Internal medicine journal
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Internal medicine journal · Jun 2009
MODELING COST-EFFECTIVENESS OF HIGH DOSE CHEMOTHERAPY AS TREATMENT FOR RELAPSED AGGRESSIVE NON-HODGKIN'S LYMPHOMA IN AN AUSTRALIAN SETTING.
Background: Since 1995 patients with relapsed aggressive non Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) have been treated with high dose chemotherapy (HDC) instead of standard dose chemotherapy (SC) because of superior survival demonstrated in the "Parma study". As HDC involves hospital admission and intensive supportive care, the cost of HDC would be predicted to be higher than for SC. The aim of this study was to calculate the Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio (ICER) for HDC compared to SC using Australian costs. ⋯ The ICER was calculated according to formula: Incremental Cost / Incremental Benefit = (Costs(HDC)-Costs(SDC)) / (AUC(HDC)-AUC(SDC)). Results: Cost for HDC and SC were $AU37,490 and $AU33,360 respectively, and the AUC(0-infinity) were 4.09 and 3.5 patient life years respectively giving an ICER of $AU7,070 per discounted life year gained. Conclusion Compared to published studies in multiple myeloma and solid organ transplant these results support HDC as a cost-effective treatment in relapsed aggressive NHL.
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Internal medicine journal · Jun 2009
Comparative StudyComparison of the MMSE and RUDAS cognitive screening tools in an elderly inpatient population in everyday clinical use.
We compared test score and performance times of Folstein's Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS). Forty-six patients were recruited. The mean score was 20.6 for the MMSE and 20.5 for the RUDAS. ⋯ Surveyed clinicians preferred the MMSE because of greater familiarity. We concluded that the RUDAS correlates well with the MMSE and is no more time-consuming to perform. It has good clinical utility as a cognitive screening tool.