BACKGROUND & AIMS: Statin use has been associated with a reduced incidence of colorectal cancer and might also affect survival of patients diagnosed with colon cancer. Statins are believed to inhibit Ras signaling and may also activate the bone morhogenetic protein (BMP) signaling pathway in colorectal cancer cells
PURPOSE: After regulatory restrictions for terfenadine and astemizole in ’90s, only scarce evidence on proarrhythmic potential of antihistamines has been published. We evaluate the risk of ventricular tachyarrhythmia (VA) related to the use of indiidual antihistamines. METHODS: A matched case-control study nested in a cohort of new users of antihistamines was conducted within the EU-funded ARITMO project
BACKGROUND: In 2009 and 2010 medicines regulatory agencies published official safety statements regarding the concomitant use of proton pump inhibitors and clopidogrel. We wanted to investigate a change in prescription behaviour in prevalent gastrorotective drug users (2008-2011). METHODS: Data on drug use were retrieved from the Out-patient Pharmacy Database of the PHARMO Database Network
PURPOSE: To examine the associations between pharmaceutically treated anxiety and depression present in the year prior to breast cancer diagnosis and the risk of incident cardiovascular disease (CVD), while controlling for traditional cardiovascularisk factors and clinical characteristics in a population-based observational study
Beta-blockers have been associated with decreased cancer mortality. However, evidence for lung cancer is sparse and reported beneficial effects might be based on biased analyses. In this so far largest study we investigated the association betweeneta-blocker use and lung cancer survival. Therefore, patients with a lung cancer diagnosis between April 1998 and December 2011 were selected from a database linkage of the Netherlands Cancer Registry and the PHARMO Database Network
BACKGROUND: There are conflicting findings from observational studies of the arrhythrogenic potential of azithromycin. Our aim was to quantify the association between azithromycin use and the risk of ventricular arrhythmia. METHODS: We conducted aested case-control study within a cohort of new antibiotic users identified from a network of 7 population-based health care databases in Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom for the period 1997-2010
AIMS: The aims of the present study were to assess antiplatelet drug use patterns after a first myocardial infarction (MI) and to evaluate the determinants of antiplatelet nonpersistence. METHODS: The present study was conducted in 4690 patients frm the Utrecht Cardiovascular Pharmacogenetics cohort with a first MI between 1986 and 2010, who were followed for a maximum of 10 years
PURPOSE: This study investigates lipid-modifying therapy (LMT) and LDL-C goal attainment in a real-world, high-cardiovascular-risk population in the Netherlands. METHODS: From the PHARMO Database Network, patients aged >/=18 years with an LDL-C meaurement in 2012 (index date) were selected and hierarchically classified into the following mutually exclusive high-cardiovascular-risk categories: familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), recent acute coronary syndrome (ACS), coronary heart disease, ischemicstroke, peripheral arterial disease, and diabetes mellitus
OBJECTIVE: To describe clinical characteristics and cholesterol management of patients with cardiovascular events (CVEs) and/or type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) with high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) > 1.8 mmol/L in the Netherlands. RSEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: From the PHARMO Database Network a cross-sectional cohort was constructed
BACKGROUND: Preclinical studies have demonstrated that propranolol inhibits several pathways involved in breast cancer progression and metastasis. We investigated whether breast cancer patients who used propranolol, or other non-selective beta-blocers, had reduced breast cancer-specific or all-cause mortality in eight European cohorts
