Supermarket model for vascular disease care.

A supermarket model for vascular patient care proposes an interdisciplinary group of health care teams such as vascular nurses, interventional radiologists, vascular surgeons, angiologists, internists, cardiologists, and neurologists and facilities such as diagnostic testing laboratories, subcenters such as wound care and foot care centers, atherosclerotic risk prevention centers, rehabilitation centers, vein centers, and socioeconomic follow-up centers that would provide health care of vascular disease in a comprehensive manner in terms of quality care, convenience for patients, 1-stop shopping, education and training, and research and development.

Picture archiving and communications systems (PACS) in private practice: St. Paul Radiology PACS project.

While much of diagnostic radiology is practiced in a private setting, many of the papers and presentations describing picture archiving and communications systems (PACS) implementation to date have been sponsored by university and government health facilities. We will present a 4-year retrospective review of a private practice PACS project. The challenges, benefits, and cost analysis of the PACS project will be presented.

Renovascular hypertension.

This article discusses the pathophysiologic features, diagnosis, treatment, and management of patients with renovascular hypertension. Timely diagnosis is important as the disease can carry a more serious prognosis than essential hypertension and is less amenable to drug treatment. Renovascular hypertension also carries a greater risk of progression to accelerated or malignant hypertension and may result in irreversible ischemic failure of the affected kidney.