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Objectives The primary objective of this study was to estimate the health utility values for hypoglycaemia events according to their severity and frequency. The secondary objective was to compare the health utilities between those with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and the general population. Method The health utilities of hypoglycaemia event were measured using Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Time Trade-Off (TTO) methods among conveniently sampled consenting adults (>18 years and literate in either English or Malay language), which were then divided into two groups: those in the general population (GP) and those with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). Each respondent was required to value 13 different health states, including frequencies of daytime hypoglycaemia and nocturnal hypoglycaemia, each depending on its severity (non-severe or severe). Results: 256 respondents from the GP and 99 respondents with T2DMcompleted the survey. The T2DMgroup gave higher VASvalues compared to the GP group. The highest mean VAS-utility value for non-severe nocturnal hypoglycaemia occurring once monthly was 0.543 (SD 0.161), and for severe daytime hypoglycaemia occurring once quarterly was 0.293 (SD 0.162) which was the lowest utility value compared to other health states. However, non-severe nocturnal hypoglycaemia occurring once quarterlywas 0.537 (SD 0.284) and has the highest TTO-utility value. Severe nocturnal hypoglycaemia occurring once quarterly has the lowest utility value which was -0.104 (SD 0.380). Daytime hypoglycaemia has lower utility value compared to nocturnal hypoglycaemia. Severe hypoglycaemia has a greater disutility compared with the non-severe hypoglycaemia in both studied groups. Conclusion: The findings show that as a health utility, hypoglycaemia has a substantial impact on utility with severe hypoglycaemia having a greater negative impact compared to non-severe events across the board. This highlights the importance of preventing development of severe hypoglycaemia in patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus at any time of the day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both α- and β-thalassaemia syndromes are public health problems in the multi-ethnic population of Malaysia. To molecularly characterise the α- and β-thalassaemia deletions and mutations among Malays from Penang, Gap-PCR and multiplexed amplification refractory mutation systems were used to study 13 α-thalassaemia determinants and 20 β-thalassaemia mutations in 28 and 40 unrelated Malays, respectively. Four α-thalassaemia deletions and mutations were demonstrated. --SEA deletion and αCSα accounted for more than 70% of the α-thalassaemia alleles. Out of the 20 β-thalassaemia alleles studied, nine different β-thalassaemia mutations were identified of which βE accounted for more than 40%. We concluded that the highest prevalence of (α- and β-thalassaemia alleles in the Malays from Penang are --SEA deletion and βE mutation, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim The objective of the study was to compare the efficacy and safety of oral paricalcitol with oral calcitriol for treating secondary hyperparathyroidism. Methods We conducted the first multicenter open-labelled parallel group randomized controlled trial in 66 patients on dialysis. Patients were randomized to paricalcitol or calcitriol at a 3:1 dose ratio and adjusted to maintain intact parathyroid hormone ( iPTH) level between 150-300 pg/mL, serum calcium ≤2.74 mmol/L and calcium-phosphate product ≤5.63 mmol2/L2. The primary end point was the proportion of patients who achieved >30% reduction in iPTH. Results At 24 weeks, 22 (61.1%) patients in the paricalcitol and 22 (73.3%) in the calcitriol group had achieved the primary end-point ( P-value = 0.29). The cumulative proportion of patients who achieved the end-point at 6 weeks, 12 weeks and 24 weeks were 50%, 80.6% and 86.1%, respectively, in paricalcitol and 53.3%, 86.7% and 86.7%, respectively, in the calcitriol group ( P-value = 0.67). Median time to the end-point was 6 weeks in both groups. There were no significant differences in iPTH level at any time during the study. The median reduction in iPTH at 24 weeks was 48.4% in the paricalcitol group and 41.9% in the calcitriol group ( P-value = 0.6). The median maximal iPTH reduction was 77.1% (paricalcitol) and 83.7% (calcitriol), P-value = 0.3. Serum calcium and incidence of hypercalcaemia did not differ between groups. 16.7% of patients in both groups had at least one episode of hypercalcaemia (serum calcium >2.74 mmol/L). Other adverse events were similar between groups. Conclusion Our study suggests that oral paricalcitol has similar efficacy and safety to oral calcitriol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]