Essential skills for purchasing — The views of directors of public health andhealth authority chief executives

Since the NHS reforms, health authorities have been purchasing health care and have been advised that publichealth considerations must inform all NHS activities, and that the Director of Public Health must be supported by a team of qualified support staff. This survey of directors of public health and health authority chief executives in England shows the skills currently available to support health authority purchasing, and the perceived importance of this wide range of skills to the purchasing process. Future models of purchasing will need to ensure access by purchasers to public health and multi-disciplinary advice.     

A comparison of histological and immunohistochemical methods for quantifying the pathological lesions of Pick's disease

Counts of Pick bodies (PB), Pick cells (PC), senile plaques (SP) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) were made in the frontal and temporal cortex from patients with Pick's disease (PD). Lesions were stained histologically with hematoxylin and eosin (HE) and the Bielschowsky silver impregnation method and labeled immunohistochemically with antibodies raised to ubiquitin and tau. The greatest numbers of PB were revealed by immunohistochemistry. Counts of PB revealed by ubiquitin and tau were highly positively correlated which suggested that the two antibodies recognized virtually identical populations of PB. The greatest numbers of PC were revealed by HE followed by the anti-ubiquitin antibody. However, the correlation between counts was poor, suggesting that HE and ubiquitin revealed different populations of PC. The greatest numbers of SP and NFT were revealed by the Bielschowsky method indicating the presence of Alzheimer-type lesions not revealed by the immunohistochemistry. In addition, more NFT were revealed by the anti-ubiquitin compared with the anti-tau antibody. The data suggested that in PD: (i) the anti-ubiquitin and anti-tau antibodies were equally effective at labeling PB; (ii) both HE and anti-ubiquitin should be used to quantitate PC; and (iii) the Bielschowsky method should be used to quantitate SP and NFT.     

Quantitative liver function in patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with low-dose methotrexate: a longitudinal study

The objectives were to determine quantitative liver function prospectively in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with low-dose methotrexate (MTX), to search for risk factors for a loss of quantitative liver function and to assess the relationship between quantitative liver function and histological staging. A total of 117 patients with RA (ACR criteria, 85 women, mean age 59 yr) had measurements of galactose elimination capacity (GEC), aminopyrine breath test (ABT) and liver enzymes [aspartate amino transferase (AST), alanine amino transferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (AP), 7-glutamyl transferase (GGT), bile acids, bilirubin, albumin] before treatment with weekly i.m. MTX injections and every year thereafter. In 16 patients, liver biopsies were performed. Before the introduction of MTX, mean GEC was 6.6 mg/min/kg [5th to 95th percentile (5-95 PC) 5.1- 8.5; reference range 6.0-9.1] and mean ABT was 0.80% kg/mmol (5-95 PC 0.42-1.30: reference range 0.6-1.0). During treatment with MTX [mean weekly dose 11.8 mg (5-95 PC 5.4-20.2), mean observation period 3.8 yr (5-95 PC 0.4-6.9)], significant declines of GEC (-0.12 mg/min/kg per year. t = 3.30, P < 0.002) and ABT (-0.06% kg/mmol per year, t = 4.81, P < 0.001) were observed. Negative correlations were found between the annual change in GEC and GEC at baseline (Rs = -0.40, P < 0.0001), and the annual change in ABT and ABT at baseline (Rs = -0.43, P < 0.0001). No correlations were found between the annual change in GEC or ABT and weekly MTX dose, age or percentage of increased liver enzymes, and no effect of a history of alcohol consumption > 30 g/week became evident. Two patients with Roenigk grade III had impaired quantitative liver function, while 14 patients with Roenigk grades I and II exhibited a high variability of GEC and ABT from normal to abnormal values. The continuous declines in GEC and ABT observed deserve attention in patients with prolonged treatment. Patients with a low GEC or ABT at baseline seem not to be at increased risk for a further loss of quantitative liver function. An impaired GEC or ABT does not necessarily concur with hepatic fibrosis on histological examination.      

差示—线性组合导数光谱法测定扑咳灵片中扑尔敏和溴化丙胺太林

本文提出了差示一线性组合导数光谱法用于测定混合组分体系的基本原理和实验方法。并试用本法消除了扑尔敏、溴化丙胺太林、灵芝粉及附加剂之间的相互干扰,从而分别测定了扑咳灵片巾扑尔敏和溴化丙胺太林的含量,其平均回收率分别为100.2±1.49％(CV)和99.89±1.03％(CV)。其精密度、准确度均好。     

Quantitative coronary arteriography: design and validation

The authors assessed the performance of an automatic and rapid coronary quantification method by evaluating its accuracy in a stenosis phantom. Measurements were obtained with a lucite phantom with 2-, 3-, and 4-mm vessel diameters and concentric stenoses of 33%, 50%, 67%, and 75%. Direct digital angiographic images as well as 10 X 10 spot films and 35-mm cine angiography films were acquired with and without structural noise and mask subtraction. The films were digitized with magnification factors of one and two. An interactive analysis program was used to automatically determine the vessel edges with a Gaussian fit to the cross-sectional density profiles perpendicular to the center line of the vessel. Relative changes of the densitometric cross-sectional area along the vessel were used to assess the percentage of stenosis. Densitometric measurements were comparable in both digital and cine angiograms (r = .99 and r = .98, respectively); however, diameter measurements showed a higher variability and were dependent on the amount of magnification applied to the images.