Abnormal fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake in benign esophageal leiomyoma

A benign esophageal leiomyoma with abnormally increased fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake on positron emission tomography (PET) was resected thoracoscopically. The tumor, of which the maximum standardized uptake value of the lesion was 4.7, was well defined and 38 mm in diameter. Neither mitotic activity nor degeneration was found histologically; and immunoreactivity for CD34, CD117, MIB-1, and glucose transporter-1 was negative immunohistochemically. A diagnosis of gastrointestinal stromal tumor was ruled out by an oncogenic kinase gene mutation study. This case cautions against PET-dependent evaluation for malignant potential of esophageal submucosal tumors.     

How Should Functionally Equivalent Drugs be Reimbursed?

Statutory reimbursement agencies as well as private insurers throughout member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reimburse the cost of medicines on the basis of criteria that include robust clinical evidence, budget impact analysis, and incremental cost effectiveness. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in the US are no exception to this rule and are, in principle, seeking to maximize benefit for their Medicare enrollees, whilst ensuring reasonable drug outlays for the small number of drugs that they reimburse. This paper provides a retrospective analysis of the way two functionally equivalent drugs are treated for reimbursement purposes by the CMS; the period under consideration was 2001–3. The two drugs, epoetin-α and darbepoetin-α, are used for the treatment of anemia in renal failure and in patients receiving chemotherapy. By reviewing the publicly available pharmacological and clinical data of epoetin-α and darbepoetin-α, the paper confirms the two drugs’ functional equivalence, despite their structural differences. The implications of dose conversion ratios and costs to Medicare are subsequently explored. It is argued that the issue of dose equivalence between epoetin-α and darbepoetin-α has significant implications for patients, practitioners, and payors. A payor’s perspective is adopted in this respect, whereby clinical evidence and pricing data are used simultaneously. Based on the clinical evidence, a dose conversion ratio for epoetin-α:darbepoetin-α is established, which achieves a comparable clinical effect for the two drugs and this is set to be <254IU:1μg. The incremental costs to Medicare are calculated subsequently. The Average Wholesale Price and the Outpatient Prospective Payment System rule that Medicare uses to reimburse providers are used and suggest that treatment of cancer patients with chemotherapy-related anemia with epoetin-α would save Medicare an estimated $US600 million each year. Patients would also benefit significantly in terms of lower co-payments for epoetin-α. The evidence is supportive of the decision made by the CMS to reimburse the two drugs at the rate reflecting the achievement of comparable clinical effects and therefore reducing the pass-through payments for darbepoetin-α to zero for the 2002–3 fiscal year.     

猫颈部食管的交感神经支配—HRP法

用5只猫于左侧颈部食管壁内注入 HRP 溶液,通过 HRP 逆行追踪法研究颈部食管的交感神经支配,结果表明:1.长轴突型交感节前神经元直接分布到食管壁内,其标记细胞位于双侧脊髓的胸1～3节段,以胸2节段最多(占标记细胞总数的66.45％),注射侧占优势。标记细胞主要位于中间带外侧核(约占95.02%),其次为侧索、中介核、前角腹后外侧核。其细胞形态不一,以中小型细胞为主(占标记细胞总数的90.4％)。2.支配颈部食管的交感节后神经元主要位于星状神经节(约占61.99％),余者位于双侧颈前、中和2～5胸交感节内、以小细胞最多。     

激励机制在成人高校部门考核管理中的应用

我院是一所独立设置的成人医学高等学校.为促进学院整体工作的改革与发展,提高学院办学的社会效益和经济效益,提高教学质量,使学院各项工作更加科学化、规范化,2000年开始,根据学院工作重点和各部门工作的实际情况,我校实行了部门工作年度考核评估.在评估考核工作中,注重采用了激励措施,有效地提高了学院整体工作水平和管理干部的质量意识,取得了较好的实效.现介绍如下.……