Publications by authors named "Nicolas H Thurin"

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are the second most widely used class of analgesics in France, after paracetamol. Some NSAIDs are available over the counter (OTC), without a prescription, on the advice of a pharmacist. NSAIDs have recently been the subject of safety alerts from France's Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé (ANSM), highlighting a risk of worsening certain bacterial infections.

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Conventional vaccines rarely cause severe allergic reactions. However, the rapid development and approval of COVID-19 vaccines left limited initial data on their adverse reactions, particularly in individuals with a history of allergy. The aim of this study was to assess and compare the safety profile of different doses and brands of COVID-19 vaccines in subjects with a history of allergy vs.

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Purpose: Metadata for data dIscoverability aNd study rEplicability in obseRVAtional studies (MINERVA), a European Medicines Agency-funded project (EUPAS39322), defined a set of metadata to describe real-world data sources (RWDSs) and piloted metadata collection in a prototype catalogue to assist investigators from data source discoverability through study conduct.

Methods: A list of metadata was created from a review of existing metadata catalogues and recommendations, structured interviews, a stakeholder survey, and a technical workshop. The prototype was designed to comply with the FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable), using MOLGENIS software.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in immunocompromised patients by comparing their reported adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to a control group.
  • It involved a cohort of immunocompromised individuals from 11 European countries who completed electronic questionnaires to track ADRs after vaccination between February 2021 and February 2023.
  • Results show that immunocompromised participants reported higher rates of common ADRs, like injection-site pain and fatigue, compared to their matched non-immunocompromised counterparts, particularly after the first vaccine dose.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study examines adverse drug reactions (ADRs) reported by individuals who received COVID-19 vaccinations, comparing those with a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection to those without, across different vaccine brands and doses.
  • Conducted from February 2021 to February 2023, it included 4,788 vaccinees and found that those with previous infections reported higher ADRs after the first and booster doses, but lower ADRs after the second dose.
  • Overall, while the frequency of serious ADRs was low, the study highlights the variation in reported reactions based on prior infection history and the type and timing of vaccine doses.
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Purpose: This paper aims to introduce an algorithm designed to identify Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) in the French National Healthcare Database (SNDS) and to estimate its positive predictive value.

Methods: A case-identifying algorithm was designed using SNDS inpatient and outpatient encounters, including hospital stays with discharge diagnoses, imaging procedures and drugs dispensed, of French patients aged at least 18 years old to whom baricitinib or Tumor Necrosis Factor Inhibitors (TNFi) were dispensed between September 1, 2017, and December 31, 2018. An intra-database validation study was then conducted, drawing 150 cases identified as VTE by the algorithm and requesting four vascular specialists to assess them.

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Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, EMA set-up a large-scale cohort event monitoring (CEM) system to estimate incidence rates of patient-reported adverse drug reactions (ADRs) of different COVID-19 vaccines across the participating countries. This study aims to give an up to date and in-depth analysis of the frequency of patient-reported ADRs after the 1st, 2nd, and booster vaccination, to identify potential predictors in developing ADRs and to describe time-to-onset (TTO) and time-to-recovery (TTR) of ADRs.

Methods: A CEM study was rolled out in a period ranging from February 2021 to February 2023 across multiple European countries; The Netherlands, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.

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Background: Healthcare pathways of patients with prostate cancer are heterogeneous and complex to apprehend using traditional descriptive statistics. Clustering and visualization methods can enhance their characterization.

Methods: Patients with prostate cancer in 2014 were identified in the French National Healthcare database (-SNDS) and their data were extracted with up to 5 years of history and 4 years of follow-up.

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Article Synopsis
  • Conservative management for prostate cancer (PCa) aims to delay or avoid curative therapy, with the PIONEER initiative using big data to enhance PCa care in Europe.
  • The study analyzed over 527,000 diagnosed PCa cases, focusing on 123,146 patients who did not receive treatment within six months of diagnosis to assess long-term outcomes.
  • Findings showed common comorbidities like hypertension and diabetes among patients, with notable rates of hospitalization and symptomatic progression, though limitations included insufficient data on treatment intent and patient characteristics.
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Background And Objectives: The European Medicine Agency extended the use of Comirnaty, Spikevax, and Nuvaxovid in paediatrics; thus, these vaccines require additional real-world safety evidence. Herein, we aimed to monitor the safety of COVID-19 vaccines through Covid-19 Vaccine Monitor (CVM) and EudraVigilance surveillance systems and the published pivotal clinical trials.

Methods: In a prospective cohort of vaccinees aged between 5 and 17 years, we measured the frequency of commonly reported (local/systemic solicited) and serious adverse drug events (ADRs) following the first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines in Europe using data from the CVM cohort until April 2022.

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Introduction: COVID-19 vaccines were rapidly authorised, thus requiring intense post-marketing re-evaluation of their benefit-risk profile. A multi-national European collaboration was established with the aim to prospectively monitor safety of the COVID-19 vaccines through web-based survey of vaccinees.

Methods: A prospective cohort event monitoring study was conducted with primary consented data collection in seven European countries.

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Background And Objectives: Some medications require specific medical procedures in the weeks before their start. Such procedures may meet the definition of instrumental variables (IVs). We examined how they may influence treatment effect estimation in propensity score (PS)-adjusted comparative studies, and how to remedy.

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Objectives: Existing individual-level human data cover large populations on many dimensions such as lifestyle, demography, laboratory measures, clinical parameters, etc. Recent years have seen large investments in data catalogues to FAIRify data descriptions to capitalise on this great promise, i.e.

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Introduction: The aim of this work is to evaluate baricitinib safety with respect to venous thromboembolism (VTE), major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), and serious infection relative to tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: Patients with RA from 14 real-world data sources (three disease registries, eight commercial and three government health insurance claims databases) in the United States (n = 9), Europe (n = 3), and Japan (n = 2) were analyzed using a new user active comparator design. Propensity score matching (1:1) controlled for potential confounding.

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Objectives: To conduct the direct comparison of abiraterone acetate and docetaxel for first-line treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) in real-life settings.

Methods: Data were extracted from the French nationwide claims database (SNDS) on all men aged ≥40 years starting first-line treatment with abiraterone acetate or docetaxel for mCRPC in 2014. A high-dimensional propensity score including 100 baseline characteristics was used to match patients of both groups and form two comparative cohorts.

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Article Synopsis
  • The ConcePTION project, funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative in 2019, aims to improve the monitoring and communication of medicine safety for pregnant and breastfeeding women, highlighting the need to quickly address uncertainties regarding medication use in these groups.
  • The project's framework includes the ConcePTION Common Data Model (CDM), designed with structured tables to effectively organize data from various European healthcare sources, enabling more reliable insights.
  • By its first anniversary, the CDM has successfully integrated 13 data sources, allowing for coordinated analytics that can help assess the utilization, effectiveness, and safety of medications in both special populations and the general public.
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Background: Diagnosis performances of case-identifying algorithms developed in healthcare database are usually assessed by comparing identified cases with an external data source. When this is not feasible, intra-database validation can present an appropriate alternative.

Objectives: To illustrate through two practical examples how to perform intra-database validations of case-identifying algorithms using reconstituted Electronic Health Records (rEHRs).

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Purposes: Drug induced acute liver injury (ALI) is a frequent cause of liver failure. Case-based designs were empirically assessed and calibrated in the French National claims database (SNDS), aiming to identify the optimum design for drug safety alert generation associated with ALI.

Methods: All cases of ALI were extracted from SNDS (2009-2014) using specific and sensitive definitions.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study aimed to estimate the incidence and prevalence of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) in France for the year 2014, using a nationwide healthcare database that covers a large portion of the population.
  • - Researchers identified mCRPC cases based on specific algorithms which were validated by reviewing medical records, ultimately finding a prevalence of 62 cases and an incidence of 21 cases per 100,000 men, with the highest incidence in men aged 80-89.
  • - The results indicate that the algorithm was highly accurate for identifying mCRPC, suggesting these estimates are reliable; future updates will refine the algorithm to reflect evolving medical practices, assisting in ongoing assessment of prostate cancer management.
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Purpose: Upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) is a severe and frequent drug-related event. In order to enable efficient drug safety alert generation in the French National Healthcare System database (SNDS), we assessed and calibrated empirically case-based designs to identify drug associated with UGIB risk.

Methods: All cases of UGIB were extracted from SNDS (2009-2014) using two definitions.

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Objectives: To introduce the methodology of the ALCAPONE project.

Background: The French National Healthcare System Database (SNDS), covering 99% of the French population, provides a potentially valuable opportunity for drug safety alert generation. ALCAPONE aimed to assess empirically in the SNDS case-based designs for alert generation related to four health outcomes of interest.

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