Although risk-factor modification has gained wide acceptance as an effective approach to the prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD), health planners, physicians and patients confront considerable uncertainty over the most appropriate and efficient preventive strategies. Some preventive...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic and lifelong autoimmune disorder that results in significant pain, disability and excess mortality if untreated or inadequately treated. Quality-of-life (QOL) assessments are particularly important in the absence of a cure for RA. Generic and...

Background: Low-dose aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is standard care in patients with a history of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The use of low-dose aspirin in primary prevention is not yet fully established, although meta-analyses and US and European guidelines support its use in people at...

Background: Cost-effectiveness analyses worldwide assume that the price of any single drug increases with inflation. New guidance from the Pharmaceutical Management Agency in New Zealand suggests that, when it is known that a generic drug will be available in the near future, a best estimate of...

Diabetic foot ulcers and infections are common and incur substantial economic burden for society, patients and families. We performed a comprehensive review, on a number of databases, of health economic evaluations of a variety of different prevention, diagnostic and treatment strategies in the...

Objective: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal, degenerative neuromuscular disease characterised by a progressive loss of voluntary motor activity. Recombinant human insulin-like growth factor I (rhIGF-I) has been shown to be useful in treating ALS. The purpose of this study was to...

Opiate dependence imposes a significant economic burden on society in terms of treatment-related costs and prevention services, other healthcare costs, the work absenteeism of patients, productivity loss arising from premature death of patients, costs associated with crime, and social welfare...

Introduction: Immunosuppressive therapy is required to prevent graft rejection. Calcineurin inhibitors such as tacrolimus are paradoxically toxic to the kidney, whereas sirolimus (rapamycin; Rapamune(R)) is not generally associated with the nephrotoxicity of CNIs. The purpose of this study was...