New Zealand Emergency Medicine Network: A collaboration for acute care research in New Zealand

The specialty of emergency medicine in Australasia is coming of age. As part of this maturation there is a need for high‐quality evidence to inform practice. This article describes the development of the New Zealand Emergency Medicine Network, a collaboration of committed emergency care researchers who share the vision that New Zealand/Aotearoa will have a world‐leading, patient‐centred emergency care research network, which will improve emergency care for all, so that people coming to any ED in the country will have access to the same world‐class emergency care.     

Primary Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death: Can We Afford the Cost of Cardioverter-Defibrillators? Data from the Search-MI Registry-Italian Sub-study

Background: Large randomized trials show that in appropriately selected patients with left ventricular dysfunction, implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) can improve overall survival at 2–5 years. Since direct implementation of the criteria used in the MADIT II and SCD-HeFT will lead to a marked rise in ICD implants, there is a growing fear that increased use of ICDs may cause a dramatic burden to health care systems. The ICD has traditionally been seen as an expensive form of treatment, which is difficult to accept at the first look. This is mainly due to the nonlinear character of the ICD investment, characterized by high initial expenditure, followed by a deferred pay-off in terms of clinical benefits. Cost-effectiveness analysis may help provide a different perspective on the problem of ICD cost, as may estimation of the daily cost of ICD treatment, assuming a time horizon of 5–7 years—a particularly interesting subject for further registry studies.
Methods and Results: Based on real expenditure data from 2002 to 2005, as recorded in the Search-MI Registry-Italian Sub-study of patients implanted on MADIT II indications, we estimated the daily costs associated with the device and leads. Over a 5–7 year time horizon, the average daily cost was estimated to be €4.60–€6.70. Translation of these figures into U.S. market conditions suggests a daily cost of around $7.90–$11.40.
Conclusions: These findings appear useful to help evaluate the affordability of ICD in comparison with other therapeutic options in a context of limited available economic resources.     

Prevalence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy and relation to glycemic control therapies at baseline in the BARI 2D cohort

Abstract   We evaluated the associations between glycemic therapies and prevalence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) at baseline among participants in the Bypass Angioplasty Revascularization Investigation 2 Diabetes (BARI 2D) trial on medical and revascularization therapies for coronary artery disease (CAD) and on insulin-sensitizing vs. insulin-providing treatments for diabetes. A total of 2,368 patients with type 2 diabetes and CAD was evaluated. DPN was defined as clinical examination score >2 using the Michigan Neuropathy Screening Instrument (MNSI). DPN odds ratios across different groups of glycemic therapy were evaluated by multiple logistic regression adjusted for multiple covariates including age, sex, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), and diabetes duration. Fifty-one percent of BARI 2D subjects with valid baseline characteristics and MNSI scores had DPN. After adjusting for all variables, use of insulin was significantly associated with DPN (OR = 1.57, 95% CI: 1.15–2.13). Patients on sulfonylurea (SU) or combination of SU/metformin (Met)/thiazolidinediones (TZD) had marginally higher rates of DPN than the Met/TZD group. This cross-sectional study in a cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes and CAD showed association of insulin use with higher DPN prevalence, independent of disease duration, glycemic control, and other characteristics. The causality between a glycemic control strategy and DPN cannot be evaluated in this cross-sectional study, but continued assessment of DPN and randomized therapies in BARI 2D trial may provide further explanations on the development of DPN.     

Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction in Middle-aged Patients

Background: Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) after noncardiac surgery is strongly associated with increasing age in elderly patients; middle-aged patients (aged 40-60 yr) may be expected to have a lower incidence, although subjective complaints are frequent.

Methods: The authors compared the changes in neuropsychological test results at 1 week and 3 months in patients aged 40-60 yr, using a battery of neuropsychological tests, with those of age-matched control subjects using Z-score analysis. They assessed risk factors and associations of POCD with measures of subjective cognitive function, depression, and activities of daily living.

Results: At 7 days, cognitive dysfunction as defined was present in 19.2% (confidence interval [CI], 15.7-23.1) of the patients and in 4.0% (CI, 1.6-8.0) of control subjects (P < 0.001). After 3 months, the incidence was 6.2% (CI, 4.1-8.9) in patients and 4.1% (CI, 1.7-8.4) in control subjects (not significant). POCD at 7 days was associated with supplementary epidural analgesia and reported avoidance of alcohol consumption. At 3 months, 29% of patients had subjective symptoms of POCD, and this finding was associated with depression. Early POCD was associated with reports of lower activity scores at 3 months.     

头颈部恶性肿瘤诊断治疗指南

恶性肿瘤是威胁人类生存的第一杀手,就头颈肿瘤来说虽然发病率在我国并不高,但由于我国人口众多,发病率的绝对数字也是不可忽视的。当今提倡晚期头颈肿瘤的综合序列治疗,患者的生存率及生存质量已有很大的提高,由于我国的地域差异和医学发展水平的不平衡,对于头颈肿瘤的治疗难以形成统一的治疗标准,目前国内也缺少头颈肿瘤的诊断治疗指南,客观存在着肿瘤的诊断治疗欠规范,延误诊治、过度治疗、治疗不够等现状,这不仅导致医疗资源的浪费和国家及个人的经济负担加重,而且由此导致的医患纠纷时有发生。鉴于此,本期刊出由上海交通大学医学院附属第九人民医院·口腔医学院郭伟等医师编译的2005年美国国立癌症综合信息网(National Comprehensive Cancer Network,NCCN)公布的由NCCN头颈肿瘤专家组31位专家撰写的关于头颈部恶性肿瘤诊断治疗指南的有关内容,旨在结合我国实际情况供专业人员参考。     

Three-year duration of benefit from abciximab in patients receiving stents for acute myocardial infarction in the randomized double-blind ADMIRAL study

Aims The Abciximab Before Direct Angioplasty and Stenting inMyocardial Infarction Regarding Acute and Long-term Follow-up(ADMIRAL) study demonstrated that early inhibition of the plateletglycoprotein IIb/IIIa (GP IIb/IIIa) receptor with abciximabled to improved coronary patency, left ventricular function,and clinical outcomes. The current long-term follow-up studyevaluated the durability of the positive outcomes. Methods and results The randomized double-blind ADMIRAL trialenrolled 300 patients who received either abciximab plus stentingor placebo plus stenting for the treatment of ST-elevation myocardialinfarction (STEMI). Abciximab (bolus of 0.25 mg/kg bodyweight, followed by 12 h infusion of 0.125 µg/kgper min) was administered to 149 patients, whereas 151 patientsreceived placebo. Long-term follow-up was conducted in a blindedmanner by either patient chart review or telephone interview.Long-term follow-up data were obtained on 288 patients (96%).After 3 years, using an intent-to-treat analysis, the outcomeof all-cause mortality occurred in 9.1% of abciximab-treatedpatients when compared with 12.2% of placebo patients, absoluteand relative risk reductions of 3.1 and 25%, respectively (P=0.36).Parallel Kaplan–Meier curves were observed for the cumulativeincidence of death or re-infarction, which was reduced from16.9% in the placebo group to 11.8% in the abciximab group,absolute and relative risk reductions of 5.1 and 30%, respectively(P=0.20). Rates of recurrent ischaemia were significantly reducedfrom 21.7 to 11.5% (P=0.05). Conclusion Adjunctive abciximab to primary stenting for STEMIelicits favourable clinical outcomes with the same absoluterisk reductions of hard clinical outcomes from 30 days up to3 years of follow-up.