The COASST study: cost-effectiveness of albumin in severe sepsis and septic shock.

Introduction: The cost-effectiveness of albumin-based fluid support in patients with severe sepsis is not known.

Methods: We compared standard medical practice and systematic albumin infusion. The study population consisted of patients with severe sepsis and/or septic shock admitted to one of the 35 intensive care units belonging to the Cub-Réa regional database between 1 January 1998 and 31 December 2002.

Impact of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) on health-related quality of life (HRQOL).

Aims: To assess the impact of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) on patient-reported health-related quality of life (HRQOL).

Methods: Two HRQOL instruments were administered by telephone interviews to a sample of 253 IBS French patients recruited from the general population. IBS was diagnosed according to the Manning, Rome I and Rome II criteria.

[Cost-effectiveness analysis of capecitabine in combination with docetaxel in comparison to docetaxel monotherapy in advanced or metastatic breast cancer in France].

Objective to estimate the cost-effectiveness ratio of adopting capecitabine/docetaxel combination therapy in place of docetaxel alone, in France, in patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC), resistant to, or relapsing after anthracycline-containing therapy, The SO14999 trial is a multicenter trial, randomized, including 511 patients equitably divided between the two groups. In addition to efficacy data, medical resource consumption related to adverse events were also collected in this trial ("piggy-back" analysis). French cost were associated to each data in order to estimate the medical cost of the two strategies from a healthpayer perspective.

Prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and variability of diagnostic criteria.

Objectives: The main objectives of this study were to assess whether the use of different definitions of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) could influence measurements of its prevalence and characterize the patient population fulfilling these different diagnostic criteria.

Method: A telephone survey was carried out by contacting 8,221 subjects aged >or=18 Years representative of the French population. A "screening" questionnaire based on three algorithms of IBS classification (Manning, with or without a notion of a minimal duration of symptoms, Rome I and Rome II) was used by specialised inquirers.