Search

IMPORTANCE: Thyroid eye disease (TED) is a serious condition that can cause proptosis and strabismus and, in rare cases, lead to blindness. Incidence data for TED and strabismus and surgical interventions after TED are sparce. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the nationwide incidence of TED, strabismus, and surgical interventions associated with TED. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A Danish nationwide registry-based cohort study between 2000, which marks the beginning of uniform coding for the decompression surgery nationwide, and 2018. The cohort consisted of a mean 4.3 million people aged 18 to 100 years with no prior TED diagnosis each year. Total observation time was 8.22 × 10(7) person-years (women, 4.18 × 10(7) person-years; men, 4.04 × 10(7) person-years). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The annual numeric and age-standardized incidence of hospital-treated TED and cumulative incidence of strabismus, strabismus surgery, and orbital decompression surgery in patients with TED. The incidence was stratified by sex, thyroid diagnosis, and age. RESULTS: A total of 4106 incident diagnoses of TED were identified during 19 years among 3344 women (81.4%) and 762 men (18.6%). The mean numeric annual nationwide incidence rate of TED was 5.0 per 100 000 person-years overall, 8.0 per 100 000 person-years in women, and 1.9 per 100 000 person-years in men, resulting in a 4:1 ratio of women to men with TED. The age-standardized incidence was similar. The mean (SD) age at onset was 51.3 (14.5) years. At the time of TED diagnosis, 611 patients (14.9%) were euthyroid, 477 (11.6%) were hypothyroid, and 3018 (73.5%) were hyperthyroid. In patients with TED who were euthyroid, the 4-year cumulative incidence was 41% for antithyroid medication and 13% for L-thyroxine. In patients with TED, the 4-year cumulative incidence for strabismus was 10%. The 4-year cumulative incidence of surgical interventions after TED was 8% for strabismus surgery and 5% for orbital decompression. At 4 years, strabismus surgery was more common in men (13.3%; 95% CI, 10.75-15.86) than in women (7.2%; 95% CI, 6.24-8.08), and the absolute difference was 6.1% (95% CI, 3.42-8.14; P

To compare the hazard of all-cause, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart failure (HF) hospitalization in carvedilol vs. metoprolol/bisoprolol/nebivolol users with COPD and concurrent HF from 2009 to 2012, and to evaluate the use and persistence in treatment of these β-blockers, their impact on the risk of COPD-related hospitalization, and the factors important for their selection.Cox and logistic regression were used for both unadjusted and adjusted analyses. Carvedilol users had a higher hazard of being hospitalized for HF compared with metoprolol/bisoprolol/nebivolol users in both the unadjusted [hazard ratio (HR) 1.74; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.65-1.83] and adjusted (HR 1.61; 95% CI 1.52-1.70) analyses. No significant differences were found for all-cause and COPD hospitalization between the two groups. Carvedilol users had a significant lower restricted mean persistence time than metoprolol/bisoprolol/nebivolol users. Patients exposed to carvedilol had an odds ratio (OR) of 1.38 (95% CI 1.23-1.56) for being hospitalized due to COPD within 60 days after redeeming the first carvedilol prescription, which was similar to that observed in metoprolol/bisoprolol/nebivolol users (OR 1.37; 95% CI 1.27-1.48). Patients with concurrent chronic kidney disease had a higher probability of receiving carvedilol (OR 1.16; 95% CI 1.04-1.29).Carvedilol prescription carried an increased hazard of HF hospitalization and lower restricted mean persistence time among patients with COPD and concurrent HF. Additionally, we found a widespread phenomenon of carvedilol prescription at variance with the European Society of Cardiology guidelines and potential for improving the proportion of patients treated with β-blockers.

Leg cramps are common in patients with heart failure. Quinine is frequently prescribed in low doses to these patients, but safety of this practice is unknown. We studied the outcomes associated with use of quinine in a nationwide cohort of patients with heart failure.Through individual-level-linkage of Danish national registries, we identified patients discharged from first-time hospitalization for heart failure in 1997-2010. We estimated the risk of mortality associated with quinine treatment by time-dependent Poisson regression models.A total of 135 529 patients were included, with 14 510 patients (11%) using quinine at some point. During a median time of follow-up of 989 days (interquartile range 350-2004) 88 878 patients (66%) died. Patients receiving quinine had slightly increased mortality risk, adjusted incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.04 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01 to 1.07). The risks differed according to concomitant β-blocker treatment. For patients treated with both quinine and β-blockers IRR was 1.15 (95% CI 1.09 to 1.21) vs. 0.99 (95% CI 0.96 to 1.03) for patients treated with quinine but not β-blockers. The risks were highest shortly after initiation of therapy: for the first 14 days of treatment IRR was 2.12 (95% CI 1.54 to 2.93) for patients in treatment with β-blockers and 1.17 (95% CI 0.86 to 1.59) for patients not treated with β-blockers.Use of quinine was common and associated with increased mortality in heart failure, especially if administered together with β-blockers and shortly after treatment initiation. Mechanisms underlying the findings remain to be established.

To compare survival on different beta-blockers in heart failure.We identified all Danish patients ≥35 years of age who were hospitalized with a first admission for heart failure and who initiated treatment with a beta-blocker within 60 days of discharge. The study period was 1995-2011. The main outcome was all-cause mortality and all-cause hospitalization. Cox proportional hazard models were used to compare survival. The study included 58 634 patients of whom 30.121 (51.4%) died and 46.990 (80.1%) were hospitalized during follow-up. The mean follow-up time was 4.1 years. In an unadjusted model carvedilol was associated with a lower mortality [hazard ratio (HR) 0.737, 0.714-0.761] compared with metoprolol (reference) while bisoprolol was not associated with an increased mortality (HR 1.020, 0.973-1.069). In a model adjusted for possible confounders and stratified according to beta-blocker dosages, patients that received high-dose carvedilol (≥50 mg daily) had a lower all-cause mortality risk (HR 0.873, 0.789-0.966) than patients receiving high-dose (≥200 mg daily) metoprolol (reference). High-dose bisoprolol (≥10 mg daily) was associated with a greater risk of death (HR 1.125, 1.004-1.261). High-dose carvedilol was associated with significantly lower all-cause hospitalization risk (HR 0.842, 0.774-0.915) than high-dose metoprolol (reference), while high-dose bisoprolol had insignificantly lower risk than high-dose metoprolol (HR 0.948, 0.850-1.057).Heart failure patients receiving high-dose carvedilol (≥50 mg daily) showed significantly lower all-cause mortality risk and hospitalization risk, compared with other beta-blockers.

The medication history among hospitalized patients often relies on patients' self-reports due to insufficient communication between health care professionals. The aim of the present study was to estimate the reliability of patients' self-reported medication use. Five hundred patients admitted to an acute medical department at a Danish university hospital were interviewed on the day of admission about their recent medication use. Blood samples drawn immediately after admission were screened for contents of 5 drugs (digoxin, bendroflumethiazide, amlodipine, simvastatin, glimepiride), and the results were compared to the patients' self-reported medication history. Information on prescribed drugs dispensed from any Danish pharmacy was collected from nationwide real-time pharmacy records. The authors performed home visits in a subgroup of 115 patients 4 weeks after their discharge. Stored drugs were inspected, and patients were interviewed about their drug use. Additional blood samples were drawn for drug analysis. The median age of included patients was 72 years, and 298 patients (60%) were women. Patients reported use of 3 (median) prescription-only medications (range, 0-14) during the structured interview. The congruence between self-report and drug analysis was high for all 5 drugs measured (all kappa0.8). However, 9 patients (2%) reported use of drugs that were not detected in their blood samples. In 29 patients (6%), the blood samples contained drugs not reported during the structured interview, but 14 of these drugs were registered in either hospital files or pharmacy records. Overall, the sensitivity of information from hospital files, structured interviews, and pharmacy records in identifying drug users was 87% to 93%, with no significant differences between methods. In conclusion, patients' self-reports are reliable when estimating recent use of cardiovascular and antidiabetic drugs.

Exclusively private companies do drug development. The State contributes with education of academics and basic research constituting the basis of half of the drugs developed by the private companies. The Danish private drug research amounts to six billion DKK per year, corresponding to the estimated price of the development of one new drug. The development shows a negative tendency. There are doubts about the scientific credibility, the number of new drugs is declining, drug development costs are rising, and the competitiveness in Europe is declining compared with the one of The United States. Continued improvement of Danish drug development can be achieved by stimulation of the public research related to drug development.

During 1978-1987 the annual sale of analgetics increased by 28% to 164 millions defined daily doses (mDDD) per year. Paracetamol changed status to over-the-counter drug by 1.1.1984 as did combinations of acetylicsalicylic acid and codein 14.5.1984. The consumption of paracetamol increased rapidly to 47 mDDD/-year, the mortality steadily decreasing to 0.07 deaths/mDDD in 1986. The consumption of salicylics decreased from 113 to 94 mDDD, of which the salicylic/codein combination constituted an increasing fraction. The mortality of salicylics increased from 0.05 death/mDDD in 1983 to 0.27/mDDD in 1986. Opoids except dextropropoxyphene increased three times during the period, while the risk of fatal poisoning decreased from 10 to 5 deaths/mDDD. Dextropropoxyphene consumption was stable 1978-86 while mortality doubled from 59 to 121 per year. After a National Board of Health initiative, 66 dextropropoxyphene deaths were seen in 1987. Paracetamol mortality was 10 times lower than in England and Wales, where a dextropropoxyphene/paracetamole combination (not available in Denmark) was often involved. From a toxicological point of view over the counter status for combinations of strong and weak analgetics are not desirable.

Based on recent reports concerning the efficacy of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in paracetamol (acetaminophen) poisoning, guidelines for treatment and control of these patients are reviewed by a study group under the Danish Association for the Study of the Liver. It is recommended that NAC-treatment is initiated immediately after referral and continued for 36 hours in all cases. Further NAC-treatment should not be discontinued before a decrease in INR has been observed.