Upsala journal of medical sciences
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Background: Experiences of sexual violence among women can lead to ill health and increase the risk of lifetime co-occurrence of violence. Identifying risk factors and victims facilitates development of effective programmes for treatment and prevention of additional violence. The primary aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and correlates of sexual violence experiences among women seeking care at a family planning unit in Sweden. ⋯ Women with experiences of non-partner sexual violence were more likely to have experiences of intimate partner violence (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Prevalence of sexual violence was high among the respondents. Many women were young when they were exposed to violence, and lifetime co-occurrence of violence was common among women with experiences of non-partner sexual violence.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effects of DAPAgliflozin on CARDiac substrate uptake, myocardial efficiency, and myocardial contractile work in type 2 diabetes patients-a description of the DAPACARD study.
Diabetes increases the risk for cardiovascular (CV) events. It has recently been shown that the use of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors leads to a reduction in CV outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), including mortality and heart failure hospitalization. The exact mechanisms of how SGLT2 inhibitors lead to this CV risk reduction remain incompletely understood. The study of DAPAgliflozin on CARDiac substrate uptake, myocardial efficiency and myocardial contractile work in type 2 diabetes patients (DAPACARD) (NCT03387683) explores the possible effects of dapagliflozin, an SGLT2 inhibitor, on cardiac work, metabolism, and biomarker levels. ⋯ The DAPACARD study is an extensive investigation of cardiac function and metabolism, by advanced imaging with PET and MRI, as well as biomarkers, performed in order to further explore how the SGLT2 inhibitor dapagliflozin could influence cardiovascular outcomes in patients with T2DM.
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High-quality biobanking within routine health services, through the use of existing health-care practices and infrastructure, with respect to safety and integrity of patients in line with the Swedish Biobank Act, enables large-scale collection of biological material at reasonable costs. Complementing the extensive information on myocardial infarction patients from a national registry gives unique opportunities for research focusing on better understanding of cardiovascular disease occurrence and prognosis, developing of new diagnostic methods, and personalized treatments with greater efficacy and fewer side effects.
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High blood pressure is the leading risk factor for premature deaths and a major cost to societies worldwide. Effective blood pressure-lowering drugs are available, but patient adherence to them is low, likely partly due to side effects. To identify patient-specific differences in treatment effects, a repeated cross-over design, where the same treatment contrasts are repeated within each patient, is needed. ⋯ In a double-blind, randomized, repeated cross-over trial, 300 patients with mild hypertension will be treated with four blood pressure-lowering drugs (candesartan, lisinopril, amlodipine, and hydrochlorothiazide) in monotherapy, with two of the drugs repeated for each patient. If the study indicates that there is a potential for precision hypertension care, the most promising predictors of blood pressure and side effect response to the drugs will be explored, as will the potential for development of a biomarker panel to rank the suitability of blood pressure-lowering drug classes for individual patients in terms of anticipated blood pressure effects and side effects, with the ultimate goal to maximize adherence. The study follows a protocol pre-registered at ClinicalTrials.gov with the identifier NCT02774460.
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Clinical endpoint adjudication (CEA) is a standardized process for assessment of safety and efficacy of pharmacologic or device therapies in clinical trials. CEA plays a key role in many large clinical trials with the aim of achieving consistency and accuracy of the study results, by applying independent and blinded evaluation of suspected clinical events reported by investigators. ⋯ New methodologies using national registry data and artificial intelligence may challenge the traditional adjudication strategy and could potentially reduce cost considerably with a similar result. Further research and evidence in this field of clinical trials methodology are essential.