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Strong belief in medication necessity tied to better adherence in RA patients

5 days ago

A strong belief in the necessity of medication is associated with better adherence to oral disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) or prednisone, while higher self-efficacy correlates with poor adherence, in a diverse cohort of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), suggests a study.

PCI vs CABG shows similar rates of mortality but higher target-vessel revascularizations at 10 years

2 days ago

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) displays comparable rates of mortality and serious composite outcomes but a higher rate of target-vessel revascularization at 10 years relative to coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in patients with significant left main coronary artery (LMCA) disease, reports a study. On the other hand, CABG delivers lower mortality and serious composite outcome rates compared with PCI with drug-eluting stents after 5 years.

Apixaban trumps standard treatment in preventing cancer-associated VTE recurrence

Pearl Toh, 4 days ago

Apixaban slashes the risk of recurrent venous thromboembolism (VTE) by 90 percent in cancer patients compared with the low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) dalteparin, with no increase in major bleeding risk, according to the ADAM VTE study presented at ASH 2018.

Entecavir, tenofovir prevent HBV recurrence in liver transplant patients

21 Sep 2018

Monoprophylaxis with entecavir (ETV) or tenofovir (TDF) following a 6-month combination therapy regimen of hepatitis B immunoglobulin (HBIg) and nucleos(t)ide analogues can prevent recurrence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, a recent study has shown.

Researchers followed 77 liver transplant patients, of whom 69 were infected with HBV (group A; median age 53; 80 percent male), while eight were co-infected with HBV and HDV (group B; median age 45 years; 50 percent male). Patients had been receiving HBIg for at least 6 months. After discontinuation, 54 percent were given TDF while 46 percent received ETV.

The median follow-up time after withdrawal from HBIg was 69 and 61 months for groups A and B, respectively. A total of 70 patients showed a progressive drop in serum HB antibodies titres, which reached levels <10 mIU/mL after a median of 4 months. Only seven patients in group A and one in group B had significant antibody levels throughout the study duration.

There were no reported cases of HBV reinfection. Recurrence of HBV antigens were observed in 9 percent (n=6) of group A; no such case was reported for group B.

Overall recurrence was weak, with the median time from discontinuation of HBIg being 18 months. At the time of recurrence, median serum titres for the antibodies and antigens were 0.25 mIU/mL and 0.06 IU/mL, respectively. Only one patient showed significant recurrence titres (35.2 mIU/mL).