NGC Update Service: March 16, 2015

March 16, 2015

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New This Week

Guideline Summaries CancerControl Alberta Palliative radiotherapy: brain metastases. This updates a previously published guideline summary. Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC) guidelines for rasburicase therapy in the context of G6PD deficiency genotype. The Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium guideline for SLCO1B1 and simvastatin-induced myopathy: 2014 update. This updates a previously published guideline summary. College of American Pathologists Principles of analytic validation of immunohistochemical assays: guideline from the College of American Pathologists Pathology and Laboratory Quality Center. Department of Veterans Affairs VA/DoD clinical practice guideline for the diagnosis and management of hypertension in the primary care setting. This updates a previously published guideline summary. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Myocardial infarction (acute): early rule out using high-sensitivity troponin tests (Elecsys Troponin T high-sensitive, ARCHITECT STAT High Sensitive Troponin-I and AccuTnI+3 assays).

Announcements

NGC Spotlight

Visit the Technical Assistant Videos page to learn more about NGC's Browse and Search features, and the My NGC Personalization feature.

Health Awareness Topics - March 2015

• National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month (see related guidelines)
• National Endometriosis Awareness Month (see related guidelines)
• National Kidney Month (see related guidelines)
• National Nutrition Month (see related guidelines)
• Save Your Vision Month (see related guidelines)

Conference News

• The Guidelines International Network North America (G-I-N NA)continues to sponsor a monthly webinar series on topics of interest to the North American guideline community. Information on upcoming webinars, as well as audio files and slides from past webinars, is available on the G-I-N Web site.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Advisories

• March 10, 2015: Treanda (bendamustine hydrochloride) Solution by Teva: FDA is warning health care professionals not to use Treanda Injection (45 mg/0.5 mL or 180 mg/2 mL solution) with closed system transfer devices (CSTD), adapters, and syringes containing polycarbonate or acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS). Most marketed CSTDs contain either polycarbonate or ABS and are not compatible with Treanda Injection (45 mg/0.5 mL or 180 mg/2 mL solution). FDA is requiring label changes for both the solution and the powder formulations of Treanda to reflect safe preparation information.
• March 9, 2015: Chantix (varenicline): FDA is warning that the prescription smoking cessation medicine Chantix (varenicline) can change the way people react to alcohol. Interactions between alcohol and Chantix have resulted in some patients experiencing increased intoxicating effects of alcohol, sometimes associated with aggressive behavior and/or amnesia. In addition, rare accounts of seizures in patients treated with Chantix have been reported. FDA has approved changes to the Chantix label to warn about these risks.
• March 3, 2015: Testosterone Products: FDA is requiring that the manufacturers of all approved prescription testosterone products change their labeling to clarify the approved uses of these medications. FDA is also requiring these manufacturers to add information to the labeling about a possible increased risk of heart attacks and strokes in patients taking testosterone.

NGC's Sister Resource

Look for Quality Measures in AHRQ's National Quality Measures Clearinghouse (NQMC).