Genotype Distribution and Characteristics of Chronic Hepatitis C Infection in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine: The RESPOND-C Study.

Since 2013, highly effective direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatment for chronic hepatitis C (CHC) has become available, with cure rates exceeding 95%. For the choice of optimal CHC treatment, an assessment of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype (GT) and liver fibrosis stage is necessary. Information about the distribution of these parameters among CHC patients in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (the Baltic states) and especially in Ukraine is scarce.

Intravenous versus subcutaneous delivery of biotherapeutics in IBD: an expert's and patient's perspective.

Several biologic treatments are available in addition to intravenous also in subcutaneous form for treatment of chronic diseases. Benefits of the subcutaneous application of drugs include self-administration by the patient, shorter time of application process with less infusion related adverse events and consequently lower healthcare costs. With appropriate education and support patients are able to administer their treatments at home.

The use of 5-aminosalicylate for patients with Crohn's disease in a prospective European inception cohort with 5 years follow-up - an Epi-IBD study.

Background: The lack of scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of 5-aminosalicylate in patients with Crohn's disease is in sharp contrast to its widespread use in clinical practice.

Aims: The aim of the study was to investigate the use of 5-aminosalicylate in patients with Crohn's disease as well as the disease course of a subgroup of patients who were treated with 5-aminosalicylate as maintenance monotherapy during the first year of disease.

Methods: In a European community-based inception cohort, 488 patients with Crohn's disease were followed from the time of their diagnosis.

Health-care costs of inflammatory bowel disease in a pan-European, community-based, inception cohort during 5 years of follow-up: a population-based study.

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) places a significant burden on health-care systems because of its chronicity and need for expensive therapies and surgery. With increasing use of biological therapies, contemporary data on IBD health-care costs are important for those responsible for allocating resources in Europe. To our knowledge, no prospective long-term analysis of the health-care costs of patients with IBD in the era of biologicals has been done in Europe.

Disease course of inflammatory bowel disease unclassified in a European population-based inception cohort: An Epi-IBD study.

Background And Aim: A definitive diagnosis of Crohn's disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC) is not always possible, and a proportion of patients will be diagnosed as inflammatory bowel disease unclassified (IBDU). The aim of the study was to investigate the prognosis of patients initially diagnosed with IBDU and the disease course during the following 5 years.

Methods: The Epi-IBD study is a prospective population-based cohort of 1289 IBD patients diagnosed in centers across Europe.

A Population-Based Surveillance Study on the Epidemiology of Hepatitis C in Estonia.

The hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients serve as a reservoir for transmission of the disease to others and are at risk of developing chronic hepatitis C, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Although the epidemiological data of high rate HCV infection have been obtained in many countries, such data are insufficient in Estonia. Therefore, the aim of the study was to analyze country-specific data on HCV patients.

Vitamin D deficiency in a European inflammatory bowel disease inception cohort: an Epi-IBD study.

Background: Serum vitamin D level is commonly low in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Although there is a growing body of evidence that links low vitamin D level to certain aspects of IBD such as disease activity and quality of life, data on its prevalence and how it varies across disease phenotype, smoking status and treatment groups are still missing.

Materials And Methods: Patients diagnosed with IBD between 2010 and 2011 were recruited.

Ledipasvir-Sofosbuvir for 8 Weeks in Non-Cirrhotic Patients with Previously Untreated Genotype 1 HCV Infection ± HIV-1 Co-Infection.

Unlabelled: BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The efficacy of < 12 weeks of hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment in patients co-infected with HCV and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) has not been established. We assessed the efficacy and safety of ledipasvir-sofosbuvir for 8 weeks in HCV mono-infected and HCV/HIV-1 co-infected patients.

Methods: We enrolled patients mono-infected with genotype 1 HCV or co-infected with HCV and HIV-1 who were HCV treatment-naive and did not have cirrhosis.

Occurrence of Anaemia in the First Year of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in a European Population-based Inception Cohort-An ECCO-EpiCom Study.

Background And Aims: Anaemia is an important complication of inflammatory bowel disease [IBD]. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of anaemia and the practice of anaemia screening during the first year following diagnosis, in a European prospective population-based inception cohort.

Methods: Newly diagnosed IBD patients were included and followed prospectively for 1 year in 29 European and one Australian centre.

Pay for performance of Estonian family doctors and impact of different practice- and patient-related characteristics on a good outcome: A quantitative assessment.

Background And Objective: Several practice- and patient-related characteristics are reported to have an influence on a good quality outcome. Estonia started the pay-for-performance (P4P) system for family doctors (FDs) in 2006. Every year the number of FDs participating in P4P has increased, but only half of the FDs achieved good outcome.

Prevalence, Clinical Characteristics, and Risk Factors for Non-recording of Alcohol Use in Hospitals across Europe: The ALCHIMIE Study.

Aim: To determine the detection rates, clinical features, and risk factors for lack of registration of alcohol use in medical patients admitted in European hospitals.

Methods: A point-prevalence, cross-sectional, multicenter survey involving 2100 medical inpatients from 43 hospitals from 8 European countries. Patients were screened for current alcohol use, using standardized questionnaires.

Strategies to manage hepatitis C virus infection disease burden - volume 3.

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) epidemic was forecasted through 2030 for 15 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and the relative impact of two scenarios was considered: increased treatment efficacy while holding the annual number of treated patients constant and increased treatment efficacy and an increased annual number of treated patients. Increasing levels of diagnosis and treatment, in combination with improved treatment efficacy, were critical for achieving substantial reductions in disease burden. A 90% reduction in total HCV infections within 15 years is feasible in most countries studied, but it required a coordinated effort to introduce harm reduction programmes to reduce new infections, screening to identify those already infected and treatment with high cure rate therapies.

The present and future disease burden of hepatitis C virus infections with today's treatment paradigm - volume 3.

The total number, morbidity and mortality attributed to viraemic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections change over time making it difficult to compare reported estimates from different years. Models were developed for 15 countries to quantify and characterize the viraemic population and forecast the changes in the infected population and the corresponding disease burden from 2014 to 2030. With the exception of Iceland, Iran, Latvia and Pakistan, the total number of viraemic HCV infections is expected to decline from 2014 to 2030, but the associated morbidity and mortality are expected to increase in all countries except for Japan and South Korea.

Historical epidemiology of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in select countries - volume 3.

Detailed, country-specific epidemiological data are needed to characterize the burden of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection around the world. With new treatment options available, policy makers and public health officials must reconsider national strategies for infection control. In this study of 15 countries, published and unpublished data on HCV prevalence, viraemia, genotype, age and gender distribution, liver transplants and diagnosis and treatment rates were gathered from the literature and validated by expert consensus in each country.

SP140L, an Evolutionarily Recent Member of the SP100 Family, Is an Autoantigen in Primary Biliary Cirrhosis.

The SP100 family members comprise a set of closely related genes on chromosome 2q37.1. The widely expressed SP100 and the leukocyte-specific proteins SP110 and SP140 have been associated with transcriptional regulation and various human diseases.

The influence of performance-based payment on childhood immunisation coverage.

Background: Pay-for-performance, also called the quality system (QS) in Estonia, was implemented in 2006 and one indicator for achievement is the childhood immunisation coverage rate. The WHO vaccination coverage in Europe for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, and measles in children aged around one year old should meet or exceed 90 per cent.

Methods: The study was conducted using a database from the Estonian Health Insurance Fund.

Costs and resource utilization for diagnosis and treatment during the initial year in a European inflammatory bowel disease inception cohort: an ECCO-EpiCom Study.

Background: No direct comparison of health care cost in patients with inflammatory bowel disease across the European continent exists. The aim of this study was to assess the costs of investigations and treatment for diagnostics and during the first year after diagnosis in Europe.

Methods: The EpiCom cohort is a prospective population-based inception cohort of unselected inflammatory bowel disease patients from 31 Western and Eastern European centers.

The impact of pay-for-performance on the workload of family practices in Estonia.

Background: The quality system in Estonia is a payfor-performance scheme, rewarding family doctors for the quality of care they provide. This study examines the impact of the quality system on the workload of family doctors in Estonia.

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore differences in the workload of family doctors participating in the clinical quality system and those not participating.

Health-related quality of life improves during one year of medical and surgical treatment in a European population-based inception cohort of patients with inflammatory bowel disease--an ECCO-EpiCom study.

Background & Aims: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is impaired in patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The aim was prospectively to assess and validate the pattern of HRQoL in an unselected, population-based inception cohort of IBD patients from Eastern and Western Europe.

Methods: The EpiCom inception cohort consists of 1560 IBD patients from 31 European centres covering a background population of approximately 10.

Health care and patients' education in a European inflammatory bowel disease inception cohort: an ECCO-EpiCom study.

Background And Aims: The EpiCom study and inception cohort was initiated in 2010 in 31 centers from 14 Western and 8 Eastern European countries, covering a 10.1million person background population. Our aim was to investigate whether there is a difference between Eastern and Western Europe in health care and education of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Amino Acid Polymorphisms Within the Entire HCV NS5A Region in Estonian Chronic HCV 1b Patients With Different Treatment Response.

Background: A substantial proportion of hepatitis C virus (HCV)-1b infected patients do not response to pegylated interferon-α plus ribavirin (PegIFNα/RBV) combination therapy that was partially associated with mutations in the non-structural 5A (NS5A) protein.

Objectives: Analysis of NS5A polymorphisms in HCV genotype 1b pre-treatment serum samples from Estonian patients and their effect on the treatment response.

Patients And Methods: Twenty-nine complete NS5A sequences obtained from patients with chronic HCV-1b infection who had received combined therapy with PegIFNα-2a/RBV were analyzed and compared with the prototype strain HCV-J.