Do frail, disabled, poor, and very old Medicare beneficiaries have higher hospital charges?

To determine whether basing payments on diagnosis related groups (DRGs) results in mispayment for certain classes of patients, we examined the relation between total Medicare charges per hospitalization and eight beneficiary characteristics (including admission from a nursing home, extreme age, Medicaid enrollment, and disability). We controlled for the hospital in which care was given and the DRG to which the discharge was assigned. The largest effects were that average charges were 6.7% higher for beneficiaries who were disabled before the age of 65 years, and 6.2% higher for patients admitted from a nursing home; charges were 1.5% lower for Medicare beneficiaries who were also enrolled in Medicaid, 3.8% higher for those older than 80 years, and 1.3% lower for those older than 85 years compared with those aged from 80 to 84 years. Because these differences are very small compared with the average variation within DRGs, we conclude that using these beneficiary characteristics in the DRG classification system would only slightly improve DRGs. Medicare's DRG-based payments seem to be substantially equitable with regard to these beneficiary characteristics.     

Clinical evaluation of cefuzonam in pediatrics and a study on the penetration into cerebrospinal fluid

Studies were carried out on the penetration of cefuzonam (L-105, CZON), a new synthetic cephalosporin antibiotic, into cerebrospinal fluid, and on the clinical efficacy against bacterial infections. The results are summarized as follows: Concentrations of CZON in cerebrospinal fluid at 1 hour after intravenous administration of 100 mg/kg in cases of furunculosis of the external canal, encephalitis and mumps meningitis were 0.56 micrograms/ml, 1.44 micrograms/ml and 0.33 micrograms/ml, respectively. Concentrations of CZON in cerebrospinal fluid at 1 hour after intravenous administration of 100 mg/kg in 3 cases of purulent meningitis were 2.80-6.40 micrograms/ml at the acute stage and 0.56-1.45 micrograms/ml even at the recovering stage. Sensitivities of clinically isolated strains to CZON were determined and expressed as MIC. MICs of CZON on Haemophilus influenzae, Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis and Klebsiella pneumoniae were similar to MIC's of cefmenoxime (CMX), and lower than those of cefoperazone (CPZ), cefmetazole (CMZ), cefatiam (CTM) and Cefazolin (CEZ). The MIC of CZON on Staphylococcus aureus was similar to those of CEZ, CMZ and CTM, and lower than those of CMX and CPZ. Clinical responses of CZON were good in 2 cases of purulent meningitis, good in 2 cases of pyothorax, excellent in 1 case of septicemia, excellent in 3 cases of urinary tract infections, excellent in 7 cases and good in 3 cases out of 10 cases of pneumonia. Clinical responses of other diseases were excellent in 4 cases of bronchitis, good in 1 case of furunculosis of the external canal, excellent in 1 case of tonsillitis. No side effects nor abnormal laboratory findings were observed except 2 cases of mild diarrhea out of 24 cases.     

Nitrosation of amines by stimulated macrophages

Rats and mice treated in vivo with Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) synthesize and excrete large quantities of nitrate. Murine peritoneal macrophages, elicited in vivo with thioglycolate and stimulated in vitro with LPS and/or gamma-interferon (IFN), produce copious amounts of nitrate and nitrite. We report here experiments showing N-nitrosamine formation by macrophages immunostimulated in vitro. Macrophage cell lines J774.1, PU5-1.8, WEHI-3 and RAW 264 and freshly isolated macrophages from C3H/He mice were used. Macrophages were cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (pH 7.5) supplemented with calf serum (10%). Supernatant NO2- and NO3- were measured. N-Nitrosamines were extracted with dichloromethane and the extracts analyzed by a gas chromatography--thermal energy analyzer. Cells (1.5 X 10(6)/ml) were incubated with LPS (10 micrograms/ml) and morpholine (15 mM) for 72 h at 37 degrees C. Under these conditions, all of the cell types listed above produced nitrite (40-70 microM) and N-nitrosomorpholine (NMOR; 114-940 nM). LPS was required for both processes, and this effect was enhanced by IFN. Nitrite (150 microM) incubated with morpholine in cell-free medium did not form NMOR nor did cells plus morpholine and NO2-. The rate of NMOR formation in the J774.1 cell line was highest in the middle incubation period (24-36 h) although [NO2-] was highest in the final incubation period (48-72 h). Thus, the cells do not catalyze nitrosamine formation per se, rather the amine traps out a reactive nitrosating species prior to the formation of NO2- and NO3-. These results suggest that immunostimulated macrophages may be capable of nitrosamine formation under physiological conditions.     

Male breast carcinoma. I. A study of the total material reported to the Swedish Cancer Registry 1958-1967 with respect to clinical and histopathologic parameters

During the time period 1958-1967 190 cases of male breast cancer were reported to the Swedish Cancer Registry. The reported cases were thoroughly re-evaluated from the evidence of the clinical records and histopathologic specimens. The material contained 166 cases of histologically verified invasive breast carcinoma which were analyzed with respect to different clinical and histopathologic parameters. In contrast to the rate in females, the breast cancer incidence rate in males did not increase significantly during the period under review, and the age-specific incidence rate did not show a Clemmesen's hook but increased relatively more rapidly at high ages than for female breast carcinoma. The mean age at diagnosis was 4 to 5 years higher in male breast cancer patients than in females. Larger tumours were more frequent among older patients and there was a 5-year shift between the age-distribution curves for small (less than 2 cm) and larger (2-5 cm) tumours. A similar difference was found between pN0 and pN1 tumours. This difference might reflect the progression rate of male breast cancer. The histopathology pattern and distribution of histologic malignancy grades were similar to those in female breast carcinoma with the exception that lobular carcinoma and medullary carcinoma with lymphoid infiltration were lacking in the male material.     

Serum protein electrophoresis patterns in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Clinical and epidemiologic correlations

Serum protein electrophoresis (SPEP) data obtained at diagnosis were available for 98 of 342 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) identified in a population-based case-control epidemiologic study. Patients tested with SPEP at diagnosis were significantly younger, more likely to have lymphadenopathy, and more likely to have had their conditions diagnosed at a university hospital than those not tested. Four categories of electrophoretic patterns were identified: normal (N = 56), hypogammaglobulinemia (N = 28), hypergammaglobulinemia (N = 11), and monoclonal gammopathy (N = 3). A higher proportion of those with hypergammaglobulinemia were black, and patients with hypergammaglobulinemia and monoclonal gammopathy were more likely to die within the first year following diagnosis than patients in the other SPEP groups. No association was found, however, between SPEP pattern and a clinical staging classification for CLL. These findings suggest that SPEP may be a useful adjunct in categorizing possible subtypes of CLL and developing future clinical staging classifications.     

Hepatic conversion of 1-(tetrahydro-2-furanyl)-5-fluorouracil into 5-fluorouracil in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

The pharmacokinetics of 1-(tetrahydro-2-furanyl)-5-fluorouracil (FT) and its conversion into 5-fluorouracil (FUra) in liver tissue were studied in ten patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The plasma concentration of FT after its intravenous injection (dosage: 800 mg) was computerfitted to a bi-exponential function (C = Ae-alpha t + Be-beta t), indicating a two-compartment disposition. The pharmacokinetic parameters did not significantly differ between the five patients with, and the five without cirrhosis of the liver. The plasma concentrations of FUra likewise showed no significant difference between the two groups. The rates of FT degradation in the liver tissue homogenate were similar for four of the patients with cirrhosis (0.10 +/- 0.05 mumol/g liver protein/30 min) and four of those without it (0.13 +/- 0.05). The rates of cytochrome P-450-dependent FUra formation in the microsomal fraction of liver tissue from two patients (1.1 and 1.3 nmol/mg microsomal protein/30 min) were dramatically reduced to less than half of those of two control subjects (2.4 and 2.7). The estimated rates of FUra formation in the soluble fraction (105,000 X g supernatant fraction) from the two patients (0.1 and 0.13 nmol/mg protein/30 min) were almost identical to those from the controls (0.12 and 0.14), suggesting that the rate in the soluble fraction from HCC patients may not be as strongly affected as the rate in the microsomal fraction.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Differences between mentally retarded and nonretarded persons' efficiency of auditory sentence processing

Mentally retarded adolescents and MA-matched nonretarded children participated in three experiments designed to examine differences in language-processing efficiency. A compressed speech technique was used in Experiments 1 and 2. Experiment 3 relied on a sentence-picture verification procedure. Our results suggest that retarded and nonretarded individuals differ in the speed with which they are able to execute the semantic-analytic processes but not necessarily the phonological encoding processes that are involved in auditory language comprehension. In addition, the data suggest a possible group difference in the quality of the semantic representation encoded during sentence processing.