Computerized community cholesterol control (4C): meeting the challenge of secondary prevention.

Background: Dyslipidemia remains underdiagnosed and undertreated in patients with coronary artery disease. The Computer-based Clinical Decision Support System provides an opportunity t close these gaps.

Objectives: To study the impact of computerized intervention on secondary prevention of CAD.

Psoriasis and the metabolic syndrome.

Previous reports have shown a possible association between psoriasis and obesity, ischaemic heart disease, hypertension or diabetes mellitus. However, most of these studies were uncontrolled and were based on small sample sizes. We therefore investigated the association between psoriasis and the metabolic syndrome in a case control study.

Drug exposure and psoriasis vulgaris: case-control and case-crossover studies.

Intake of drugs is considered a risk factor for psoriasis. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between drugs and psoriasis. A case-control study including 110 patients who were hospitalized for extensive psoriasis was performed.

Efficacy of substituting innovator propafenone for its generic formulation in patients with atrial fibrillation.

The clinical outcomes of 114 patients with atrial fibrillation who had been treated with the innovator propafenone, and in whom the drug was then replaced with generic propafenone because of cost containment, were compared. The generic formulation was found to be at least as safe and effective as the innovator drug, with regard to atrial fibrillation recurrence, emergency room and hospital admissions, and necessity for concomitant therapy.

Impact of subsidizing effective anti-osteoporosis drugs on compliance with management guidelines in patients following low-impact fractures.

Early in 2000, proven-effective antiresorptive drugs (alendronate and raloxifene) were included in the national "health basket" in Israel. We carried out the present study to evaluate the effect of subsidizing antiosteoporosis drugs on the use of antiosteoporosis drugs in patients following low-impact fractures. The rates of dispensation of antiosteoporosis drugs, in the hospital and in the community, before and after an incident of a newly diagnosed low-impact fracture, respectively, were evaluated during January and February 1998 and 1999 ("pre-basket") and the corresponding months of 2000 and 2001 ("post-basket").