Cardiovascular diseases

Dopamine agonists and ischemic complications in Parkinson’s disease: a nested case-control study

BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that ergoline dopamine agonists can cause ischemic complications. The effect of dopamine agonists in general on the prevalence of ischemic events in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) has not been studied. OBJETIVE: Our aim was to investigate the association between the use of dopamine agonists and hospitalization due to ischemic events in patients with PD

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Venous thromboembolism prophylaxis after total knee or hip replacement: treatment pattern and outcomes

PURPOSE: To determine the thromboprophylactic treatment pattern and occurrence of venous thromboembolism (VTE), major bleeding, and wound infections in patients undergoing total knee replacement (TKR) or total hip replacement (THR). METHODS: From te PHARMO database, all patients >/= 18 years hospitalized for TKR or THR between January 2003 and September 2008 were selected

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Genetic variability within the cholesterol lowering pathway and the effectiveness of statins in reducing the risk of MI

Genetic variability has been shown to affect statin responsiveness. Participants from the Utrecht Cardiovascular Pharmacogenetics (UCP) studies were enrolled from a population-based registry of pharmacy records linked to hospital discharge recordsPHARMO) to investigate tagging SNPs within candidate genes involved in the cholesterol lowering pathway for modification of the effectiveness of statins in reducing the risk of myocardial infarction (MI)

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Myocardial infarction, ischaemic stroke and pulmonary embolism before and after breast cancer hospitalisation. A population-based study

We studied the occurrence of myocardial infarction (MI), ischaemic stroke (IS) and pulmonary embolism (PE) before and after breast cancer hospitalisation compared with cancer-free controls. For this, women with a first breast cancer hospitalisationduring 2000-2007 were selected from the PHARMO Record Linkage System, including drug use and hospitalisations of three million inhabitants in the Netherlands, and matched 1:10 by age to cancer-free women

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Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and risk of pulmonary embolism

PURPOSE: Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have been associated with an increased risk of arterial thrombosis, but their effect on venous thrombotic events is less well established. The study aimed to assess the risk of symptomatic pulonary embolism (PE) in patients using NSAIDs and to evaluate any effect of type, dose, and duration of therapy

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Estimates of statin discontinuation rates are influenced by exposure and outcome definitions

BACKGROUND: Estimates of statin discontinuation rates are generally high but show large variations. Discontinuation rates are possibly influenced by unrecognized supplies from previous prescriptions and the operational definitions of statin discontnuation. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether the outcome (discontinuation) was affected by (1) the operational definition used to calculate statin exposure and (2) the operational definition and different cutoff values used to calculate discontinuation

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Time-trends in treatment and cardiovascular events in patients with heart failure: a pharmacosurveillance study

AIMS: We assessed, in patients with a first hospitalization for heart failure (HF), the temporal relationship of the incidence of cardiovascular events, all-cause mortality, and cardiovascular drug treatment. METHODS AND RESULTS: Data were obtainedfrom the PHARMO Record Linkage System, a population-based registry of pharmacy records linked with hospital discharge records in The Netherlands

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Non-selective vs. selective beta-blocker treatment and the risk of thrombo-embolic events in patients with heart failure

AIMS: Heart failure (HF) is associated with a prothrombotic state, resulting in an increased risk for thrombo-embolic events. Studies suggest a reduced prothrombotic state when non-selective beta-blockers relative to selective beta-blockers are givn. We studied the influence of non-selective beta-blockers compared with selective beta-blockers on the occurrence of arterial and venous thrombo-embolic events in patients with HF

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Risk of recurrent myocardial infarction with the concomitant use of clopidogrel and proton pump inhibitors

BACKGROUND: The association between myocardial infarction (MI) and co-administration of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and clopidogrel remains controversial. AIM: To quantify the association between concomitant use of PPIs and clopidogrel and occurrnce of recurrent MI. METHODS: We conducted a case-control study within a cohort of acute MI patients in PHARMO Record Linkage System (1999-2008)

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