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Few studies documented incidence rates of different types of stroke among patients with polycystic kidney disease (PKD).

OBJECTIVE--Because of the increasing incidence and prevalence of diabetes as a leading cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the aging population, we estimated the expected life-years (LYs) saved from [...]

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Background This study compared the lifetime costs for peritoneal dialysis (PD) and hemodialysis (HD) patients in Taiwan.Methods Using the National Health Insurance (NHI) database of all end-stage renal disease patients on maintenance dialysis registered from July 1997 to December 2005, we matched eligible PD patients with eligible HD patients on age, sex, and diabetes status. The matched patients were followed until 31 December 2006. Patients were excluded if they were less than 18 years of age, had been diagnosed with cancer before dialysis, or had been dialyzed at centers or clinics other than hospitals. Outcomes—including life expectancy, total lifetime costs, and costs per life-year paid by the NHI—were estimated and compared.Results The 3136 pairs of matched PD and HD patients had a mean age of 53.2 ± 15.4 years. The total lifetime cost for PD patients (US$139 360 ± US$8 336) was significantly lower than that for HD patients (US$185 235 ± US$9 623, p< 0.001). Except for patients with diabetes (who had a short life expectancy), the total lifetime cost was significantly lower for PD patients than for HD patients regardless of sex and age (p< 0.01).Conclusion In Taiwan, the total lifetime costs paid by the NHI were lower for PD than for HD patients.

Procedure-Specific Rates for Needlestick Injuries in Health Care Workers: Lukas Jyuhn-Hsiarn Lee, et al.Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University—To assess the rates of needlestick injuries (NSIs) from different types of injection procedures in health care workers, we conducted a prospective study in a university hospital in Taiwan. NSIs in the departments of internal medicine and surgery were prospectively monitored during July 1994-March 1995. All the injured were interviewed to identify their associated procedures. The corresponding numbers of injection procedures were collected during the study period to estimate the denominator of medical procedures. A total of 81 cases of contaminated NSIs were actively collected over a 9-month period compared with 54 NSIs from a routine self-reporting system. Procedures involving intravenous catheter stylets had the highest needlestick injury rate, 43.5/100,000, followed by blood transfusion and blood drawing, 17.7 and 13.3/100,000, respectively. These rates may aid priority setting to introduce safer needle devices when resources are limited.