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.     

Community pharmacy services to optimise the use of medications for mental illness: a systematic review

The objective of this systematic review was to evaluate the impact of pharmacist delivered community-based services to optimise the use of medications for mental illness. Twenty-two controlled (randomised and non-randomised) studies of pharmacists' interventions in community and residential aged care settings identified in international scientific literature were included for review. Papers were assessed for study design, service recipient, country of origin, intervention type, number of participating pharmacists, methodological quality and outcome measurement. Three studies showed that pharmacists' medication counselling and treatment monitoring can improve adherence to antidepressant medications among those commencing treatment when calculated using an intention-to-treat analysis. Four trials demonstrated that pharmacist conducted medication reviews may reduce the number of potentially inappropriate medications prescribed to those at high risk of medication misadventure. The results of this review provide some evidence that pharmacists can contribute to optimising the use of medications for mental illness in the community setting. However, more well designed studies are needed to assess the impact of pharmacists as members of community mental health teams and as providers of comprehensive medicines information to people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder     

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.     

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.……     

白介素-10基因多态性与感染性疾病的关系的研究进展

白介素-10(interluekin-10 IL-10)是一种具有抗炎和免疫调节作用的细胞因子。是同型二聚体细胞因子, 属长链细胞因子家族。现已发现B细胞、单核／巨噬细胞、肥大细胞、角化细胞、肝细胞及多种肿瘤细胞均可分泌IL-10。 IL-10通过调节其他细胞因子的作用而起到抗炎和免疫调节作用。我们在这里主要谈一下,IL-10的生物学特点及在IL- 10基因的启动子区域几个位点的基因多态性与感染性疾病的关系的研究进展。