ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: In July 2000, there was a dramatic change in Korean health care system with the medical reform, the separation system of pharmacies and prescriptions. Before then, patients could easily get antibiotics without doctors' prescriptions. Since the symptoms and signs of infective endocarditis are very nonspecific, prior self treatment with antibiotics before admission was common. This study was performed to determine the changing trends of infective endocarditis according to the change in health care system. METHODS: One hundred eighty eight patients from 8 different medical institutions were included. Medical records were reviewed retrospectively for each patient who was diagnosed as infective endocarditis by Modified Duke criteria. Patients were separated into two different groups (Group I: patients diagnosed before July 2000, Group II: patients diagnosed after November 2000). Clinical characteristics, blood culture positivity, and in-hospital mortality were compared. RESULTS: There was no difference in clinical manifestation between two groups other than malaise. Blood culture positivity was 57.4% in Group I and 71.1% in group II. Blood culture positivity was significantly higher in Group II (p=0.038). In-hospital mortality tends to be lower in Group II, which was 22.3% in group I and 12.9% in group II (p=0.066). The relationship between higher blood culture positivity and lower in-hospital mortality couldn't be clarified. CONCLUSION: There was an increase in blood culture positivity and a tendency to decrease in in-hospital mortality after July, 2000, possibly due to health care reform. This, to my knowledge, is the first effort to investigate the changing trends of an actual clinical disease according to the change in health care system.
Subject(s)
Humans , Anti-Bacterial Agents , Delivery of Health Care , Endocarditis , Health Care Reform , Hospital Mortality , Korea , Medical Records , Pharmacies , Prescriptions , Retrospective StudiesABSTRACT
Chronic infection and inflammation have recently been implicated as important etiologic agents for atherosclerosis in general and, in particular, ischemic heart disease. Several agents have been suggested as possible candidates for the chronic inflammation including cytomegalovirus, Helicobacter pylori and Chlamydia pneumoniae. We hypothesized that a vascular infection with C. pneumoniae may induce a chronic inflammatory reaction in the host vascular tissue and activated inflammatory cells may express inflammatory mediators such as cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). At first, we evaluated the relationship between C. pneumoniae infection and atherosclerosis indirectly by serologic study, and then, to confirm our hypothesis, we performed an immunohistochemical study of atherosclerotic plaques. The seropositive rate of anti-Chlamydia pneumoniae IgG was higher in the disease group (Group I, 59.8%, n = 254) than in the negative control group (Group III, 47.4%, n = 97) (p = 0.041), but the anti-Chlamydia pneumoniae IgA was not different in seropositivity between the two groups (Group I, 64.6%; Group III, 57.7%). The simultaneous seropositive rates of both IgG and IgA were 56.7% in Group I and 43.3% in Group III (p = 0.033). In subgroups without the conventional risk factors of atherosclerosis, these findings were more prominent. Furthermore, we performed immunohistochemical staining on the atherosclerotic aortic tissues obtained from patients that were seropositive to C. pneumoniae (n = 5), by using antibodies to C. pneumoniae, COX-2, and MMP-9. The immunoreactivity for COX-2 and MMP-9 increased in the atherosclerotic plaques itself, predominantly in the surrounding area of immunoreactive C. pneumoniae. These findings support our hypothesis and C. pneumoniae may participate in a pathogenetic mechanism for atherogenesis or progression of atherosclerosis. The present study may open a promising perspective concerning future therapeutic trials of chronic inflammation related atherogenesis under pathophysiological conditions.