Prevalence of and factors associated with the early prescription of antiseizure medications in adults newly diagnosed with epilepsy in Germany.

Background: There is little information on prescription patterns of antiseizure medications (ASMs) during the early management of patients with epilepsy in Germany. Therefore, this study investigated the prevalence of and the factors associated with ASM prescription in patients newly diagnosed with epilepsy in this country.

Methods: Adults diagnosed for the first time with epilepsy in one of 128 neurology practices in Germany between 2005 and 2021 were included (Disease Analyzer database, IQVIA).

Association between gout and epilepsy in adults - a retrospective cohort study with 244,964 primary care outpatients.

Background: Recently there has been a rising interest in the identification of possible risk factors for epilepsies. In the present study, we investigated the potential association between gout and epilepsy in an outpatient cohort in Germany.

Methods: Using the IQVIA Disease Analyzer database, we identified 112,482 patients with gout treated in outpatient departments.

Association between Antiepileptic Drugs and Incident Parkinson's Disease among Patients Followed in German Primary Care Practices.

Background: The aim of this study was to analyze whether prescriptions of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are significantly associated with an increased incidence of Parkinson's disease (PD) in the German population.

Methods: This study used data from German primary care practices found in the Disease Analyzer database (IQVIA) and included all patients aged ≥18 years who were diagnosed with PD between January 2010 and December 2021 (index date). The controls were patients without PD matched (1:1) by age, sex, and pre-diagnostic observation time in years.

The Association between Antibiotic Use and the Incidence of Heart Failure: A Retrospective Case-Control Study of 162,188 Outpatients.

The pathogenesis of heart failure (HF) is multifactorial, and is characterized by structural, cellular, and molecular remodeling processes. Inflammatory signaling pathways may play a particularly understudied role in HF. Recent data suggest a possible impact of antibiotic use on HF risk.

Sex-related associations between body mass index and the incidence of epilepsy.

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the association between both overweight and underweight and epilepsy in adult individuals using a large German database.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study was based on data from the Disease Analyzer database (IQVIA) and included patients with documented body mass index (BMI) values followed up in one of 832 general practices in Germany between January 2006 and December 2019. The association between BMI categories and the 10-year incidence of epilepsy was studied separately for women and men using Cox regression models adjusted for age and comorbidities.

Association Between Angiotensin Receptor Blocker Therapy and Incidence of Epilepsy in Patients With Hypertension.

Importance: Arterial hypertension is associated with an increased incidence of epilepsy. Results from animal studies suggest that angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) therapy could inhibit epileptic seizures. However, there is a lack of clinical data to support the use of ARB therapy in humans.

Infectious mononucleosis is associated with an increased incidence of multiple sclerosis: Results from a cohort study of 32,116 outpatients in Germany.

Background: The pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS) has not yet been fully uncovered. There is increasing evidence that Epstein-Barr-Virus (EBV) infection, which affects over 90% of people during life and causes infectious mononucleosis, leads to an increased incidence of MS, and thus may play a crucial role in the pathophysiology of the disease.

Methods: Using the Disease Analyzer database (IQVIA) featuring diagnoses as well as basic medical and demographic data of outpatients from general practices in Germany, we identified a total of 16,058 patients with infectious mononucleosis that were matched to a cohort of equal size without infectious mononucleosis based on patients' age, sex, index year and yearly consultation frequency.

Atrial fibrillation is associated with a subsequent epilepsy diagnosis independent of stroke: A retrospective matched administrative cohort study on 149,632 patients.

Recently there has been a rising interest in the identification and possible prevention of risk factors for epilepsies. In the present study, we investigated the potential association between atrial fibrillation (AF) and epilepsy in a German cohort of ambulatory patients aged ≥18 with an initial diagnosis of atrial fibrillation documented in 1274 general practices in Germany between January 2005 and December 2018. Using the IQVIA Disease Analyzer database, we identified 74,681 ambulatory patients with AF.

Epilepsy is associated with an increased incidence of heart failure diagnoses.

Objective: Epilepsy is a complex disease with serious consequences for the quality of life and prognosis of those affected. The importance of comorbidities in disease progression and prognosis has gained increasing recognition in recent years. In the present study, we investigated the potential association between epilepsy and heart failure in an outpatient cohort in Germany.

Analysis of epileptic seizure count time series by ensemble state space modelling.

We propose an approach for the analysis of epileptic seizure count time series within a state space framework. Time-dependent dosages of several simultaneously administered anticonvulsants are included as external inputs. The method aims at distinguishing which temporal correlations in the data are due to the medications, and which correspond to an unrelated background signal.

Myoclonic astatic epilepsy (Doose syndrome) - a lamotrigine responsive epilepsy?

Purpose: Myoclonic astatic epilepsy (MAE, Doose syndrome) is a difficult to treat idiopathic generalized epilepsy of early childhood. MAE frequently shows the course of an epileptic encephalopathy and may result in permanent cognitive impairment. Systematic analyses on clinical effects of different AED combinations are still needed.

An association between infantile haemangiomas and erythropoietin treatment in preterm infants.

Background: Infantile haemangiomas are benign vascular neoplasms that occur frequently in premature infants. The authors hypothesised that in addition to gestational age and birth weight, erythropoietin therapy may influence the incidence of these soft tissue tumours in preterm infants.

Methods: 2563 infants born prematurely and admitted to the Division of Neonatology, University of Heidelberg Medical School were investigated in a retrospective analysis.

Effects of budesonide inhalation on energy expenditure, somatic growth and salivary cortisol levels in preterm infants with chronic lung disease.

Background: We hypothesized that the use of inhaled budesonide (BUD) would alter somatic growth by increasing energy expenditure (EE) in premature infants with chronic lung disease (CLD).

Methods: A prospective study was conducted of the effect of BUD on EE, growth and salivary cortisol excretion in infants with CLD who required supplemental oxygen and were treated with inhaled BUD for 4 weeks according the severity of their CLD, or without BUD treatment. Infants were compared with a healthy control group matched for gestational age.

Induction of chronic renal allograft injury by injection of a monoclonal antibody against a donor MHC Ib molecule in a nude rat model.

Background: Chronic allograft injury induced by immunological as well as non-immunological mechanisms is still a major cause of long-term graft loss after renal transplantation. Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) incompatibilities as well as donor-specific alloantibodies are known risk factors, but the interaction of cellular and humoral mechanisms leading to allograft damage remains to be defined. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of donor-specific post-transplant antibodies against a non-classical MHC Ib antigen apart from T-cell-dependent immune response.

Effect of high volume intake of mother's milk with an individualized supplementation of minerals and protein on early growth of preterm infants <28 weeks of gestation.

Objective: A prospective study was designed to evaluate the effects of high volume intake of mother's milk fortified (FMM) with an individualized supplementation of minerals and protein on tolerance, short-term somatic growth, serum concentrations of calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, and total plasma protein in healthy preterm infants below 28 weeks of gestation.

Methods: Sixty preterm infants were included in the FMM group, for having received >80% or more of the milk volume as their own mother's milk at 3 weeks of postnatal age to 38 weeks of corrected gestational age. This group was compared with 60 preterm infants fed exclusively preterm formula milk (PF).

Chronic allograft nephropathy in athymic nude rats after adoptive transfer of primed T lymphocytes.

The impact of presensitized T lymphocytes on the development of chronic allograft nephropathy (CAN) was investigated in nude athymic LEW.RNU recipients of F344 renal allografts. The recipients (n = 8) were reconstituted with 5 x 10(7) T lymphocytes primed against donor skin grafts to induce graft rejection.

Energy expenditure in neonates with Down syndrome.

Resting energy expenditure was measured in term neonates with Down syndrome during the first week of life and compared with healthy neonates. Infants with Down syndrome expended 14% fewer calories than did healthy infants of the same age.