Healthcare cost variation in patients with heart failure: a nationwide study.

OBJECTIVE: Heart failure (HF) imposes a major economic burden; however, the individual management for patients varies, potentially leading to large cost heterogeneity. The aim of this study was to investigate the spectrum of health cost by patients with HF and factors associated with high direct health cost. STUDY DESIGN: This was a nationwide, retrospective longitudinal study. METHODS: Using Danish nationwide registries from 2012 to 2015, we identified all patients aged >18 years with a first-time diagnosis of HF. Total health costs were investigated using two perspectives-at index and during 3 years of follow-up. Patients were investigated by decile cost groups. A multivariable logistic regression was used to identify variables associated with being in the highest cost decile compared with the rest (90%). RESULTS: A total of 11,170 patients with HF were included, and those in the highest cost decile (n = 1117, 10%) were younger (69 vs. 75 years), fewer were females (34% vs. 43%), and more were inpatients (83% vs. 70%) compared with the rest of the patients with HF (n = 10,053, 90%). Patients in the highest cost decile (10%) incurred a 30 times higher cost with a mean total health cost in index year of €86,607 compared with €2893 for patients in lowest cost decile (10%). The results were similar for 3 years aggregated (€139,473 vs. €4086), corresponding to a 34 times higher cost. CONCLUSION: In patients with HF, a large total health cost heterogeneity exists with younger age, inpatient admittance, male sex, and comorbidities being associated with a higher likelihood of belonging to the highest cost group.

Myocardial perfusion at rest in patients with Diabetes Mellitus Type 1 compared with healthy controls assessed with Multi Detector Computed Tomography.

AIM: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is associated with an increased risk of ischemic heart disease (IHD). The relative contribution of structural and functional abnormalities of the coronary circulation determining clinically manifested IHD remains unknown. The aim of this study was to assess potential differences in myocardial perfusion at rest and coronary atherosclerosis between asymptomatic T1DM patients and healthy controls. METHODS: Left ventricular (LV) myocardial perfusion at rest measured as LV myocardial Attenuation Density/LV blood pool Attenuation Density (MyoAD-ratio) and coronary artery atherosclerosis were evaluated with 320-multidetector computed tomography angiography in 57 asymptomatic T1DM patients and 114 sex and age matched controls. RESULTS: In both groups median age was 53 years (p5,p95: 42,67) and 59.6% were men. Median duration of diabetes in the T1DM group was 35 years (p5,p95: 17,49). Median coronary calcium score was higher in T1DM patients (51 vs. 2, p=0.037) compared with controls. However, a similar frequency of >50% stenosis in one or more coronary arteries was found in T1DM patients and controls (18% vs. 14%, p=0.49). LV myocardial perfusion at rest (MyoAD-ratio) was 18% higher in T1DM patients than controls (0.13 vs. 0.11, p<0.0001). This difference was noted throughout all the LV myocardial segments. In a multiple regression analysis including diabetes, sex, age, cardiovascular risk factors, heart rate, calcium score and coronary stenosis >50%, MyoAD-ratio remained significantly higher in T1DM patients (p=0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: LV myocardial perfusion at rest is higher in T1DM patients compared with controls independent of coronary atherosclerosis and cardiovascular risk factors.

Cardiovascular safety of combination therapies with incretin-based drugs and metformin compared with a combination of metformin and sulphonylurea in type 2 diabetes mellitus--a retrospective nationwide study.

AIM: Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists are widely used in combinations with metformin in the treatment of type 2 diabetes; however, data on long-term safety compared with conventional combination therapies are limited. METHODS: Danish individuals without prior myocardial infarction or stroke that initiated combinations of metformin with sulphonylurea (SU), DPP-4 inhibitors, GLP-1 agonists or insulin between 9 May 2007 and 31 December 2011 were followed up for the risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular (CV) mortality or a combined end point of myocardial infarction, stroke and CV mortality. Rate ratios (RR) were calculated using time-dependent multivariable Poisson regression analysis. RESULTS: A total of 40 028 patients (59% men, mean age 60 ± 13 years) used metformin with SU (n = 25 092), DPP-4 inhibitor (n = 11 138), GLP-1 agonist (n = 4345) or insulin (n = 6858). Crude incidence rates per 1000 patient years for the combined end point were 18 (SU), 10 (DPP-4 inhibitor), 8 (GLP-1 agonist) and 21 (insulin). In adjusted analyses with metformin + SU as reference, metformin + DPP-4 inhibitor was associated with an RR of 0.65 (0.54-0.80) for mortality, an RR of 0.57 (0.40-0.80) for CV mortality and an RR of 0.70 (0.57-0.85) for the combined end point. For metformin + GLP-1 agonist, the RR for mortality was 0.77 (0.51-1.17), for CV mortality 0.89 (0.47-1.68), and for the combined end point 0.82 (0.55-1.21). CONCLUSION: Incretin-based drugs combined with metformin were safe compared with conventional combinations of glucose-lowering therapy. Use of incretin-based therapy may be target for strategies to lower CV risk in type 2 diabetes, although it should be recognized that the multivariable analysis may not have fully accounted for important baseline differences.

All-cause mortality and cardiovascular effects associated with the DPP-IV inhibitor sitagliptin compared with metformin, a retrospective cohort study on the Danish population.

AIM: We performed a retrospective cohort study, investigating the clinical outcomes including mortality and cardiovascular disease of sitagliptin compared with metformin monotherapies. METHODS: All patients receiving monotherapy with the dipeptidyl peptidase-IV inhibitors (DPP-IV) inhibitor sitagliptin between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2011 were identified. All-cause mortality and a composite endpoint of stroke, acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and all-cause mortality associated with sitagliptin monotherapy were compared with metformin monotherapy. In addition, as an indicator of efficacy we analysed the hazard ratio of changing treatment. RESULTS: A total of 84 756 patients were included in the analysis, 1228 (1.4%) received sitagliptin monotherapy whereas the remaining 83 528 (98.6%) patients received metformin monotherapy. Patients using metformin were younger than patients using sitagliptin (59.0 ± 15.2 vs. 62.5 ± 13.1) were less often male (51.6 vs. 54.2%) and had longer treatment duration with monotherapy (1.8 ± 1.3 vs. 0.9 ± 1.1 years). Compared with patients receiving metformin, patients using sitagliptin showed no statistically significant excess risks of all-cause mortality [hazard ratio, 1.25; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.92-1.71; p = 0.153] or the composite endpoint (hazard ratio, 1.22; 95% CI, 0.92-1.61; p = 0.164). However, the use of sitagliptin monotherapy was associated with an increased likelihood of changing treatment (hazard ratio, 4.88; 95% CI, 4.46-5.35; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: In a retrospective analysis, sitagliptin monotherapy compared with metformin monotherapy was not associated with any statistical significant increased risk of all-cause mortality or the composite endpoint, but was associated with an increased likelihood of changing glucose-lowering treatment.