Patient preferences: do they contribute to healthcare disparities?

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of race on whether or not a patient would accept an invasive cardiac procedure when referred by a physician.

Methods: A retrospective longitudinal review of medical records at a public health hospital in southeastern Louisiana was conducted to determine cardiovascular patient acceptance/ rejection differences. Patient charts were examined using specific indicators (type of pain, laboratory values, blood pressure, and radiographic tests) to determine which patients were eligible to be referred.

Physician bias: does it occur at teaching hospitals that serve a majority of African American patients?

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine physician bias when patients present with cardiovascular disease in a teaching hospital that treats a majority of African American patients. Physician bias was deemed to occur when cardiovascular disease patients did not receive an invasive procedure when needed.

Methods: The hospital in the study was a teaching facility in southeastern Louisiana.

The effect of race and gender on invasive treatment for cardiovascular disease.

The purpose of this study was to investigate racial and gender differences in the utilization of invasive procedures for cardiovascular treatment. Medical records data of 3015 patients were abstracted from a Medical System Database from 1999 to 2001. Logit models were used to estimate the adjusted odds in the utilization, referral, and acceptance of invasive procedures, while controllingfor confounders (age, race, sex, comorbidity, disease severity, payer type, marital status and family history) simultaneously.

Microbiologic study of chronic inflammation associated with tubal factor infertility: role of Chlamydia trachomatis.

One hundred sixty-one women undergoing laparoscopy for infertility of obstructive origin (fallopian tube stenosis or obstruction and periadnexal adhesions) had thorough bacteriologic studies, including Chlamydia trachomatis cultures, of their lower and upper genital tracts. Peritoneal or tubal fluid cytologic features and biopsies of fallopian tubes or adhesions were also studied after each laparoscopy. The serum of each woman was titrated for evidence of C.

[Role of Chlamydia trachomatis in the etiology of acute salpingitis. Value of the determination of IgG in 2 blood samples collected at 6 week intervals].

Cultures of specimens from the abdominal cavity (14) or the lower genital tract (11) were positive for Chlamydia trachomatis in 25 (22.7%) of 110 patients with a laparoscopic diagnosis of acute salpingitis. Microimmunofluorescence serodiagnosis showed positive IgG levels (greater than or equal to 1/64) in 35 patients (32%).