BackgroundRecommendations regarding cancer screening vary from country to country, and may also vary within countries depending on the organization making the recommendations. The goal of this study was to summarize the cancer screening recommendations from the 21 countries with the highest per capita spending on healthcare.Main bodyCancer screening guidelines were identified for each country based on a review of the medical literature, internet searches, and contact with key informants in most countries. The highest level recommendation was identified for each country, in the order of national recommendation, cancer society recommendation, or medical specialty society recommendation. Breast cancer screening recommendations were generally consistent across countries, most commonly recommending mammography biennially from ages 50 to 69 or 70 years. In the USA, specialty societies generally offered more intensive screening recommendations. All countries also recommend cervical cancer screening, although there is some heterogeneity regarding the test (cytology or HPV or both) and the age of initiation and screening interval. Most countries recommend colorectal cancer screening using fecal immunochemical (FIT) testing, while only seven countries recommend general or selective screening for prostate cancer, and a similar number explicitly recommend against screening for prostate cancer. Screening for lung and skin cancer is only recommended by a few countries. Greater per capita healthcare expenditures are not associated with greater screening intensity, with the possible exception of prostate cancer.ConclusionsGuidelines for cancer screening differ between countries, with areas of commonality but also clear differences. Recommendations have important commonalities for well-established cancer screening programs such as breast and cervical cancer, with greater variation between countries regarding prostate, colorectal, lung, and skin cancer screening. Ideally, recommendations should be made by a professionally diverse, independent panel of experts that make evidence-based recommendations regarding screening based on the benefits, harms, and available resources in that country’s context.

PURPOSE Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), acute cough, bronchitis, and lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) are often caused by infections with viruses or Streptococcus pneumoniae. The prevalence of atypical pathogens Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Chlamydophila pneumoniae, Legionella pneumophila, and Bordetella pertussis among patients with these illnesses in the ambulatory setting has not been previously summarized. We set out to derive prevalence information from the existing literature. METHODSWe performed a systematic review of MEDLINE for prospective, consecutive-series studies reporting the prevalence of M pneumoniae, C pneumoniae, L pneumophila and/or B pertussis in outpatients with cough, acute bronchitis, LRTI, or CAP. Articles were independently reviewed by 2 authors for inclusion and abstraction of data; discrepancies were resolved by consensus discussion. A meta-analysis was performed on each pathogen to calculate the pooled prevalence estimates using a random effects model of raw proportions.RESULTS Fifty studies met our inclusion criteria. While calculated heterogeneity was high, most studies reported prevalence for each pathogen within a fairly narrow range. In patients with CAP, the overall prevalences of M pneumoniae and C pneumoniae were 10.1% (95% CI, 7.1%-13.1%) and 3.5% (95% CI, 2.2%-4.9%), respectively. Consistent with previous reports, M pneumoniae prevalence peaked in roughly 6-year intervals. Overall prevalence of L pneumophila was 2.7% (95% CI, 2.0%-3.4%), but the organism was rare in children, with only 1 case in 1,765. In patients with prolonged cough in primary care, the prevalence of B pertussis was 12.4% (95% CI, 4.9%-19.8%), although it was higher in studies that included only children (17.6%; 95% CI, 3.4%-31.8%).CONCLUSIONS Atypical bacterial pathogens are relatively common causes of lower respiratory diseases, including cough, bronchitis, and CAP. Where surveillance data were available, we found higher prevalences in studies where all patients are tested for these pathogens. It is likely that these conditions are underreported, underdiagnosed, and undertreated in current clinical practice.

Background: Before October 2015, pregnancy cohorts assembled from US health insurance claims have relied on medical encounters with International Classification of Diseases-ninth revision-clinical modification (ICD-9-CM) codes. We aimed to extend existing pregnancy identification algorithms into the ICD-10-CM era and evaluate performance. Methods: We used national private insurance claims data (2005-2018) to develop and test a pregnancy identification algorithm. We considered validated ICD-9-CM diagnosis and procedure codes that identify medical encounters for live birth, stillbirth, ectopic pregnancy, abortions, and prenatal screening to identify pregnancies. We then mapped these codes to the ICD-10-CM system using general equivalent mapping tools and reconciled outputs with literature and expert opinion. Both versions were applied to the respective coding period to identify pregnancies. We required 45 weeks of health plan enrollment from estimated conception to ensure the capture of all pregnancy endpoints. Results: We identified 7,060,675 pregnancy episodes, of which 50.1% met insurance enrollment requirements. Live-born deliveries comprised the majority (76.5%) of episodes, followed by abortions (20.3%). The annual prevalence for all pregnancy types was stable across the ICD transition period except for postterm pregnancies, which increased from 0.5% to 3.4%. We observed that ICD codes indicating gestational age were available for 86.8% of live-born deliveries in the ICD-10 era compared to 23.5% in the ICD-9 era. Patterns of prenatal tests remained stable across the transition period. Conclusion: Translation of existing ICD-9-CM pregnancy algorithms into ICD-10-CM codes provided reasonable consistency in identifying pregnancy episodes across the ICD transition period. New codes for gestational age can potentially improve the precision of conception estimates and minimize measurement biases.

Background Studies have demonstrated increased risk of major atherothrombotic events in CYP2C19 loss‐of‐function (LOF) variant carriers versus non‐carriers treated with clopidogrel after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). We sought to evaluate real‐world outcomes with the clinical implementation of CYP2C19 ‐guided antiplatelet therapy after PCI. Methods and Results Data from 9 medical centers where genotyping was performed in the setting of PCI were included. Alternative therapy with prasugrel or ticagrelor was recommended for patients with a CYP2C19 LOF variant. The primary outcome was the composite of major atherothrombotic events (all‐cause death, myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, stent thrombosis, or hospitalization for unstable angina) within 12 months following PCI. Moderate or severe/life‐threatening bleeding within 12 months was a secondary outcome. Among 3342 patients, 1032 (31%) were LOF carriers, of whom 571/1032 (55%) were treated with alternative therapy. In LOF carriers, the rate of major atherothrombotic events was lower in patients treated with alternative therapy versus clopidogrel (adjusted HR, 0.56; 95% CI 0.39–0.82). In those without a LOF allele, no difference was observed (adjusted HR, 1.07; 95% CI 0.71–1.60). There was no difference in bleeding with alternative therapy versus clopidogrel in either LOF carriers or those without a LOF allele. Conclusions Real‐world data demonstrate lower atherothrombotic risk in CYP2C19 LOF carriers treated with alternative therapy versus clopidogrel and similar risk in those without a LOF allele treated with clopidogrel or alternative therapy. These data suggest that PCI patients treated with clopidogrel should undergo genotyping so that CYP2C19 LOF carriers can be identified and treated with alternative therapy.

The very few studies that have examined the association between vaginal douching and genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection have found contrary results. We investigated the associations between douching and numbers of HPV genotypes infecting 1271 participants aged 20-49 years in the 2003-2004 US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. After controlling for relevant covariates, douching in the past 6 months was significantly associated with infection by higher numbers of all genital HPV types (relative risk ratio, 1.26; 95% confidence interval, 1.03-1.54) and HPV high-risk types (1.40; 1.09-1.80).

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Background: Chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine (chloroquine) plus azithromycin is considered as therapy for COVID-19. With benefit evaluations underway, safety concerns due to potential additive effects on QTc prolongation should be addressed. Objective: We compared risk of cardiac adverse events between combinations of chloroquine and azithromycin and chloroquine and amoxicillin. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the IBM MarketScan Commercial Claims and Medicare Supplemental Databases, 2005-2018. We included autoimmune disease patients aged ≥18 years initiating azithromycin or amoxicillin for ≥5 days during chloroquine treatment. Patients had continuous insurance coverage ≥6 months before combination use until 5 days thereafter or inpatient death. Two outcomes were sudden cardiac arrest/ventricular arrhythmias (SCA/VA) and cardiac symptoms. We followed patients for up to 5 days to estimate hazard ratios (HR). Covariates were adjusted using stabilized inverse probability treatment weighting. Results: We identified two SVC/VA events among > 145,000 combination users. The adjusted incidence of cardiac symptoms among azithromycin and amoxicillin users was 276 vs 254 per 10,000 person-years with an adjusted HR of 1.10 (95%CI, 0.62-1.95). Conclusion: Combination use of chloroquine and azithromycin at routine doses did not show pronounced increases in arrhythmias in this real-world population, though small sample size and outcome rates limit conclusions.

Concerns about the effects of propranolol on the central nervous system (CNS) in the infantile hemangioma (IH) population have been raised. We conducted a meta-analysis of the CNS and sleep-related effects of oral propranolol in IH patients. PubMed, Embase, Cochrance, Web of Science, and Clinicaltrials.gov were searched for relevant studies. We included clinical trials that compared oral propranolol with other treatments among IH patients under 6 years old and monitored and reported any adverse events. Study characteristics, types and number of adverse events were abstracted. Cochrane Collaboration Risk of Bias Tool was used to assess risk of bias. Our main outcomes were CNS and sleep-related effects. Random-effects models were used to estimate the pooled risk ratio. We did not observe statistically significant associations between oral propranolol and CNS or sleep-related effects. Oral propranolol appeared to have a safer profile of CNS effects than corticosteroids (RR = 0.27, 95% CI 0.02–3.00), but had an increased risk versus non-corticosteroids (for CNS effect, RR = 1.40, 95% CI 0.86–2.27; for sleep-related effects, RR = 1.63, 95% CI 0.88–3.03). Despite no statistically significant associations, there were suggestive findings of increased CNS effects and sleep-related risk of propranolol versus non-corticosteroids. In practice, CNS and sleep-related events should be monitored more closely among IH patients treated with oral propranolol.