Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in developed countries. It is estimated that about 15 million people worldwide die every year from heart disease, with a substantial proportion of these deaths occurring in developing nations. Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a condition that...

The growth of specialty medication costs is having a visible impact on the market. These drugs - the products of groundbreaking scientific and technological advances in medicine - offer tremendous promise for the treatment of serious debilitating and life-threatening illnesses; however, the...

Meropenem is a carbapenem antibiotic which is active against the majority of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria implicated in serious infections. Its therapeutic efficacy in a wide range of serious infections is similar to that of imipenem/cilastatin and standard combination drug regimens. Hence,...

The choice of a perspective is among the most critical influences of the potential outcome of an economic evaluation, since it determines whose interest is relevant in any given analysis. For publicly funded programmes such as Medicaid, and now Medicare, it is important that economic evaluations...

Background: Drug expenditures per capita have drastically increased over the last quarter century in Canada, with a share of overall healthcare costs rising from 8.8% in 1980 to 16.8% in 2002. Pressure to curb expenditure on drugs has increased accordingly, but containing drug expenditure might...

Background: Low-dose acetylsalicylic acid (ASA; 75-325 mg) is a mainstay of therapy for patients at high risk of cardiovascular (CV) events. However, in some patients, such treatment is associated with upper gastrointestinal (GI) adverse effects, e.g. dyspeptic symptoms, peptic ulceration, and...

Objective: To assess associations between race/ethnicity and medication adherence, and the potential modifying effects of weight category (normal, overweight, obese) in a community-based sample. Study design and setting: We studied 1355 participants from the CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk...

Diabetic retinopathy is a significant cause of visual loss in developed countries. Data from epidemiological studies and controlled clinical trials have resulted in treatment strategies, which are highly successful in preventing blindness. These strategies involve measures that require both...