Relationship between weather conditions and admissions for ischemic stroke and subarachnoid hemorrhage.

AIM: To assess impacts of different weather conditions on hospitalizations of patients with ischemic strokes and subarachnoid hemorrhages (SAH) in South Florida. METHODS: Diagnostic data of patients with spontaneous SAH and strokes were recorded between June 2010 and July 2013. Daily synchronous forecast charts were collected from the National Weather Service and the whole data were matched prospectively. The incidence rate ratio (IRR) was calculated. RESULTS: Increased incidence rate of ischemic stroke was consistent with the daily lowest and highest air pressure (IRR 1.03, P=0.128 and IRR 0.98, P=0.380, respectively), highest air temperature (IRR 0.99, P=0.375), and presence of hurricanes or storms (IRR 0.65, P=0.054). Increased incidence of SAH cases was consistent with daily lowest and highest air pressure (IRR 0.87, P<0.001 and IRR 1.08, P=0.019, respectively) and highest air temperature (IRR 0.98, P<0.001). Presence of hurricanes and/or tropical storms did not influence the frequency of SAH. We found no relationship between the presence of fronts and the admissions for ischemic stroke or SAH. CONCLUSION: Higher number of ischemic stroke and SAH cases can be expected with the daily lowest and highest air pressure, highest air temperature. Presence of hurricanes or tropical storms increased the risk of ischemic stroke but not the SAH. These findings can help to develop preventive health plans for cerebrovascular diseases.

Decreasing trends in hospitalizations during anti-TNF therapy are associated with time to anti-TNF therapy: Results from two referral centres.

BACKGROUND: Hospitalization is an important outcome measure and a major driver of costs in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. We analysed medical and surgical hospitalization rates and predictors of hospitalization before and during anti-TNF therapy. METHODS: Data from 194 consecutive patients were analysed retrospectively (males, 45.4%, median age at diagnosis, 24.0 years, infliximab/adalimumab: 144/50) in whom anti-TNF therapy was started after January 1, 2008. Total follow-up was 1874 patient-years and 474 patient-years with anti-TNF exposure. RESULTS: Hospitalization rates hospitalization decreased only in Crohn's disease (odds ratio: 0.59, 95% confidence interval: 0.51-0.70, median 2-years' anti-TNF exposure) with a same trend for surgical interventions (p=0.07), but not in ulcerative colitis. Need for hospitalization decreased in Crohn's disease with early (within 3-years from diagnosis, p=0.016 by McNemar test), but not late anti-TNF exposure. At logistic regression analysis complicated disease behaviour (p=0.03), concomitant azathioprine (p=0.02) use, but not anti-TNF type, gender, perianal disease or previous surgeries were associated with the risk of hospitalization during anti-TNF therapy. CONCLUSION: Hospitalization rate decreased significantly in patients with Crohn's disease but not ulcerative colitis after the introduction of anti-TNF therapy and was associated with time to therapy. Complicated disease phenotype and concomitant azathioprine use were additional factors defining the risk of hospitalization.

Work disability and productivity loss in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases in Hungary in the era of biologics.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: To assess work disability (WD) rates in an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) cohort involving patients with Crohn's disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC) cohort and to identify possible clinical or demographic factors associated with WD. To our knowledge, this is the first study from Eastern Europe that has estimated indirect costs in IBD. METHODS: Data from 443 (M/F: 202/241, CD/UC: 260/183, mean age: 35.5 (CD) and 40.5 (UC) years, biological drug exposure 31.2/11.5%) consecutive patients were included. WD data were collected by questionnaire and the work productivity and activity impairment instrument. Disability pension (DP) rates in the general population were retrieved from public databases. RESULTS: The overall DP rate in this IBD population was 32.3%, with partial disability in 24.2%. Of all DP events, 88.8% were directly related to IBD. Overall, full DP was more prevalent in IBD (RR: 1.51, p < 0.001) and CD (RR: 1.74, p < 0.001) but not in UC compared to the general population and also in CD compared to UC (OR 1.57, p = 0.03). RR for full DP was increased only in young CD patients (RR<35 year olds: 9.4; RR36-40 year olds: 9.4 and 5.6, p < 0.01 for both). In CD, age group, previous surgery, disease duration, frequent relapses, and the presence of arthritis/arthralgia were associated with an increased risk for DP. Among employed patients, absenteeism and presenteeism was reported in of 25.9 and 60.3% patients, respectively, leading to a 28% loss of work productivity and a 32% activity loss, and was associated with disease activity and age group. Average cost of productivity loss due to disability and sick leave with a human capital approach was 1,450 and 430 €/patient/year in IBD, respectively (total productivity loss 1,880 €/patient/year), the costs of presenteeism were 2,605 (SD = 2,770) and 2,410 (SD = 2,970) €/patient/year in CD and UC, respectively. CONCLUSION: Risk of DP was highly increased in young CD patients (sixfold to ninefold). Previous surgery and presence of arthritis/arthralgia was identified as risk factors for DP. Work productivity is significantly impaired in IBD and is associated with high productivity loss.

Lack of heritability of exhaled volatile compound pattern: an electronic nose twin study.

Electronic noses can distinguish various disorders by analyzing exhaled volatile organic compound (VOC) pattern; however it is unclear how hereditary and environmental backgrounds affect the exhaled VOC pattern. A twin study enrolling monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins is an ideal tool to separate the influence of these factors on the exhaled breath pattern. Exhaled breath samples were collected in duplicates from 28 never smoking twin pairs (in total 112 samples) without lung diseases and processed with an electronic nose (Cyranose 320). Univariate quantitative hereditary modeling (ACE analysis) adjusted for age and gender was performed to decompose the phenotypic variance of the exhaled volatile compound pattern (assessing principal components (PCs) derived from electronic nose data) into hereditary (A), shared (C), and unshared (E) environmental effects. Exhaled VOC pattern showed good intra-subject reproducibility as assessed with the Bland-Altman plot. Significant correlations were found between exhaled VOC patterns of both MZ and DZ twins. The hereditary background did not influence the VOC pattern. The shared environmental effect on PC 1, 2 and 3 was estimated to be 93%, 94% and 54%, respectively. The unshared (unique) environmental influence explained a smaller variance (7%, 6% and 46%). For the first time using the twin design, we have shown that the environmental background largely affects the exhaled volatile compound pattern in never smoking volunteers without respiratory disorders. Further studies should identify these environmental factors and also assess their influence on exhaled breath patterns in patients with lung diseases.

Levels of anti-double-strained DNA but not antinuclear antibodies are associated with treatment efficacy and adverse outcomes in Crohn's disease patients treated with anti-TNFα.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Treatment of Crohn's disease (CD) by infliximab (IFX) has been associated with the induction of antinuclear (ANA) and anti-double strand DNA (dsDNA) autoantibodies and in some studies the formation of dsDNA antibodies was associated with lupus-like syndromes. The aims of this study were to analyse the relationship between the development of ANA and dsDNA antibodies during anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF)α therapy and the clinical efficacy or adverse outcome in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). METHODS: Data of 96 CD patients (age at presentation: 25.1 years, folow-up: 5 years, males/females 43/53) treated with anti-TNFα for at least one-year were analyzed. Records of a total of 198 one-year treatment cycles were collected and levels of autoantibodies were determined at induction and after one-year treatment periods. RESULTS: The majority of CD patients had ileocolonic (67.4%) and complicated disease (B2-B3: 72.6%) with perianal lesions (63.2%). At any time ANA or dsDNA positivity was 28.6% and 18%. Elevated level of ANA at induction or during anti-TNFα therapy was not associated with treatment efficacy or development of adverse outcomes. In contrast, treatment efficacy (dsDNA positivity no/partial response vs. remission: 68.5% vs. 31.5%, P=0.003) was inferior and adverse outcomes were more frequent in patients with dsDNA positivity during the anti-TNFα therapy in both univariate analysis and in logistic regression models (OR efficacy: 4.91, 95%CI: 1.15-20.8; OR adverse outcome: 3.81,95%CI 1.04-13.9). CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that development of dsDNA during biological therapy may be associated with suboptimal treatment efficacy and adverse outcomes in CD patients.