud D.; Karam, Marie Nour; Chen, Jenny; Zackariya, Sufyan K.; Lain, Morgan C.; Bales, John R.; Higgins, Alexis B.; Laing, Jordan T.; Wang, Hannah S.; Andrews, Madeline G.; Thomas, Anthony V.; Smith, Leah; Fox, Mark D.; Zackariya, Saniya K.; Thomas, Samuel J.; Tincher, Anna M.; Al-Fadhl, Hamid D.; Weston, May; Marsh, Phillip L.; Khan, Hassaan A.; Thomas, Emmanuel J.; Miller, Joseph B.; Bailey, Jason A.; Koenig, Justin J.; Waxman, Dan A.; Srikureja, Daniel; Fulkerson, Daniel H.; Fox, Sarah; Bingaman, Greg; Zimmer, Donald F.; Thompson, Mark A.; Bunch, Connor M.; Walsh, Mark M.; Futile Indicators for Stopping Transfusion in Trauma (FISTT) Collaborative Group; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of MedicineThis review explores the concept of futility timeouts and the use of traumatic brain injury (TBI) as an independent predictor of the futility of resuscitation efforts in severely bleeding trauma patients. The national blood supply shortage has been exacerbated by the lingering influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of blood donors available, as well as by the adoption of balanced hemostatic resuscitation protocols (such as the increasing use of 1:1:1 packed red blood cells, plasma, and platelets) with and without early whole blood resuscitation. This has underscored the urgent need for reliable predictors of futile resuscitation (FR). As a result, clinical, radiologic, and laboratory bedside markers have emerged which can accurately predict FR in patients with severe trauma-induced hemorrhage, such as the Suspension of Transfusion and Other Procedures (STOP) criteria. However, the STOP criteria do not include markers for TBI severity or transfusion cut points despite these patients requiring large quantities of blood components in the STOP criteria validation cohort. Yet, guidelines for neuroprognosticating patients with TBI can require up to 72 h, which makes them less useful in the minutes and hours following initial presentation. We examine the impact of TBI on bleeding trauma patients, with a focus on those with coagulopathies associated with TBI. This review categorizes TBI into isolated TBI (iTBI), hemorrhagic isolated TBI (hiTBI), and polytraumatic TBI (ptTBI). Through an analysis of bedside parameters (such as the proposed STOP criteria), coagulation assays, markers for TBI severity, and transfusion cut points as markers of futilty, we suggest amendments to current guidelines and the development of more precise algorithms that incorporate prognostic indicators of severe TBI as an independent parameter for the early prediction of FR so as to optimize blood product allocation.Item Viscoelastic Testing and Coagulopathy of Traumatic Brain Injury(MDPI, 2021-10-28) Bradbury, Jamie L.; Thomas, Scott G.; Sorg, Nikki R.; Mjaess, Nicolas; Berquist, Margaret R.; Brenner, Toby J.; Langford, Jack H.; Marsee, Mathew K.; Moody, Ashton N.; Bunch, Connor M.; Sing, Sandeep R.; Al-Fadhl, Mahmoud D.; Salamah, Qussai; Saleh, Tarek; Patel, Neal B.; Shaikh, Kashif A.; Smith, Stephen M.; Langheinrich, Walter S.; Fulkerson, Daniel H.; Sixta, Sherry; Neurological Surgery, School of MedicineA unique coagulopathy often manifests following traumatic brain injury, leading the clinician down a difficult decision path on appropriate prophylaxis and therapy. Conventional coagulation assays—such as prothrombin time, partial thromboplastin time, and international normalized ratio—have historically been utilized to assess hemostasis and guide treatment following traumatic brain injury. However, these plasma-based assays alone often lack the sensitivity to diagnose and adequately treat coagulopathy associated with traumatic brain injury. Here, we review the whole blood coagulation assays termed viscoelastic tests and their use in traumatic brain injury. Modified viscoelastic tests with platelet function assays have helped elucidate the underlying pathophysiology and guide clinical decisions in a goal-directed fashion. Platelet dysfunction appears to underlie most coagulopathies in this patient population, particularly at the adenosine diphosphate and/or arachidonic acid receptors. Future research will focus not only on the utility of viscoelastic tests in diagnosing coagulopathy in traumatic brain injury, but also on better defining the use of these tests as evidence-based and/or precision-based tools to improve patient outcomes.