Peacock 2018.
Methods | Design: international, open‐label, randomised, parallel group, multicentre. Multicentre study: 35 sites in the US. Sample size: 114. Follow‐up: 90 days after randomisation. |
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Participants | Inclusion criteria: adult patients (age ≥ 18 years) with objectively confirmed PE (with or without symptomatic DVT) who are deemed to be at low risk for recurrent VTE, major bleeding, or all‐cause mortality based on Hestia criteria, and a life expectancy of at least 6 months. The authors adapted the Hestia criteria by removing the 24‐hour time markers. Exclusion criteria: women of child‐bearing age with no use of a highly effective birth control method, patients with any Hestia criteria present, any concomitant contraindicated medications, and individuals with contraindications to anticoagulant therapy, allergies to rivaroxaban, or with barriers to treatment adherence or follow‐up. |
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Interventions | Intervention (51): outpatient treatment with rivaroxaban 15 mg orally twice daily for the first 21 days followed by 20 mg orally once daily for approximately 69 days for a total treatment duration of 90 days. Comparison (63): local standard‐of‐care, participants received local standard‐of‐care according to local protocol and defined by the medical team caring for the participant, which typically involves bridging therapy and hospitalisation, but also included any of the NOACs. |
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Outcomes |
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Notes | Sponsored by a pharmaceutical industry (Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Raritan, NJ) The authors used the Hestia criteria to classify patients, therefore we considered that most patients were symptomatic. |
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Risk of bias | ||
Bias | Authors' judgement | Support for judgement |
Random sequence generation (selection bias) | Low risk | They used an interactive web system. Quote: "After obtaining written informed consent, patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to ED discharge on open‐label rivaroxaban or standard care (as determined by the attending physician) by an interactive Web system within 12 hours of diagnosis." |
Allocation concealment (selection bias) | Low risk | They used an interactive web system. Quote: "After obtaining written informed consent, patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to ED discharge on open‐label rivaroxaban or standard care (as determined by the attending physician) by an interactive Web system within 12 hours of diagnosis." |
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes | Low risk | The analysers were masked to treatment group assignment. Quote: "Principal investigators and outcome adjudicators were masked to group assignment" |
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes | Unclear risk | Less than 20% of dropouts and withdrawals (7 participants in the outpatient group and 8 participants in the inpatient group), however the authors did not perform intention‐to‐treat analysis. All outpatients completed the study and authors could confirm that all of them were alive, however in inpatient group they could not confirm this for two patients. |
Selective reporting (reporting bias) | Low risk | There is no evidence of selective reporting. |
Other bias | Low risk | We did not find aspects of methodology that might be been influenced by vested interests and which may lead directly to a risk of bias. However, comparison of two sites of care (inpatient versus outpatient) was imbalanced by different pharmacotherapy between the arms: the outpatient group received 15 mg oral rivaroxaban twice daily for the first 21 days, followed by 20 mg oral rivaroxaban once daily for approximately 69 days for a total treatment duration of 90 days. The inpatient comparison group received local standard‐of‐care, according to local protocol and defined by the medical team caring for the participant, which typically involved intravenous UFH or subcutaneous LMWH and hospitalisation, but also included any of the NOACs (75% of all patients were initially treated with unfractionated or low‐molecular‐weight heparin but ultimately received NOACs, most commonly rivaroxaban (51%) or apixaban (25%)). |
ACTS: anti‐clot treatment scale CT: computed tomography DVT: deep vein thrombosis ED: emergency department HIT: heparin‐induced thrombocytopenia ISTH: International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis LMWH: low molecular weight heparin NOACs: non‐vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants PE: pulmonary embolism PESI: Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index SBP: systolic blood pressure UFH: unfractionated heparin VTE: venous thromboembolism