ObjectivesPoor adherence is one of the biggest obstacles in therapeutic control of high blood pressure. The objectives of this study were (i) to measure adherence to antihypertensive therapy in a representative sample of the hypertensive Pakistani population and (ii) to investigate the factors associated with adherence in the studied population.Methods and ResultsA cross-sectional study was conducted on a simple random sample of 460 patients at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Karachi, from September 2005–May 2006. Adherence was assessed using the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS), with scores ranging from 0 (non-adherent) to 4 (adherent). In addition to MMAS, patient self-reports about the number of pills taken over a prescribed period were used to estimate adherence as a percentage. AKU Anxiety and Depression Scale (AKU-ADS) was incorporated to find any association between depression and adherence. At a cut-off value of 80%, 77% of the cases were adherent. Upon univariate analyses, increasing age, better awareness and increasing number of pills prescribed significantly improved adherence, while depression showed no association. Significant associations, upon multivariate analyses, included number of drugs that a patient was taking (P<0.02) and whether he/she was taking medication regularly or only for symptomatic relief (P<0.00001).ConclusionsSimilar to what has been reported worldwide, younger age, poor awareness, and symptomatic treatment adversely affected adherence to antihypertensive medication in our population. In contrast, monotherapy reduced adherence, whereas psychosocial factors such as depression showed no association. These findings may be used to identify the subset of population at risk of low adherence who should be targeted for interventions to achieve better blood pressure control and hence prevent complications.
Our results confirm the high biologic aggressiveness of these rare neoplasms; pathologic stage and completeness of resection were demonstrated to be strong prognostic factors, whereas histology did not influence patients outcome.
Tracheobronchial injury is a rare but a potentially high-impact event with significant morbidity and mortality. Common etiologies include blunt or penetrating trauma and iatrogenic injury that might occur during surgery, endotracheal intubation, or bronchoscopy. Early recognition of clinical signs and symptoms can help risk-stratify patients and guide management. In recent years, there has been a paradigm shift in the management of tracheal injury towards minimally invasive modalities, such as endobronchial stent placement. Although there are still some definitive indications for surgery, selected patients who meet traditional surgical criteria as well as those patients who were deemed to be poor surgical candidates can now be managed successfully using minimally invasive techniques. This paradigm shift from surgical to nonsurgical management is promising and should be considered prior to making final management decisions.
The burden of coronary heart disease (CHD) is increasing at a greater rate in South Asia than in any other region globally, but there is little direct evidence about its determinants. The Pakistan Risk of Myocardial Infarction Study (PROMIS) is an epidemiological resource to enable reliable study of genetic, lifestyle and other determinants of CHD in South Asia. By March 2009, PROMIS had recruited over 5,000 cases of first-ever confirmed acute myocardial infarction (MI) and over 5,000 matched controls aged 30-80 years. For each participant, information has been recorded on demographic factors, lifestyle, medical and family history, anthropometry, and a 12-lead
The rapid creation of the ITMIG database demonstrates the feasibility of international collaboration for this rare set of malignancies and attests to the engagement of its membership. This database represents the largest collective data set ever assembled and provides an unprecedented resource for research of these tumors.
Purpose
To determine whether postoperative radiation therapy (PORT) is associated with an overall survival benefit in patients with completely resected Masaoka or Masaoka-Koga stage II and III thymoma.
Patients and Methods
All patients with completely resected (R0) stage II–III thymoma were identified in a large database of the International Thymic Malignancy Interest Group (ITMIG). Clinical, pathologic, treatment, and follow up information were extracted. Overall survival (OS) was the primary endpoint. A univariate analysis using log-rank test and a multivariate Cox model were created to identify factors associated with OS.
Results
In 1263 patients meeting the selection criteria 870 (69%) patients had stage II thymoma. The WHO histologic subtype was A/AB in 360 (30%) and B1/B2/B3 in 827 (70%) patients. PORT was given to 55% (n=689) of patients, 15% (n=180) received chemotherapy, and 10% (n=122) both. The 5- and 10-year OS rates for patients having undergone surgery + PORT were 95% and 86%, respectively, compared to 90% and 79% for patients with surgery alone(p = 0.002). This OS benefit remained significant when separately analyzing patients with stage II (p= 0.02) and stage III thymoma (p=0.0005). On multivariate analysis, earlier stage, younger age, absence of paraneoplastic syndrome and PORT were significantly associated with improved OS.
Conclusions
We observed an OS benefit with the use of PORT in completely resected stage II and III thymoma. In the absence of a randomized trial, this represents the most comprehensive individual patient data analysis and strong evidence in favor of PORT in this patient population.
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