Medical complications during pregnancy and childbirth in women with SCI in Switzerland.

STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective interview study of mothers with spinal cord injuries (SCIs) who gave birth over the last 15 years. OBJECTIVES: To identify the medical complications of women with SCIs during pregnancy and childbirth in Switzerland and to describe how they dealt with these complications. SETTINGS: Swiss Paraplegic Research in Nottwil, the University of Lausanne and participants' homes. METHODS: Data were collected by self-reported questionnaires and descriptive analysis was conducted. RESULTS: Seventeen women with SCIs who gave birth to 23 children were included. Thirteen of the women were paraplegics and four were tetraplegics. All of them practiced an independent bladder management. Three women changed their bladder management techniques during pregnancy. Five women reported an increased bladder evacuation frequency during pregnancy, and six women reported a new onset or increase in incontinence. We observed no significant increase in bowel dysfunction or skin breakdown due to their pregnancies. Ten women were hospitalised during the course of their pregnancies. Aside from urinary tract infections/pyelonephritis, women were hospitalised for falls, hypertension, pneumonia, preeclampsia, pre-term labour or tachycardia. CONCLUSION: The results of our study clearly demonstrated that, although medical complications are not infrequent during pregnancy in women with SCIs, pregnancy and delivery in this group of women are possible without posing intolerable risks to the mothers or the children. Urological problems seemed to be the most frequent complication during pregnancy.

Development of a health index in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (ASAS HI): final result of a global initiative based on the ICF guided by ASAS.

OBJECTIVES: The burden of disease in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) can be considerable. However, no agreement has been reached among expert members of Assessment of SpondyloArthritis International Society (ASAS) to define severity of AS. Based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), a core set of items for AS has been selected to represent the entire spectrum of possible problems in functioning. Based on this, the objective of this study was to develop a tool to quantify health in AS, the ASAS Health Index. METHODS: First, based on a literature search, experts' and patients' opinion, a large item pool covering the categories of the ICF core set was generated. In several steps this item pool was reduced based on reliability, Rasch analysis and consensus building after two cross-sectional surveys to come up with the best fitting items representing most categories of the ICF core set for AS. RESULTS: After the first survey with 1754 patients, the item pool of 251 items was reduced to 82. After selection by an expert committee, 50 items remained which were tested in a second cross-sectional survey. The results were used to reduce the number of items to a final set of 17 items. This selection showed the best reliability and fit to the Rasch model, no residual correlation, and absence of consistent differential item function and a Person Separation Index of 0.82. CONCLUSIONS: In this long sequential study, 17 items which cover most of the ICF core set were identified that showed the best representation of the health status of patients with AS. The ASAS Health Index is a linear composite measure which differs from other measures in the public domain.

Percutaneous coronary intervention vs. optimal medical therapy--the other side of the coin: medication adherence.

WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE: Although many studies have examined medication adherence in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), no prospective trial has compared medication adherence between patients treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or with optimal medical therapy (OMT) in real life. This study sought to compare the adherence to evidence-based secondary preventive medications in patients with documented CAD treated with PCI and OMT, or OMT alone. METHODS: We evaluated adherence to statins, beta-blockers, and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) during a 6-month follow-up in 232 patients with documented CAD, comparing patients treated with PCI and those receiving medical therapy alone. Medication adherence was measured with reference to national reimbursement database records. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Of the 232 patients who survived the 6-month follow-up, the percentages of adherent patients according to prescription records (prespecified primary endpoint) were 53·6% (n = 82) in the PCI group and 33·8% (n = 27) in the OMT group (P = 0·004). Analysis of the individual medication classes revealed similar results for beta-blockers (86·0% in PCI group vs. 72·5% in OMT group, P = 0·006) and statins (64·5% in PCI group vs. 44·0% in OMT group, P = 0·003). Adherence to ACEI was also higher in the PCI group, but the difference was not statistically significant (77·6% vs. 69·3%, P = 0·17). By logistic regression analysis, belonging to the PCI group was an independent predictor of medication adherence [B = 2·20 (1·06-4·50), P = 0·03)]. WHAT IS NEW AND CONCLUSION: In the present study we demonstrated that adherence to evidence-based medication therapies in patients treated with PCI is significantly higher than in patients treated with OMT alone. Medication adherence should be followed carefully in CAD patients treated with OMT.