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In the last couple of years, significant developments in antidiabetic treatment have influenced the pharmacological treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The aim of this study was to analyze the changes in prescribing patterns of glucose-lowering drugs for T2DM patients in Hungary between 2001 and 2014. The number of patients with newly diagnosed T2DM decreased from 75,700 (2001) to 33,700 (2014), while prevalent T2DM cases continuously increased and plateaued in 2014 with a number of registered patients of 727,000. Sulfonylurea-monotherapy decreased from 64% to 35% while metformin-monotherapy increased from 19% to 42% in this period. The most frequently used drug at first treatment initiation was metformin (66%) and sulfonylurea (16%) as monotherapy in 2014. DPP4-inhibitors were newly administered in 20,362 cases while GLP1-mimetics were newly used by 4,996 patients in 2014. Five years later after initiating sulfonylurea therapy between 2010 and 2014, metformin was more frequently used as second drug (39%) than sulfonylurea in patients with previous metformin treatment (22.9%). The prescribing patterns of glucose-lowering drugs have changed over time in accordance with new guidelines. Further changes in prescribing habits can be expected in the near future. Orv Hetil. 2017; 158(20): 770-778.

In the last couple of years, database analyses have become increasingly popular among clinical-epidemiological investigations. In Hungary, the National Health Insurance Fund serves as central database of all medical attendances in state departments and purchases of drug prescriptions in pharmacies. Data from in- and outpatient departments as well as those from pharmacies are regularly collected in this database which is public and accessible on request. The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the database of the National Health Insurance Fund in order to analyze the diabetes-associated morbidity and mortality in the period of years 2001-2014. Moreover, data of therapeutic costs, features of hospitalizations and practice of antidiabetic treatment were examined. The authors report now on the method of the database analysis. It is to be hoped that the upcoming results of this investigation will add some new data to recent knowledge about diabetes care in Hungary. Orv. Hetil., 2016, 157(32), 1259-1265.

Unlabelled: To estimate the prevalence and incidence of atrial fibrillation in the entire population of Hungary., Methods: Analysis of the National Health Insurance Fund Administration database between 2007 and 2009 considering data from 2002. We assumed that patients with atrial fibrillation would turn to health care providers at least once either as outpatients or inpatients in a 5-year period. The National Health Insurance Patient Registry was used to assess the true number of patient visits., Results: The prevalence of atrial fibrillation in Hungary is between 2.37-2.67%. Each year, only about half of these patients seek medical advice., Conclusions: Our survey seems to be the first epidemiological study that aims at estimating the prevalence of atrial fibrillation in the total population of our country. Using a time frame of five to seven years, the prevalence of atrial fibrillation in the total population is significantly higher than it was estimated earlier. However, by using a mathematical model, an even higher prevalence rate of atrial fibrillation (2.95%) was calculated for the total population of Hungary.