Effect of a treatment strategy consisting of pravastatin, vitamin E, and homocysteine lowering on arterial compliance and distensibility in patients with mild-to-moderate chronic kidney disease.

BACKGROUND: Arterial stiffness is increased in chronic kidney disease (CKD). Intervention studies aimed at reduction of arterial stiffness in dialysis patients have been disappointing. We therefore investigated the effect of pravastatin, vitamin E, and homocysteine lowering on arterial compliance and distensibility coefficients in mild-to-moderate CKD. METHODS: This is a sub-study of the ATIC study, a randomized, double-blind trial in 93 CKD patients. The treatment group received pravastatin to which vitamin E supplementation was added after 6 months and homocysteine lowering therapy after another 6 months. Measurement of the distensibility coefficient (DC) and the compliance coefficient (CC) of the common carotid (CCA), femoral (FA) and brachial artery (BA) was performed at 0, 6, 12, 18 months. Young's elastic modulus (YEM) was measured in the common carotid artery. RESULTS: After 18 months, CCA-DC increased from mean (SD) 15.15 (6.67) to 16.52 (6.37) × 10-3kPa-1 in the treatment and decreased from 18.44 (8.19) to 16.26 (7.35) in the placebo group (p = 0.057). CCA-CC increased from 0.64 (0.24) to 0.71 (0.26) mm2kPa-1 in the treatment and decreased from 0.77 (0.28) to 0.69 (0.25) in the placebo group (p < 0.0001). FA-DC had increased from 6.64 (3.45) to 11.46 (6.83) in the treatment group, and from 6.46 (2.85) to 7.08 (2.73) in the placebo group (p = 0.0001). FA-CC had increased from 0.46 (0.24) to 0.74 (0.44) in the treatment group, and from 0.48 (0.27) to 0.53 (0.21) in the placebo group (p = 0.008). BA-DC and CC, and CCA YEM were not significantly different between the groups. CONCLUSION: In patients with mild-to-moderate CKD, 18 months of treatment consisting of pravastatin, vitamin E and homocysteine lowering resulted in significant improvement of compliance and distensibility in CCA and FA. Since pravastatin was used throughout the observation period, it remains unclear whether the beneficial effects are attributable solely to the ongoing effect of pravastatin treatment, or if the additional interventions further slowed the progression of vascular stiffness. Therefore, larger studies with a longer period of follow-up observing the separate effects are needed.

How to save costs by reducing unnecessary testing: lean thinking in clinical practice.

BACKGROUND: The burden of health care expenditure on national budgets has increased dramatically over the past decade. A pilot study in our hospital demonstrated that many unnecessary diagnostic tests were performed routinely. The aim of this study was to reduce the costs of unnecessary diagnostic tests. METHODS: All diagnostic costs between 2006 and 2008 of the internal medicine department of the VU University Centre were evaluated. A target was set to reduce diagnostic expenditure by 7.5% in 2009 compared to 2008. A few interventions were introduced including introducing posters and pocket cards detailing the costs of diagnostic tests, six weekly feedback on diagnostics costs, mentorship of junior doctors, unbundling panel tests and increasing protocol adherence. Main outcome measures were the reduction in the total diagnostic costs and the total number of laboratory tests performed in the internal medicine department in 2009. RESULTS: In 2009, we achieved a 13% reduction in the total diagnostic costs compared to 2008. The department of internal medicine spent 2.80 million euro and 2.45 million euro on the diagnostic tests in 2008 and 2009 respectively and thereby saved 350.000 euro in 2009. The largest reduction was achieved by reducing the number of laboratory tests performed. CONCLUSION: Introduction of a few simple measures to improve awareness among the physicians led to a significant reduction in the diagnostic costs in the department of internal medicine. Extending these measures to the entire hospital and even entire country will in our opinion lead to significant reduction in the health care costs.

Idiopathic granulomatous mastitis: a great imitator?

The patient in this case was seen by numerous doctors for a long time before the diagnosis was made because, right from the start, an abscess or a cancer of the breast was suspected. She was first seen by her general practitioner (GP); thereafter, she went to two consultant physicians and a surgeon in a regional hospital and eventually an idiopathic granulomatous mastitis (IGM) diagnosis was made by a specialist in internal medicine in a university hospital. When the diagnosis IGM was made, the patient was treated with steroids and made a complete recovery. Although the incidence of IGM is not high, the GPs are likely to see these patients initially and should be aware of the existence of this disease, which may spare the patient unnecessary consultations, diagnostics tests or even mastectomy.