[INTRODUCTION - Basal insulin analogues are essential drugs for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Basal insulin analogues have been shown to reduce the frequency of hypoglycaemia versus NPH insulin, and thus may be beneficial in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Here we present a cost-minimisation analysis of basal insulin analogues, comparing insulin glargine and insulin detemir available in Hungary. METHODS - A literature review was conducted to identify randomized, controlled clinical trials with a duration of 12 weeks or more in which a direct comparison of insulin glargine and insulin detemir was made in patients with type 2 diabetes. In a meta-analysis of the eligible trials, the following endpoints were investigated: metabolic status, body weight, frequency of hypoglycaemia, insulin doses administered and the number of insulin injections required. If a high heterogeneity (I2>75%) was found, meta-regression was performed to identify the underlying reasons. The funder’s perspective was applied in the cost-minimization analysis by taking into account the cost of the drug and of medical devices necessary for its administration, based on the daily number of insulin injections. RESULTS - No further studies were found in addition to those included in a metaanalysis published by The Cochrane Library. On the basis of three eligible studies, insulin detemir was injected more frequently compared with glargine (weighted mean difference: 0.42 95% CI 0.14-0.69 injections/day). High heterogeneity was present in case of two endpoints: the incidence of overall hypoglycaemia per patient-year (I2=83%), and daily basal insulin dose in units per body weight (I2=94%). The reason for the high heterogeneity in hypoglycaemia rates was not identified by meta-regression; however, the difference in insulin doses per body weight was negatively associated with body weight (-0.027 IU/kg per 1 kg, 95%CI: -0.051; -0.004). On the basis of the present meta-analysis and meta-regression, our calculations suggest that treating an average weight (90 kg) patient with type 2 diabetes with insulin glargine would result in an annual cost reduction of 93 452 HUF compared with insulin detemir by employing gross public drug prices. CONCLUSION - On the basis of the available clinical evidence, insulin glargine might be a cost-saving alternative of insulin detemir in an average-weight patient with type 2 diabetes. In an era of scarce resources, the role of therapeutic alternatives offering cost savings with the same efficacy become more important. The generalisability of our conclusions might be influenced by potential differences in the manufacturers’ claw-back rate of detemir vs glargine insulin.]

[Background and purpose - Disease burden of epilepsy in Hungary is underexplored. The aim of our study was to assess the quality of life and costs of adults with epilepsy. Methods - Cross-sectional questionnaire survey was performed in two hospital based outpatient neurology centres involving consecutive patients with epilepsy. Demography, clinical characteristics, health status (EQ-5D) and health care utilisation in the past 12 months were surveyed. Cost calculation was performed from the societal perspective. Results - Altogether 100 patients (women 58%) were involved, their mean age was 37.6 (SD=12.5) years. Disease duration was 15.0 (SD=12.1) years on average and 22 (22%) patients were disability pensioners. The EQ- 5D score was mean 0.83 (SD=0.24) which is significantly lower than the age-matched population norm (p=0.017). Pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression are the most problematic health dimensions. The annual cost per patient was mean 2421 (SD=3249) Euros (679 397 SD=911 783 HUF; conversion: 1 Euro=280.6 HUF), distribution between direct medical, direct non-medical and indirect costs was 33%, 18% or 49%. Patients with seizure in the past 12 months have higher cost on avergare than the asymptomatic subsample (3119 vs. 988 Euros/patient/year; 935 481 vs. 277 209 HUF/patient/year). Conclusion - Adults with epilepsy have significantly worse health status by the EQ-5D than the gender and age matched Hungarian general population. Disease related costs are significant especially in cases with seizure, productivity loss related costs are dominant. Our study provides basic data for clinical and sustainable health care financing decisions.]

Cognitive dysfunction (CD) is a common non-motor symptom of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Alexithy­mia is a still poorly understood neuropsychiatric feature of PD. Cognitive impairment (especially visuospatial dysfunction and executive dysfunction) and alexithymia share com­mon pathology of neuroanatomical structures. We hypo­thesized that there must be a correlation between CD and alexithymia levels considering this relationship of neuroanatomy. Objective – The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between alexithymia and neurocognitive function in patients with PD. Thirty-five patients with PD were included in this study. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale–20 (TAS-20), Geriatric Depression Inventory (GDI) and a detailed neuropsychological evaluation were performed. Higher TAS-20 scores were negatively correlated with Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) similarities test score (r =-0.71, p value 0.02), clock drawing test (CDT) scores (r=-0.72, p=0.02) and verbal fluency (VF) (r=-0.77, p<0.01). Difficulty identifying feelings subscale score was negatively correlated with CDT scores (r=-0.74, p=0.02), VF scores (r=-0.66, p=0.04), visual memory immediate recall (r=-0.74, p=0.01). VF scores were also correlated with difficulty describing feelings (DDF) scores (r=-0.66, p=0.04). There was a reverse relationship bet­ween WAIS similarities and DDF scores (r=-0.70, p=0.02), and externally oriented-thinking (r=-0.77,p<0.01). Executive function Z score was correlated with the mean TAS-20 score (r=-62, p=0.03) and DDF subscale score (r=-0.70, p=0.01) Alexithymia was found to be associated with poorer performance on visuospatial and executive function test results. We also found that alexithymia was significantly correlated with depressive symptoms. Presence of alexithymia should therefore warn the clinicians for co-existing CD.