Introduction: Hepatitis B is an important public health problem in the world and one of the forms of contagion would be through vertical transmission. Precose diagnosis allows the adoption of prophylaxis measures, which results in prevention in more than 90% of cases. Objective: To describe the prevalences of vertical transmission and compare two generations (mother/patient and patient/child). Method: This was a cross-sectional study, which included 101 patients. The interviews were performed through the application of the instrument of data collection and information of the physical file before the medical consultation. Results: The mean ± SD of age was 50.9 ± 13.1 years, the male gender predominated, with 56.4% of the patients, and the predominance was white, with 43.6%. Vertical transmission between mother and patient occurred in 17.8% and between patient and child, in 7.9%. In all of the eight cases of vertical transmission, the diagnosis was after the birth of children infected with HBV, and in 3/8 (37.5%), there was more than one case of infection by this mechanism per patient, totaling 13 children with the disease. Conclusion: There was a reduction in vertical transmission, showing that preventive measures were effective.
Background
Health care costs are growing faster than the rest of the global economy, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Countries’ health expenditures include paying for general medicine, diagnostic procedures, hospitalizations and surgeries, as well as medications and prescribed treatment. Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is a rare autoimmune liver disease and the first line available treatment is ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), however, direct and indirect treatment costs are expensive. Main aim of this trial was to assess if the therapeutic efficacy of UDCA manufactured by the university hospital is equivalent to that of standard UDCA and treatment cost reduction in patients with PBC.
Methods
It is a prospective, interventional, randomized, and crossover study in patients diagnosed with PBC. UDCA 300 mg tablets and capsules were developed and manufactured by the university hospital. Thirty patients under treatment with standard UDCA, in stable doses were randomized in sequence A and B, 15 patients in each arm. The groups were treated for 12 weeks and after, the UDCA formulation was changed, following for another 12 weeks of continuous therapy (tablets and capsules / capsules and tablets). Laboratory tests were performed at time T0 (beginning of treatment), T1 (at the 12 week-therapy, before the crossing-over) and T2 (end of treatment). The evaluation was done by comparing the hepatic parameters ALP, GGT, ALT, AST and total bilirubin, also considering the adverse events. The comparison of costs was based on price of the manufactured UDCA and standard UDCA price of the hospital.
Results
Hospital reduced 66.1% the PBC treatment costs using manufactured UDCA. There were no differences in the biochemical parameters between sequence (A and B) and tablets or capsules of UDCA formulations applied in the treatment of PBC.
Conclusions
The study showed that there was no significant difference between manufactured UDCA (capsule and tablet) and standard UDCA. Hospital reduced the PBC treatment costs using the manufactured UDCA by the university hospital.
Trial registration
ClinicalTrials.gov:
NCT03489889
retrospectively registered on January 12th, 2018; Ethics Committee approved the study (ID: 1.790.088) on October 25th, 2016.
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