A high proportion of the women received drugs during pregnancy. The pattern of drug use within the Anatomical Therapeutical Chemical (ATC) groups changed, i.e. the amount of broad spectrum antibiotics decreased and the proportion of prescriptions for local use increased. A small proportion of women redeemed prescriptions for more than three different drugs during pregnancy.

The incidence of acute pancreatitis has increased, and in women surpassed that in men in 1999 and 2000. Short-term prognosis has improved.

Background-Several case reports, but only a few studies, have examined the coexistence of coeliac disease and primary biliary cirrhosis. Aim-To estimate the risk of primary biliary cirrhosis in two national cohorts of patients with coeliac disease in Denmark and Sweden. Methods-Through record linkage all Danish patients hospitalised with coeliac disease were followed for possible occurrence of primary biliary cirrhosis from 1 January 1977 until 31 December 1992. All patients hospitalised with coeliac disease in Sweden from 1987 to 1996 were also followed in a separate analysis. Results-A total of 896 patients with coeliac disease were identified in Denmark with a median follow up period of 9.1 years for a total of 8040 person-years at risk. Two cases of primary biliary cirrhosis were observed where 0.07 were expected, giving a standardised incidence ratio of 27.6 (95% confidence interval 2.9 to 133.5). A total of 7735 patients with coeliac disease were identified in Sweden with a median follow up period of 5.1 years for a total of 39 284 person-years at risk. Twenty two people with primary biliary cirrhosis were identified compared with 0.88 expected, giving a standardised incidence ratio of 25.1 (95% confidence interval 15.7 to 37.9). Conclusion-Patients with coeliac disease are at increased risk of having primary biliary cirrhosis. (Gut 1999;44:736-738)

Abstract. Steffensen FH,

Numerous studies and meta-analyses have shown that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for menopausal symptoms increases the risk of developing breast cancer, estimated to be 2.3% for each year of use. The influence of different oestrogen -progestin regimens has still not been fully evaluated. Using longitudinal data from the population-based prescription database of the county of North Jutland, Denmark, and the Danish Cancer Registry, we examined the risk of developing breast cancer in relation to HRT in a cohort of 78 380 women aged 40 -67 years from 1989 to 2002. A total of 1462 cases of breast cancer were identified during a mean follow-up of 10 years. Use of HRT did not increase the risk of breast cancer in women aged 40 -49 years. Restricting the cohort to 48 812 women aged 50 years or more at entry, of whom 15 631 were HRT users, we found an increased risk associated with current use of HRT (relative risk 1.61, 95% confidence interval 1.38 -1.88). The risk increased with increasing duration of use and decreased with time since last HRT prescription, reaching unity after 5 years. No material risk difference was observed among the various HRTregimens. This population-based cohort study provides further confirmation that HRT increases the risk of developing breast cancer in women aged 50 years or more. , 1997). The highest risk estimates were seen for current and recent use of long duration, with the relative risk (RR) for 5 or more years of use being 1.35 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.21 -1.49). More recent studies from Denmark (Tjønneland et al, 2004) and the UK (Million Women Study, 2003) reported RR estimates for current HRT use of 2.22 (95% CI 1.80 -2.75) and 1.66 (95% CI 1.58 -1.75), with evidence of lower breast cancer risk for oestrogen-only HRT compared to combined oestrogen -progestin HRT from these and other observational studies (Magnusson et al, 1999;Stahlberg et al, 2004). US randomised controlled trials have reported RR estimates of 1.30 (95% CI 0.77 -2.19) and 1.26 (95% CI 1.00 -1.59) for combined HRT and 0.77 (95% CI 0.59 -1.00) for unopposed oestrogen (Hulley and Grady, 2004; Women's Health Initiative, 2002. Risk estimates tended to increase with increasing duration of HRT use and to decrease with time since last exposure.We have conducted a study on HRT use in relation to the risk of breast cancer using the population-based prescription database of North Jutland, Denmark, which allows for a complete non-self reported history of HRT exposure, including the specific type, to be derived for every woman in the county.