The Impact of Exacerbation Frequency on Clinical and Economic Outcomes in Swedish COPD Patients: The ARCTIC Study.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the association between exacerbation frequency and clinical and economic outcomes in patients with COPD.

Patients And Methods: Electronic medical record data linked to National Health Registries were collected from COPD patients at 52 Swedish primary care centers (2000-2014). The outcomes analyzed were exacerbation rate, mortality, COPD treatments, lung function and healthcare costs during the follow-up period.

Inhaled corticosteroids and the risk of type 2 diabetes among Swedish COPD patients.

This study reports the association of ICS use and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Swedish patients with COPD using data from real-world, primary care settings. A total of 7078 patients with COPD were included in this analysis and the 5-year cumulative incidence rate per 100,000 person years was 1506.9.

Osteoporosis and fracture risk associated with inhaled corticosteroid use among Swedish COPD patients: the ARCTIC study.

The effect of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) on the risk of osteoporosis and fracture in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains uncertain. The aim of this study was to assess this risk in patients with COPD.Electronic medical record data linked to National Health Registries were collected from COPD patients and matched reference controls at 52 Swedish primary care centres from 2000 to 2014.

Natural language processing and machine learning to enable automatic extraction and classification of patients' smoking status from electronic medical records.

Background: The electronic medical record (EMR) offers unique possibilities for clinical research, but some important patient attributes are not readily available due to its unstructured properties. We applied text mining using machine learning to enable automatic classification of unstructured information on smoking status from Swedish EMR data.

Methods: Data on patients' smoking status from EMRs were used to develop 32 different predictive models that were trained using Weka, changing sentence frequency, classifier type, tokenization, and attribute selection in a database of 85,000 classified sentences.

Gender differences among Swedish COPD patients: results from the ARCTIC, a real-world retrospective cohort study.

The present study aimed to generate real-world evidence regarding gender differences among chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, especially as regards the diagnosis and outcomes in order to identify areas for improvement and management and optimize the associated healthcare resource allocation. ARCTIC is a large, real-world, retrospective cohort study conducted in Swedish COPD patients and a matched reference population from 52 primary care centers in 2000-2014. The incidence of COPD, prevalence of asthma and other comorbidities, risk of exacerbations, mortality rate, COPD drug prescriptions, and healthcare resource utilization were analyzed.

A registry-based study evaluating overall survival and treatment duration in Swedish patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer treated with enzalutamide.

This retrospective, single-centre, non-interventional, registry-based study evaluated patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) treated with enzalutamide in daily clinical practice at Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden. Registry data were reviewed for patients treated with enzalutamide pre- or post-chemotherapy initiated between December 2013 and June 2017. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS) in post-chemotherapy patients.

Impact of COPD diagnosis timing on clinical and economic outcomes: the ARCTIC observational cohort study.

Assess the clinical and economic consequences associated with an early versus late diagnosis in patients with COPD. In a retrospective, observational cohort study, electronic medical record data (2000-2014) were collected from Swedish primary care patients with COPD. COPD indicators (pneumonia, other respiratory diseases, oral corticosteroids, antibiotics for respiratory infections, prescribed drugs for respiratory symptoms, lung function measurement) registered prior to diagnosis were applied to categorize patients into those receiving early (2 or less indicators) or late diagnosis (3 or more indicators registered >90 days preceding a COPD diagnosis).

Real-world retrospective cohort study ARCTIC shows burden of comorbidities in Swedish COPD versus non-COPD patients.

This study aimed to generate real-world evidence to assess the burden of comorbidities in COPD patients, to effectively manage these patients and optimize the associated healthcare resource allocation. ARCTIC is a large, real-world, retrospective cohort study conducted in Swedish COPD patients using electronic medical record data collected between 2000 and 2014. These patients were studied for prevalence of various comorbidities and for association of these comorbidities with exacerbations, mortality, and healthcare costs compared with an age-, sex-, and comorbidities-matched non-COPD reference population.

Identifying the associated risks of pneumonia in COPD patients: ARCTIC an observational study.

Background: Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) are associated with an increased risk of pneumonia in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Other factors such as severity of airflow limitation and concurrent asthma may further raise the possibility of developing pneumonia. This study assessed the risk of pneumonia associated with ICS in patients with COPD.

Economic burden of COPD in a Swedish cohort: the ARCTIC study.

Background: We assessed direct and indirect costs associated with COPD in Sweden and examined how these costs vary across time, age, and disease stage in a cohort of patients with COPD and matched controls in a real-world, primary care (PC) setting.

Patients And Methods: Data from electronic medical records linked to the mandatory national health registers were collected for COPD patients and a matched reference population in 52 PC centers from 2000 to 2014. Direct health care costs (drug, outpatient or inpatient, PC, both COPD related and not COPD related) and indirect health care costs (loss of income, absenteeism, loss of productivity) were assessed.

Epidemiology of cutaneous melanoma in Sweden-Stage-specific survival and rate of recurrence.

Cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) incidence is increasing globally, making a thorough understanding of the disease and its outcomes essential for optimizing care even more urgent. In this population-based, retrospective study, we investigated stage-specific survival and recurrence/progression rates of CMM among patients diagnosed in Stockholm County Council during 2005-2012, before the wide introduction of targeted therapy. A total of 3,554 CMM patients from the Stockholm Melanoma Register were included.

Clinical Effectiveness of Liraglutide vs Sitagliptin on Glycemic Control and Body Weight in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Retrospective Assessment in Sweden.

Introduction: The aim of the present study was to use real-world data from Swedish primary-care and national registries to understand clinical outcomes in patients with Type 2 diabetes (T2D) treated with liraglutide in clinical practice, and to compare with data from those treated with sitagliptin.

Methods: This was a non-interventional, retrospective study conducted between February 2014 and September 2014 using T2D patient data from Swedish primary-care centers and national healthcare registries. The primary objective was to assess the effectiveness of liraglutide in control of glycemia and body weight in clinical practice (stage 1).

Combination of budesonide/formoterol on demand improves asthma control by reducing exercise-induced bronchoconstriction.

Background: In mild asthma exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) is usually treated with inhaled short-acting β2 agonists (SABAs) on demand.

Objective: The hypothesis was that a combination of budesonide and formoterol on demand diminishes EIB equally to regular inhalation of budesonide and is more effective than terbutaline inhaled on demand.

Methods: Sixty-six patients with asthma (>12 years of age) with verified EIB were randomised to terbutaline (0.

Use of quetiapine XR and quetiapine IR in clinical practice for hospitalized patients with schizophrenia: a retrospective study.

Quetiapine fumarate, a first-line treatment for schizophrenia, exists in two formulations: extended release (XR) and immediate release (IR). This naturalistic, noninterventional study evaluated use of quetiapine XR/IR among in-patients with schizophrenia [ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01214135].

Extended-release quetiapine fumarate (quetiapine XR) monotherapy and quetiapine XR or lithium as add-on to antidepressants in patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder.

Background: Patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (MDD) remain a common clinical challenge.

Methods: This 6-week, randomised, open-label, rater-blinded trial evaluated once-daily extended-release quetiapine fumarate (quetiapine XR; 300 mg/day) as add-on to ongoing antidepressant and quetiapine XR monotherapy (300 mg/day) compared with add-on lithium (0.6-1.

Pneumonia and pneumonia related mortality in patients with COPD treated with fixed combinations of inhaled corticosteroid and long acting β2 agonist: observational matched cohort study (PATHOS).

Objective: To investigate the occurrence of pneumonia and pneumonia related events in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) treated with two different fixed combinations of inhaled corticosteroid/long acting β2 agonist.

Design: Observational retrospective pairwise cohort study matched (1:1) for propensity score.

Setting: Primary care medical records data linked to Swedish hospital, drug, and cause of death registry data for years 1999-2009.

A retrospective study of clinical usage of quetiapine XR and quetiapine IR in outpatients with schizophrenia in Denmark.

Objectives: The atypical antipsychotic quetiapine is a first-line treatment for schizophrenia. This non-interventional study (NCT01212575) evaluated the clinical use of its two formulations, extended release (XR) and immediate release (IR), in outpatients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder.

Methods: Patients who had received at least one dose of quetiapine XR and/or IR were included.

A clinical-pathological review of hidradenitis suppurativa: using immunohistochemistry one disease becomes two.

We report the results of a re-examination of a series of 57 biopsies from 50 patients with the clinical diagnosis of hidradenitis suppurativa, submitted to the Department of Pathology at the University Hospital of Northern Norway, Tromsø, Norway. The biopsy material came from hospitals and physicians all over northern Norway in the years 2000-2007. All tissue material was resectioned and stained with the immunohistochemical reagent, cytokeratin (AE1/AE3/PKC26), and that made it possible to divide the material into two different disease categories: (1) 36 biopsies from 30 cases had tissue inflammation after rupture of keratin-rich epidermal cysts, which we call 'horny cell inflammation', followed by extensive cutaneous thrombi and infarcts, and (2) 21 biopsies from 20 cases had 'apocrinitis' defined here as an inflammatory destruction of apocrine skin glands, and partly of close eccrine glands.

Improved prediction of COPD in at-risk patients using lung function pre-screening in primary care: a real-life study and cost-effectiveness analysis.

Background: The importance of identifying chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at an early stage is recognised. Improved and easily accessible identification of individuals at risk of COPD in primary care is needed to select patients for spirometry more accurately.

Aims: To explore whether use of a mini-spirometer can predict a diagnosis of COPD in patients at risk of COPD in primary care, and to assess its cost-effectiveness in detecting patients with COPD.

Burden of informal care giving to patients with psychoses: a descriptive and methodological study.

Background: There is a lack of studies of the size of burden associated with informal care giving in psychosis.

Aims: To evaluate the objective and subjective burden of informal care giving to patients with psychoses, and to compare a diary and recall method for assessments of objective burden.

Method: Patients and their informal caregivers were recruited from nine Swedish psychiatric outpatient centres.

Effect of adding gefitinib to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in estrogen receptor negative early breast cancer in a randomized phase II trial.

Gefitinib, an epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor, has shown both anti-proliferative and anti-tumoral activity in breast cancer. This study was designed to determine the effect of adding gefitinib to neoadjuvant epirubicin and cyclophosphamide (EC) on tumor response rates. Women with unilateral, primary operable, estrogen receptor negative invasive breast cancer ≥ 2 cm were eligible for inclusion.

Obstruction of the lung capillaries by blood platelet aggregates and leucocytes in sudden infant death syndrome.

Altogether 34 cases of sudden infant death were studied postmortem with particular emphasis on the pathological changes in the lungs. Light microscopy, including application of immunohistochemical methods, and transmission electron microscopy were used for the identification of blood platelets and white blood cell types in alveolar capillaries. The main findings were platelet aggregates and a varying number of neutrophil polymorphonuclear granulocytes in the lung capillaries, mixed with a smaller number of lymphocytes.

COPD health care in Sweden - A study in primary and secondary care.

Objectives: To map out-patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) with special reference to patients suffering from acute exacerbations, and to describe COPD health care structure and process in Swedish clinical practice in a real life setting.

Design: Retrospective, non-interventional, epidemiological survey.

Setting: 141 hospital based out patient clinics (OPC, n=30) and primary health care clinics (PC, n=111) were included in the structure evaluation.