Use of Lipid-modifying Therapy and LDL-C Goal Attainment in a High-Cardiovascular-Risk Population in the Netherlands.

Purpose: This study investigates lipid-modifying therapy (LMT) and LDL-C goal attainment in a real-world, high-cardiovascular-risk population in the Netherlands.

Methods: From the PHARMO Database Network, patients aged ≥18 years with an LDL-C measurement in 2012 (index date) were selected and hierarchically classified into the following mutually exclusive high-cardiovascular-risk categories: familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), recent acute coronary syndrome (ACS), coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke, peripheral arterial disease, and diabetes mellitus. LMT use and LDL-C goal attainment at the index date was assessed.

In-hospital use of opioids increases rate of coded postoperative paralytic ileus.

Purpose: To determine the association between opioid use and the occurrence of postoperative paralytic ileus (POI) after different types of surgery.

Methods: The PHARMO database was used to perform a case control study in which intramural drug utilisation data were linked to hospital discharge diagnoses. All patients admitted for digestive, abdominal or genito-urinary surgeries were selected in 1998-2003.

MDR1 gene polymorphisms are associated with neuropsychiatric adverse effects of mefloquine.

Background: Mefloquine, a drug used for treatment and prophylaxis of malaria, is known for its neuropsychiatric adverse effects. We hypothesized that neuropsychiatric adverse effects of mefloquine are associated with polymorphisms in the MDR1/ABCB1 gene that encodes for the efflux pump P-glycoprotein.

Methods: The association between MDR1 C1236T, G2677T, and C3435T single-nucleotide polymorphisms and the occurrence of neuropsychiatric adverse effects was examined in a prospective cohort study of 89 healthy white travelers taking mefloquine.

Mefloquine increases the risk of serious psychiatric events during travel abroad: a nationwide case-control study in the Netherlands.

Background: Psychiatric events during travel abroad account for a large percentage of medical repatriations arranged by insurance companies. Several risk factors have been proposed for such events, one of these being use of mefloquine. We investigated the risk of psychiatric events during use of mefloquine.

Utilisation of malaria prophylaxis: the effect of changes in guidelines in The Netherlands, 1993-1998.

Introduction: The increase in international travelling from temperate zones to tropical countries and increasing drug resistance of Plasmodium falciparum has resulted in a growing number of travellers that are at risk for contracting malaria. The objective of this study was to obtain insight into dispensing patterns of malaria chemoprophylaxis and to determine whether health care providers have followed changes in guidelines.

Methods: Data on prescriptions of proguanil and mefloquine were obtained from the Dutch 'Foundation for Pharmaceutical Statistics' (SFK) covering the period 1 January 1993 up to 31 December 1998.