AUTHORS REPLY
Year : 2014  |  Volume : 46  |  Issue : 4  |  Page : 460-462

Author's Reply

Abdulbari Bener¹, Muzeyyen Dogan², Lolwa Barakat³, Abdulla O.A.A. Al-Hamaq^4
1 Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, Hamad Medical Corporation and, Departments of Public Health and Medical Education, Weill Cornell Medical College, Doha, Qatar
² Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Arts and Science, Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey
³ Clinical Pharmacy, Hamad General Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar
⁴ Diabetes and Health Education, Qatar Diabetic Association, and Qatar Foundation, Doha, Qatar

Correspondence Address:
Abdulbari Bener
Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, Hamad Medical Corporation and, Departments of Public Health and Medical Education, Weill Cornell Medical College, Doha
Qatar

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None

Check

1. This study is a cohort observational population-based study conducted at Hamad Medical Hospital and PHC Centre. ^[1] A total of 1,542 consecutive diabetes patients who were diagnosed with dyslipidemia and prescribed any of the indicated statins between January 2007 and September 2013 were included in the study. Since the study is based on cohort time interval and subjects who met and satisfied inclusion and exclusion criteria, there is no need for the sample size
2. We do agree with the reader that there are typographical errors in the Results section. The third paragraph should read as: "Atorvastatin reduced LDL-C the most at a dose of 40 mg (15.9%) and atorvastatin reduced LDL-C the most at a dose of 20 mg (21.2%)," which is very clear and correct, as mentioned in [Table 1] of the published article
3. As can be observed from the title of [Figure 1]b stated as, "Number of patients with no microalbuminuria at baseline but developed it after 2 years". Meanwhile, in the Results section the content and term has been used correctly; therefore, it is very obvious that the footnote of the graph incorrectly mentions microalbuminia instead of microalbuminuria. In fact, this typographical errors ocurred while using Excel Computer Software for graphical purposes
4. It is true that we have solely mentioned the acquisition cost of rosuvastatin when compared to atorvastatin, which was available. We agree with the reader that a cost-effective analysis with the calculation of the incremental cost effectiveness ratio would have been much more appropriate and insightful; however, it was not main objective of this study.

Table 1: Comparison of the effi cacy of various statins in different doses (10, 20, and 40 mg) Click here to view

Figure 1: (a) Rosuvastatin versus other statins, (b) Comparison of patients with pre- and posttreatment microalbuminuria at the end of 2 years Click here to view

» References

1.	Bener A, Dogan M, Barakat L, Al-Hamaq AO. Comparison of efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of various statins in dyslipidemic diabetic patients. Indian J Pharmacol 2014;46:88-93.   [PUBMED]