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Objectives This study was designed to evaluate the impact of a pharmacist-led anticoagulation service on international normalised ratio (INR) control and other outcomes among patients receiving warfarin therapy at a tertiary hospital in Zhuhai, China. Methods In this randomised controlled trial, adult patients who were newly initiated on warfarin with intended treatment duration of at least 3 months were recruited. Participants were randomly allocated to receive the pharmacist-led education and follow-up service (PEFS) or usual care (UC). Anticoagulation control was calculated as the proportions of time within the target INR range (TTR) and time within the expanded target range (TER). Key findings A total of 152 participants (77 in the PEFS group and 75 in the UC group) were included. Within 180 days after hospital discharge, the PEFS group spent more TER than the UC group (54.4% versus 42.0%; P = 0.024), whereas the difference in TTR did not reach statistical significance (35.9% versus 29.5%; P = 0.203). No major bleeding events were observed, and the cumulative incidences of major thromboembolic events (6.5% versus 9.3%) and mortality (1.3% versus 1.3%) were similar between the two groups (P> 0.05). At 30 days postdischarge, the PEFS group had better warfarin knowledge by answering 57.5% of questions correctly, compared with the UC group (43.0%) (P = 0.003). Conclusions The PEFS markedly enhanced anticoagulation control and warfarin knowledge but there was room for improvement. The expansion of pharmacists’ clinical role and the development of more effective education and follow-up strategies are warranted to optimise anticoagulation management services in China.

A reliable and sensitive liquid chromatographic–tandem mass spectrometric method, with rutin as internal standard, has been developed and validated for simultaneous determination of danshensu, salvianolic acid B (SAB), and hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA) in beagle dog plasma. Plasma samples spiked with the analytes were extracted by solid-phase extraction and the analytes were separated on a 250 × 4.6 mm i.d., 5-μm particle, C18 column with methanol–acetonitrile–0.5% formic acid 20:25:55 (v/v) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 1 mL min−1. LC–MS–MS analysis was performed with a Finnigan TSQ triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer operated in negative-ion selected-reaction-monitoring mode, using electrospray ionization. The accuracy and precision of the method were acceptable and linearity was good over the range 20–4,000 ng mL−1 for danshensu, 50–10,000 ng mL−1 for SAB, and 10–2,000 ng mL−1 for HSYA. The method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of a traditional Chinese medicinal preparation, Danhong lyophilized powder for injection.