When you're in the midst of resuscitating someone, it is obviously not frivolous. But these videos show there can be humour in everything. Please review our post on resuscitation, to be sure you know what to do if you're in a situation where someone's heart has stopped. Then you can reinforce your knowledge as you sit back and enjoy these three videos. 1. Even babies can … [Read more...]
Archives for September 2016
World Heart Day
World Heart Day was founded in 2000 by the World Heart Federation to raise awareness of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Coagulation conversation usually concentrates on blood clots in the venous system (VTE - venous thrombo-embolism) but blood clots also occur in arteries causing heart disease and stroke (CVD). CVD is the world’s number one killer. Each year, it’s … [Read more...]
Warfarin History 3 – six years to find the cause
Like the plot of a movie... Warfarin has been used as a medication for more than 60 years. The discovery of Warfarin is interesting and sounds a bit like the plot of a movie; it includes a president, dead cattle, an attempted suicide and rat poison. Like many scientific discoveries of the last century it involved some serendipity, good fortune, the correct … [Read more...]
Cardiac arrest -What you MUST know
To go along with our posts about heart attack, we thought it was important to cover the basics of what to do if someone's heart has stopped. It is worth revisiting this again and again so that if you ever find yourself in an emergency situation you react automatically. You'll see how important this was in the second video below, where people are treating their … [Read more...]
Reaching your diagnosis – heart attack
In this Medical Monday series, we’re talking about how your doctor reaches a diagnosis of common conditions associated with coagulation. It may help if you first read the introduction, before reading about today's topic of heart attack. Altogether we’re covering Introduction DVT, Deep Vein Thrombosis Post-thrombotic syndrome PE, Pulmonary Embolism … [Read more...]
World Pharmacists day – thank you!!
This cartoon by Ed Tan, an Australian pharmacist who produces a blog 'Ed's rant', sums up how pharmacists can be undervalued by patients and other health professionals. Did you know a pharmacy degree takes 4 years followed by 52 weeks as an intern? In NZ, pharmacy can only be studied in Dunedin and Auckland. INR Online (funder of this blog) produces the software for … [Read more...]
What’s in a name? – anticoagulant name meanings
It took Paul and I a long time to choose names for our kids. We wanted to find something we both liked and had some kind of meaning for us. Our eldest is called Joseph which means "God will add"; this turned out to be appropriate as we now have eight children! Drug companies too, spend a long while choosing the right name for their products. Do you know the meaning of the … [Read more...]
Warfarin History 2 – a milk churn of blood-that-would-not-clot
Like the plot of a movie... Warfarin has been used as a medication for more than 60 years. The discovery of Warfarin is interesting and sounds a bit like the plot of a movie; it includes a president, dead cattle, an attempted suicide and rat poison. Like many scientific discoveries of the last century it involved some serendipity, good fortune, the correct … [Read more...]
More good news about stroke and warfarin
You probably already know that if you have atrial fibrillation (AF), then taking warfarin means you have a lower risk of stroke. But did you know there are two other benefits? If you have AF and you're taking warfarin, but are still unlucky enough to have an ischaemic stroke, then compared to people not on warfarin: - You are likely to have milder effects … [Read more...]
Reaching your diagnosis – stroke
In this Medical Monday series, we’re talking about how your doctor reaches a diagnosis of common conditions associated with coagulation. It may help if you first read the introduction and the post about atrial fibrillation, before reading about today's topic of stroke. Altogether we’re covering Introduction DVT, Deep Vein Thrombosis Post-thrombotic syndrome … [Read more...]
