Employer and Plan Sponsor Views on Pharmacy Reimbursement.

No funding was received for the writing of this commentary. Stull is employed by Employers Health, which is an employer-founded and employer-led group-purchasing organization with a focus on managing contracts for self-funded plan sponsors with PBMs. It also hosts educational conferences and events for which it receives sponsorships from a variety of health benefit suppliers, including pharmaceutical manufacturers, insurance carriers, PBMs and others.

Eccentric and blood flow restriction exercises in women induce hypertrophy.

Background: The purpose of the study was to assess the mechanical and metabolic effects of eccentric (ECC) resistance training and blood flow restriction (BFR) exercise on the elbow flexors in recreationally trained females.

Methods: Seventeen females (ECC: 30.0±7.

Rectilinear biphasic waveform defibrillation of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Objective: The rectilinear biphasic (RLB) waveform has been shown to effectively defibrillate short-duration ventricular fibrillation (VF) at significantly lower energies than a monophasic damped sine (MDS) waveform. This article reports RLB waveform defibrillation effectiveness for patients presenting in VF during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest when compared with historical MDS effectiveness.

Methods: External RLB defibrillators were deployed in the Omaha Fire Department's emergency medical services (EMS) system.

A phase I/II study of high-dose cyclophosphamide, cisplatin, and thioTEPA followed by autologous bone marrow and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor-primed peripheral-blood progenitor cells in patients with advanced malignancies.

The purpose of the present study was to determine the maximally tolerated dose of thioTEPA given with fixed high-dose cyclophosphamide (CPA) and cisplatin (cDDP) followed by autologous bone marrow (ABM) with or without granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)-primed peripheral-blood progenitor cells (PBPCs) in patients with advanced malignancies. Patients were required to have histologically documented malignancies and adequate renal, hepatic, pulmonary, and cardiac function. CPA was given at 1,875 mg/m2 per day as a 1-h i.

Elevated endogenous serum macrophage colony-stimulating factor in the early stage of fungemia following bone marrow transplantation.

Murine studies have reported elevated serum macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) concentrations in animals inoculated with fungus; however, the human cytokine response to fungemia has not been described. Endogenous M-CSF serum concentrations were measured in 18 autologous bone marrow transplant patients with positive blood fungal cultures. Seventeen of the 18 patients received the same high-dose chemotherapy regimen with autologous hematopoietic support.