[Different Prevalences of Pneumological Disease Patterns in Outpatient and Inpatient Care]

BACKGROUND

 Evaluating the focus of treatment in pneumological inpatient and outpatient care is of special interest due to its impact on physician, patient and research. This work describes differences and commonalities in the focus of treatment of current pneumological inpatient and outpatient care and discusses their impact on patient, physician and research.

METHODS

 This study compares the inpatient and outpatient sector based on the prevalence of ICD codes of a pneumological specialist clinic (5.211 cases of 2016) and the most prevalent ICD-10 codes of pneumology practices in the third quarter 2016, published by the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians North Rhine ("Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Nordrhein", 142.431 cases).

RESULTS

 Whereas the proportion of many pneumological disease patterns treated in physicians' practices and hospitals is similar, the relative frequencies of specific diseases differ considerably between the two. Treatment of allergic conditions such as allergic rhinopathy and bronchial asthma is mostly done on an outpatient basis while respiratory insufficiency and lung carcinoma constitute domains of pneumological inpatient care.

CONCLUSION

 Despite many commonalities in the focus of treatment in pneumological inpatient and outpatient care, there are also substantial differences between the two. These affect medical training, the conduct of clinical studies, and in particular, patient care. In order to maintain a high level of medical care in all areas of pneumology a close exchange between inpatient and outpatient sector seems crucial. In the end, the availability of medical expertise across both sectors will benefit all: physicians, patients and medical science.

Transient elastography discloses identical distribution of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C between HIV-negative and HIV-positive patients on HAART

Objective

Progressive immunodeficiency associated with HIV-infection leads to a progressive course of liver disease in HIV/HCV-co-infected patients. Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) efficiently restores and preserves immune functions and has recently been demonstrated to also result in reduced liver-related mortality in HIV/HCV-co-infected patients.

Methods

To analyse differences in current liver fibrosis as a possible effect of HAART on fibrosis progression we assessed hepatic fibrosis by transient elastography in a cross-sectional comparison between HCV-mono-infected and HIV/HCV-co-infected patients presenting at our outpatient department in 2007.

Results

Overall, we did not find any difference in the distribution of liver stiffness between mono- (n = 84) and double-infected (n = 57) patients (14.4 kPa (10.8 - 18.2) versus 12.4 kPa (9.1 - 16.1), mean (95%-CI)). However, in the 8 HIV+ patients with CD4 counts < 200/μl liver stiffness was markedly greater (18.4 kPa (0.8 - 36.0)) than in HIV+ patients with preserved immunity (11.5 kPa (8.4 - 15.0)).

Conclusions

These findings are in line with other data that show an improved prognosis of chronic hepatitis C in HIV+ patients under effective HAART, and may be a hint that fibrosis progression in well-treated HIV+ patients will no longer be different from that in HCV-mono-infected patients.