Prevalence and Cost of Managing Paediatric Cardiac Disease in Queensland

Background: There is a paucity of contemporary information regarding the prevalence and related health care expenditure of the most common cardiac conditions in Australian children, including congenital heart disease (CHD). Methods: The 10 most common cardiac conditions managed by Queensland Paediatric Cardiac Service during 2014–2015 were identified from an electronic database: ventricular septal defect (VSD), pulmonary stenosis, aortic stenosis, tetralogy of Fallot, atrioventricular septal defect, transposition, Ebstein's anomaly, long QT syndrome, dilated cardiomyopathy, and rheumatic carditis. Demographic data, clinic attendance, investigational procedures, and therapeutic interventions were extracted from the electronic health records to derive indicative population estimates and direct health care expenditure relating to CHD. Results: A total of 2,519 patients diagnosed with the 10 target conditions were being actively managed, including 456 (18.1%) new-born and 787 prevalent cases (2.5/1,000 population) age

Role of the hepatocyte growth factor gene in refractive error

Objective. Refractive errors such as myopia and hypermetropia are among the leading causes of visual impairment worldwide. Several genetic loci have been associated with myopia but none to date have been reported for hypermetropia. We investigated the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) as a candidate gene influencing these 2 refractive error states. Design. Case-control study. Participants. A total of 551 individuals (193 males, 358 females; mean age, 55.41±12.65 years) including 117 individuals with high myopia ≤ −6.00 diopters (D), 140 individuals with low/moderate myopia (−2.00 to −5.99 D), 148 emmetropic individuals (−0.50 to +0.75 D) and 146 hyperopic individuals (>+2.00 D) were included in the analysis from 3 different Australian population cohorts (The Genes in Myopia Study, the Blue Mountains Eye Study, and the Melbourne Visual impairment project). Methods. Genotyping of 9 tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that encompassed the entire HGF gene and its associated sequences as well as 6 additional SNPs identified through DNA resequencing was undertaken. Main Outcome Measures: Genetic association with refraction. Results. After correction for multiple testing, the SNPs rs12536657 (odds ratio [OR], 5.53; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.14–26.76) and rs5745718 (OR, 2.24; 95% CI, 1.30–3.85) showed significant association with hypermetropia. Whereas the SNPs rs1743 (OR, 2.02; 95% CI, 1.19–3.43; P = .009), rs4732402 (OR, 2.03; 95% CI, 1.23–3.36; P = 0.005), rs12536657 (OR, 2.38; 95% CI, 1.40–4.05; P = 0.001), rs10272030 (OR, 2.22; 95% CI, 1.31–3.75; P = 0.003), and rs9642131 (OR, 2.44; 95% CI, 1.43–4.14; P = 0.001) showed significant association with low/moderate myopia. Conclusions. These findings present the HGF gene as the first gene significantly associated with hypermetropia as well as providing evidence of significant association with myopia in a second ethnic population. In addition, it provides insights into the important biological mechanisms that regulate human ocular development (emmetropization), which are currently poorly understood