Calculating QALYs, comparing QALY and DALY calculations

Quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) have been used in the assessment of health interventions for three decades. The popularity of the QALY approach has been constantly increasing, although the debate on its theoretical underpinnings and practical implications is still ongoing. Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), also widely debated, were shaped some 20 years later, broadly within the same conceptual framework but with a number of important differences. This paper provides a comprehensive formulation of QALY calculation methods, offering practical instruments for assessing the impact of health interventions, similar to those made available elsewhere for calculating DALYs. Systematic differences between QALYs and DALYs are explained by reference to two examples: the prevention of tuberculosis and the treatment of bipolar depression. When a health intervention is aimed at preventing or treating a non-fatal disease, the relationship between QALYs gained and DALYs saved depends on age of onset and duration of the disease, as well as the quality of life and disability weights. In the case of a potentially fatal disease, a larger number of factors may determine differences between outcomes assessed with the two metrics. The relative importance of some of these factors is discussed and illustrated graphically in the paper. Understanding similarities and differences between QALYs and DALYs is important to researchers and policy makers, for a sound interpretation of the evidence on the outcomes of health interventions.     

Epithelial advanced ovarian carcinoma in the central region of Tunisia: therapeutic results and prognostic factors on 104 patients

Between 1994 and 2004, 104 patients with epithelial advanced ovarian cancer were treated in the central region of Tunisia (81 stage III and 23 stage IV). Average age of patients was 54 years. Primary surgery was optimal (residue < 2 cm) in 40 cases (38,5 % of patients). Fifty nine patients were treated with neo adjuvant chemotherapy based on platinum, associated to paclitaxel in 19 % of cases. Interval debulking surgery interested 30 patients and was optimal in 66,7 % of cases. Global survive was 57 % at 2 years and 27 % at 5 years. Survival rate for patients treated with optimal debulking surgery was similar to that of those treated with initial optimal surgery. Prognostic factors for a better survive were : age < 40 years (p < 0,05), stage III (p < 0,01), a normal level of CA125 after surgery (p < 0,01), primary optimal initial surgery (p < 0,02) and response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (p < 0,01). Prognosis of ovarian carcinoma is worse in Tunisia as like as in the world. In case of extensive tumor, the neoadjuvant chemotherapy before interval debulking surgery permits to improve survive and quality of life in some patients.     

Microscopic colitis. A 20 cases series

Microscopic colitis are defined as a chronic inflammation of a normal macroscopic colonic mucosa. We report 20 cases of microscopic colitis. Chronic diarrhea revealed the diagnosis in 95% of cases. Endoscopic examination was normal in 95% of patients. We diagnosed collagenous colitis in 65% of cases and lymphocytic colitis in 35% of cases. The treatment was based on sulphasalazine in 16 patients, on 5 aminosalicylic acid in 1 case, on gluten free diet in 2 cases and a symptomatic treatment was prescribed to one patient. A clinical remission was observed in 41.2% of patients taking sulphasalazine.     

A uterine cavity-myoma communication after uterine artery embolization: two case reports

OBJECTIVE: To report two cases of uterine cavity-myoma fistula as a medical complication after uterine artery embolization. DESIGN: Case report. SETTING: Women's Medical Center/Viscomi Institute, Sao Paulo, Brazil. PATIENT(S): Two patients presenting with symptomatic myomatous uterus: a 40-year-old woman with increased abdominal volume and hypermenorrhea, and a 42-year-old woman with pelvic pain and infertility. INTERVENTION(S): Uterine artery embolization, hysteroscopic follow-up, and laparoscopic myomectomy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Hysteroscopic follow-up after uterine artery embolization. RESULT(S): The patients underwent uterine artery embolization. In the months that followed, a subsequent surgical hysteroscopic follow-up was performed to eliminate the necrotic material of the degenerated myomas. The two patients presented the same outcome 1 year after the uterine artery embolization had been performed: a communication between the uterine cavity and a degenerated myoma. Laparoscopic correction of the uterine wall defect was performed afterward. CONCLUSION(S): Because embolization is a growing option for the treatment of leiomyoma, it is important that potential complications be reported, especially if the patients want to become pregnant. The natural history of the fistula and its consequences are unknown, and physicians should be aware of these complications. Hysteroscopic follow-up was important in the diagnosis of the two cases.