Quality of care and attributable healthcare costs in diabetic hypertensive patients initiated on calcium antagonist therapy.

Background And Objective: Calcium antagonists (CAs) from two classes - dihydropyridine and non-dihydropyridine (DCAs and NDCAs, respectively) - are important add-on agents in goal blood pressure (BP) attainment. This study compared drug regimens to which DCAs or NDCAs had been added; for each class, BP reduction and healthcare costs were evaluated in a diabetic hypertensive population.

Design, Setting And Patients: This was a retrospective observational study using administrative claims data within two US health plans.

Patterns of brachytherapy practice for patients with carcinoma of the cervix (1996-1999): a patterns of care study.

Purpose/objective: To analyze the details of brachytherapy practice in patients treated for carcinoma of the cervix in the United States between 1996 and 1999.

Methods And Materials: Radiation facilities were selected from a stratified random sample. Patients were randomly selected from lists of eligible patients treated at each facility.

Patterns of radiotherapy practice for patients with carcinoma of the uterine cervix: a patterns of care study.

Purpose: To determine the influence of research findings and evolving technology on the practice of radiotherapy in patients with carcinoma of the cervix.

Methods And Materials: Radiation oncology facilities were randomly selected from two strata: those that treated <500 and those that treated >/=500 new cancer patients annually. Patient records were randomly selected from lists of eligible patients treated between 1996 and 1999 at each institution.

Human embryonic zeta-globin chains in fetal and newborn blood.

A sensitive and specific radioimmunoassay (RIA) for human embryonic zeta-globin chains was used to study normal fetal blood and newborn cord blood as well as cord blood from newborns with alpha-thalassemias. From 17 weeks until 37 weeks of gestation, zeta-globin chains were present in almost all fetal and cord blood samples (0.27% +/- 0.

Hereditary stomatocytosis: consistent association with an integral membrane protein deficiency.

We studied the RBC membrane proteins of four patients, including a mother and daughter, with hereditary stomatocytosis. One- and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis revealed that a 28 kDa integral protein, present in normal RBC membranes, was absent in all four patients. This abnormality, reported once previously (Lande et al, 1982), appears to be a characteristic feature of hereditary stomatocytosis, and may be related to the underlying permeability defect in this disorder.

Hereditary poikilocytic anemia associated with the co-inheritance of two alpha spectrin abnormalities.

This report describes a black family in which two distinct structural defects of alpha spectrin were inherited singly and in combination. The propositus, who has a poikilocytic hemolytic anemia that shares many of the features of hereditary pyropoikilocytosis (HPP) or homozygous elliptocytosis, is a compound heterozygote for both the spectrin alpha 1/65 and spectrin alpha 1/50a defects as demonstrated by electrophoretic analysis of spectrin tryptic fragments. The spectrin alpha 1/65 defect alone was found in his mother and sibling, while the spectrin alpha 1/50a defect was present in the father and another sibling.

Cellular dehydration and immunoglobulin binding in senescent neonatal erythrocytes.

The life span of neonatal erythrocytes (60-80 days) is shorter than that of adult erythrocytes (120 days). We studied neonatal red blood cells separated on stractan density gradients to further characterize the aging process and to explore the possibility that senescence antigens play a role in the destruction of neonatal erythrocytes. Quantitation of membrane proteins 4.

Unique alpha-spectrin mutant in a kindred with common hereditary elliptocytosis.

We report here a unique variant of alpha spectrin in a kindred with hereditary elliptocytosis. This novel red blood cell-membrane protein migrated to a position between the normal alpha- and beta-spectrin subunits in SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. It was identified as an alpha spectrin by its binding to anti-alpha spectrin antibodies, by the absence of a phosphorylation site, and by the normal 1:1 stoichiometry between total alpha- and beta-spectrin molecules.

Modulation of erythrocyte membrane mechanical stability by 2,3-diphosphoglycerate in the neonatal poikilocytosis/elliptocytosis syndrome.

To explain the transient anemia and poikilocytosis seen during infancy in hereditary elliptocytosis (HE), we resealed erythrocyte (RBC) ghosts from affected children or their elliptocytic parents with 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (DPG) (0-8 mM), a compound that dissociates membrane skeletons, then measured ghost mechanical stability in the ektacytometer. Without added 2,3-DPG, ghost mechanical stability was subnormal in infantile poikilocytosis (IP) and HE but was even more abnormal in hereditary pyropoikilocytosis (HPP). Addition of 2,3-DPG (2.