Background: Hypomethylating agents (HMAs) are guideline-recommended treatment for higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes/neoplasms (MDS). However, a prior survey of patients with MDS reported ...challenges with intravenous (IV) and subcutaneous (SC) HMA therapies, including pain related to treatment administration and interference with daily activities; most patients also indicated a preference to switch to an oral therapy if one were available. Objectives: This study evaluated the perspectives of US patients with MDS receiving oral decitabine/cedazuridine (DEC-C), an alternative to IV/SC HMAs. Methods: An online survey was conducted among adult patients with MDS in the United States (10 November 2022 to 5 December 2022) who had filled a prescription for oral DEC-C between 2021 and 2022. Results: A total of 150 patients completed the survey; 61% were aged ⩾60 years and 63% were male. Of these, 123 (82%) were still receiving oral DEC-C, and 27 (18%) had stopped oral DEC-C treatment. Half (50%) of patients had received oral DEC-C for ⩾6 months. The majority reported that treatment was convenient (83%) and that they were satisfied with treatment (86%). Most patients also reported very little/no interference with regular daily activities (82%), social activities (78%), and productivity (78%). When queried about negative impacts on quality of life (QOL), treatment side effects were the most commonly reported (30% of respondents). Among patients who had previously received IV/SC HMAs ( n = 91), most agreed that oral DEC-C interfered less with daily life (91%) and had experienced improvement in QOL (85%) compared with previous treatment; 91% reported that oral DEC-C reduced the number of times they needed to travel to a healthcare facility. Conclusion: Survey results suggest very little/no impact on regular daily activities and improved QOL with oral DEC-C relative to IV/SC HMAs, highlighting the potential for oral DEC-C to reduce the treatment burden associated with parenteral HMA therapy.
BACKGROUND AND AIMS:Although relatively, primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is an important cause of nonalcoholic chronic liver disease which may lead to liver transplantation. PBC patients with ...alkaline phosphatase (ALP) ≥1.5× the upper limit of normal (ULN) tend to have a more aggressive course. The study was designed to identify factors associated with ALP≥1.5×ULN or cirrhosis in PBC and to evaluate concomitant health care resource utilization.
METHODS:We used a large real-world database that contained comprehensive and continuous electronic medical recored/claims data from over 500 health care practices or systems from the United States.
RESULTS:Of 195 million patients included in the database, 36,317 were adults with PBC. After applying exclusion criteria, 15,875 patients comprised the final PBC cohort (63.0±13.5 y, 78% female, 71% privately insured, 5% covered by Medicaid, 57% with other autoimmune diseases, 46% with cirrhosis); 6083 (38%) had ALP≥1.5×ULN. Patients with ALP≥1.5×ULN were more frequently female, less covered by Medicaid, had more pruritus, cirrhosis, and other autoimmune diseases (P<0.05). In multivariate analysis, older age, female gender, the presence of other autoimmune diseases, and having compensated or decompensated cirrhosis were independently associated with having ALP≥1.5×ULN in PBC (P<0.05). In contrast, being male was associated with higher risk of cirrhosis in PBC odds ratio 2.3 (95% confidence interval, 2.1-2.5). Patients with ALP≥1.5×ULN and/or with cirrhosis also incurred substantially more health care resource utilization (P<0.05).
CONCLUSIONS:Many clinical, sociodemographic, and economic factors are associated with a potentially more aggressive profile of PBC with elevated ALP. These data may inform clinicians to implement management strategies to optimize care of these patients.
Study Objective. To investigate the potential impact of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) on the effectiveness of clopidogrel in preventing recurrent ischemic events after percutaneous coronary ...intervention (PCI) with stent placement.
Design. Population‐based, retrospective cohort study.
Data Source. National medical and pharmacy benefit claims database comprising approximately 19 million members.
Patients. A total of 16,690 patients who had undergone PCI with stent placement and who were highly adherent to clopidogrel therapy alone (9862 patients) or to clopidogrel with a PPI (6828 patients) between October 1, 2005, and September 30, 2006.
Measurements and Main Results. The primary end point was the occurrence of a major adverse cardiovascular event during the 12 months after stent placement. These events were defined as hospitalization for a cerebrovascular event (stroke or transient ischemic attack), an acute coronary syndrome (myocardial infarction or unstable angina), coronary revascularization (PCI or coronary artery bypass graft), or cardiovascular death. A composite event rate was compared between patients who received clopidogrel alone and those who received concomitant clopidogrel‐PPI therapy. Baseline differences in covariates were adjusted by using Cox proportional hazards models. In the 9862 patients receiving clopidogrel alone, 1766 (17.9%) experienced a major adverse cardiovascular event compared with 1710 patients (25.0%) who received concomitant clopidogrel‐PPI therapy (adjusted hazard ratio 1.51, 95% confidence interval 1.39–1.64, p<0.0001). Similar associations of increased risk were observed for each PPI studied (omeprazole, esomeprazole, pantoprazole, and lansoprazole).
Conclusion. Concomitant use of a PPI and clopidogrel compared with clopidogrel alone was associated with a higher rate of major adverse cardiovascular events within 1 year after coronary stent placement.
Using late Medieval English literature the essays in this collection do not try to define a secular realm distinct and separate from the divine or religious, but instead analyze intersections of the ...sacred and the profane, suggesting that these two categories are mutually constitutive rather than antithetical.
Comparative effectiveness research (CER) is generating intense attention as interest grows in finding new and better drug technology assessment processes. The federal government is supporting the ...expansion of CER through funding made available in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and by establishing the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. At the same time, personalized medicine is generating debate about its place in clinical medicine, and so, naturally, how CER can or cannot play a role in personalized medicine is part of these debates. At the heart of the debate around the role of CER in personalized medicine is the nature of personalized medicine and how it fits within contemporary clinical research concepts. We maintain in this article that CER can serve to catalyze personalized medicine, but we recognize that, for this to happen, researchers will need to embrace new data sources and new analytic approaches. We also recognize that drug technology assessment processes will have to undergo necessary adaptations to accommodate CER as configured for personalized medicine, and that clinicians will need to be educated appropriately and provided access to decision-support systems through health information technology to use the information coming from this research.
To illustrate our argument, we describe two ongoing CER studies funded and managed in the private sector evaluating personalized medicine interventions that have important clinical and financial implications. One of the studies investigates the clinical and financial effects of pharmacogenomic testing for warfarin as prescribed in conditions of typical practice settings. The other study is also set in community practice settings and compares cardiovascular outcomes of patients receiving clopidogrel who are extensive metabolizer phenotypes for the cytochrome P450
2C19
hepatic isoenzyme with all patients receiving prasugrel.
Trends in Medication Treatment for ADHD Castle, Lon; Aubert, Ronald E.; Verbrugge, Robert R. ...
Journal of attention disorders,
05/2007, Letnik:
10, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Objective: This study examines demographic trends in the use of medications to treat ADHD in adult and pediatric populations. Method: Using pharmacy claims data for a large population of commercially ...insured Americans, the study measures ADHD treatment prevalence and drug use from 2000 to 2005. Results: In 2005, 4.4% of children (ages 0 to 19) and 0.8% of adults (ages 20 and older) used ADHD medications. Treatment rates were higher in boys (6.1%) than in girls (2.6%), but the rates for men and women were approximately equal (0.8%). During the period of the study, treatment prevalence increased rapidly (11.8% per year) for the population as a whole. Treatment rates grew more rapidly for adults than for children, more rapidly for women than for men, and more rapidly for girls than for boys. Conclusion: Improved identification of ADHD in adult and female patients has contributed to rapid growth in ADHD medication use. (J. of Att. Dis. 2007; 10(4) 335-342)
To depict the treatment journey for patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and evaluate health care resource utilization (HCRU) associated with myelosuppression, a complication induced by ...chemotherapy or chemotherapy plus radiation therapy.
This was a descriptive, retrospective study of patients with SCLC aged ≥65 years, identified from linked Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare data curated between January 2012 and December 2015. Treatment types (chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery) were classified as first, second, or third line, depending on the temporal sequence in which regimens were prescribed. For each year, the proportions of patients completing 4- or 6-cycle chemotherapy regimens, with hospital admissions associated with myelosuppression, or who used granulocyte colony–stimulating factors (G-CSFs), blood/platelet transfusions, or erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs), were calculated.
Chemotherapy was administered as initial treatment in 7,807/11,907 (65.6%) patients whose treatment journey was recorded. Approximately one-third (n = 3,985) subsequently received radiation therapy. In total, 5,791 (57.8%) patients completed the guideline-recommended 4–6 cycles of chemotherapy. Among all chemotherapy-treated patients, 10,370 (74.3%) experienced ≥1 inpatient admission associated with myelosuppression (anemia, 7,366 52.8%; neutropenia, 4,642 33.3%; thrombocytopenia, 2,375 17.0%; pancytopenia, 1,983 14.2%). Supportive care interventions included G-CSF (6,756 48.4% patients), ESAs (1,534 11.0%), and transfusions (3,674 26.3%).
Chemotherapy remains a cornerstone of care for patients with SCLC. Slightly over half of patients completed the recommended number of cycles, underscoring the frailty of patients and aggressiveness of SCLC. HCRU associated with myelosuppression was prominent, suggesting a substantial burden on older patients with SCLC.
PURPOSE:To determine the cross-linking effect of a riboflavin ultraviolet-A (UV-A) corneal cross-linking treatment that is both shorter and has lower energy than the Dresden protocol.
METHODS:In a ...first experiment, 12 human corneas were presoaked with riboflavin and then irradiated with UV-A at 3 mW/cm after clearing the surface of riboflavin, with no added riboflavin during irradiation. Percent UV-A transmission through the corneas was measured at intervals up to 30 minutes. A second experiment involved 24 porcine corneas. Eight were de-epithelialized, presoaked in riboflavin for 30 minutes, and irradiated at 1.5 mW/cm for 10 minutes. An additional 8 were riboflavin treated and similarly irradiated, but with epithelium intact and a final 8 corneas were not treated. Young modulus was measured in all 24 corneas at the end of the experiment.
RESULTS:The first experiment showed essentially complete riboflavin oxidation after only 10 minutes. Based on these results, a shortened UV-A exposure cross-linking experiment was designed using a reduced UV-A fluence of 1.5 mW/cm, an endothelial exposure within safety limits in humans. With this protocol Young modulus was the same in the irradiated porcine corneas but with epithelium intact as in the untreated corneas. In contrast, Young modulus increased by a factor of 1.99 in the UV-A cross-linked corneas at 1.5 mW/cm for 10 minutes with the epithelium removed.
CONCLUSIONS:A shorter, lower energy protocol than the Dresden protocol seems to provide a significant increase in Young modulus, similar to published results with higher energy, longer exposure protocols.
PDF
