BACKGROUND When recommending the adoption of a new surgical intervention as opposed to maintaining an old one, surgeons need to consider the opportunity cost, which is the value of the forgone benefits. To inform these decisions, surgeons can use economic analyses of surgical practices. Unfortunately, economic analyses conducted alongside randomized controlled trials in surgery are rare. OBJE...

0.1% Protamine sulphate in normal (0.85% w/v) saline has been used as a diluent in Brucella serology instead of saline as such. The use of protamine sulphate in this concentration has obviated the need for performing the modified Coombs test to detect non-agglutinating Brucella antibodies. This method has been used in the Microbiological Diagnostic Unit of the University of Melbourne in the rou...

Plasma total bilirubin for a 65-year-old man was high [19.1 mg/dL (326 mol/L)] on a Roche cobas 6000 analyzer. However, the specimen was anicteric and the icteric index was 1 (approximately 1 mg/dL or 17 mol/L). A dilution study demonstrated nonlinear results. Direct bilirubin was measured as normal. The split specimen aliquots were further measured on analyzers from 5 different manufacturers (...

■■Quantifying Costs Associated With Atopic Dermatitis Dear Editor, We read with interest the article by Fivenson and colleagues on the total burden of illness associated with atopic dermatitis. The study is important in that it provides a perspective from payer costs to individual productivity. We agree with their conclusion that atopic dermatitis “imposes a financial burden on the health care ...

OBJECTIVES The study's objectives were to observe and describe chemotherapy treatment (CT) used in breast cancer (BC) patients in Spain and estimate its cost. METHODS Multi-centre and transversal study, which included consecutive BC patients treated with chemotherapy between 10 and 15 May 2004 in 110 centres throughout Spain. Information was gathered on the general characteristics of the cent...

Direct luminescence (DL) spectra of 4H Cd12 in the spectral region 1.8-3.4 eV at temperatures between 9.3 and 215 K and thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL) spectra are reported. The DL spectra consist of several overlapping broad emission bands. These bands are due to radiative recombination of localized (trapped) electrons with localized (trapped) holes. With a simple theory, which takes i...

PURPOSE This study evaluates the cost-effectiveness of dynamic graciloplasty for intractable fecal incontinence. PATIENTS AND METHODS The costs and effects of dynamic graciloplasty were measured in a prospective, longitudinal study and in a clinical trial. Forty-three patients with intractable fecal incontinence were evaluated before and after dynamic graciloplasty. Costs were obtained from t...

BACKGROUND Although polyethylene glycol lavage solutions are widely used for colonoscopy preparation, evidence suggests that sodium phosphate is better tolerated and has similar efficacy. The purpose of this study was to compare compliance with and efficacy of polyethylene glycol and sodium phosphate using meta-analysis and to compare the cost of colonoscopy with both methods. METHODS We used...

Background: The economic burden of TB in India is enormous as TB perpetuates and exacerbates poverty. Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) based on DOTS strategy is currently being implemented in India. The purpose of this study is to estimate the costs incurred by tuberculosis patients treated under RNTCP in a district in Tamilnadu where services are decentralized for diagno...

BACKGROUND In low tuberculosis (TB) incidence countries TB affects mostly immigrants in the productive age group. Little empirical information is available about direct and indirect TB-related costs that patients face in these high-income countries. We assessed the direct and indirect costs of immigrants with TB in the Netherlands. METHODS A cross-sectional survey at 14 municipal health servi...