IDED Tools and Trends, February, 2001

Newsletter for Economic Development

Tools and Trends, July 2001, Issue 16

Newsletter for Ecnonmic Development

IDED Tools and Trends, January 2002, Issue 17

Newsletter for Economic Development

IDED Tools and Trends, Summer 2002, Issue 20

Newsletter for Ecnonmic Development

IDED Tools and Trends, Fall 2002

Newsletter for Economic Development

IDED Tools and Trends, Fall 2003

Newsletter for Economic Development

IDED Tools and Trends, Summer 2003

Newsletter for Economic Development

IDED Tools and Trends, Spring 2003

Newsletter for Economic Development

Lung cancer mortality in European men: Trends and predictions.

Lung cancer mortality in men from the European Union (EU) peaked in the late 1980s at an age-standardised (world standard population) rate over 53/100,000 and declined subsequently to reach 44/100,000 in the early 2000s. To provide a comprehensive picture of recent trends in male lung cancer mortality in Europe, we analyzed available data from the World Health Organization up to 2009 and predicted future rates to 2015. Lung cancer mortality rates in EU men continued to fall over recent years, to reach a value of 41.1/100,000 in 2005-2009. The fall was similar at all-ages and in middle-aged men (less than 2% per year over most recent years), but was appreciably larger in young men (aged 20-44years, over 5% per year). A favourable trend is thus likely to be maintained in the foreseeable future, although the predicted overall EU rate in 2015 is still over 35/100,000, i.e., higher than the US rate in 2007 (33.7/100,000). Over most recent calendar years, overall male lung cancer rates were around 35-40/100,000 in western Europe, as compared to over 50/100,000 in central and eastern Europe. Within western Europe, lung cancer rates were lower in northern countries such as Sweden, but also Finland and the UK (below 30/100,000), where the tobacco-related epidemic started earlier and rates have long been declining, whereas mortality was high in Belgium (51.6), France (42.3), the Netherlands and Spain (around 43.0), where the epidemic started later but is persisting. Widespread measures for smoking control and cessation in middle-aged European men, i.e., in the generations where smoking prevalence used to be high, would lead to appreciable reductions in male lung cancer mortality in the near future. This is particularly urgent in central and eastern European countries.

Ophtalmologie. Nouvelles tendances dans la chirurgie de la cataracte [Ophthalmology. New trends in cataract surgery].

Cataract surgery is the most frequent surgery performed in the world. Modernization of cataract surgery is a continuous process and recent technological progress have enlarged the spectrum of treatable refractive errors, improved safety of surgery, speed of visual recovery and reduction of complications rate. Thus, during the last years, refractive intraocular lenses such as toric and multifocal IOLS have been introduced in practice, as well as torsional phacoemulsification and corneal microincision. For endophthalmitis prophylaxis, modern management includes intracameral injection of antibiotics. The future of cataract surgery is probably to replace phacoemulsification surgery by laser surgery, which is safer and more reproducible.

Trends in hospital discharges, management and in-hospital mortality from acute myocardial infarction in Switzerland between 1998 and 2008.

BACKGROUND: Since the late nineties, no study has assessed the trends in management and in-hospital outcome of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in Switzerland. Our objective was to fill this gap. METHODS: Swiss hospital discharge database for years 1998 to 2008. AMI was defined as a primary discharge diagnosis code I21 according to the ICD10 classification. Invasive treatments and overall in-hospital mortality were assessed. RESULTS: Overall, 102,729 hospital discharges with a diagnosis of AMI were analyzed. The percentage of hospitalizations with a stay in an Intensive Care Unit decreased from 38.0% in 1998 to 36.2% in 2008 (p for trend < 0.001). Percutaneous revascularizations increased from 6.0% to 39.9% (p for trend < 0.001). Bare stents rose from 1.3% to 16.6% (p for trend < 0.001). Drug eluting stents appeared in 2004 and increased to 23.5% in 2008 (p for trend < 0.001). Coronary artery bypass graft increased from 1.0% to 3.0% (p for trend < 0.001). Circulatory assistance increased from 0.2% to 1.7% (p for trend < 0.001). Among patients managed in a single hospital (not transferred), seven-day and total in-hospital mortality decreased from 8.0% to 7.0% (p for trend < 0.01) and from 11.2% to 10.1%, respectively. These changes were no longer significant after multivariate adjustment for age, gender, region, revascularization procedures and transfer type. After multivariate adjustment, differing trends in revascularization procedures and in in-hospital mortality were found according to the geographical region considered. CONCLUSION: In Switzerland, a steep rise in hospital discharges and in revascularization procedures for AMI occurred between 1998 and 2008. The increase in revascularization procedures could explain the decrease in in-hospital mortality rates.