Depletion of Highly Abundant Protein Species from Biosamples by the Use of a Branched Silicon Nanopillar On-Chip Platform.

Highly abundant serum proteins tend to mask the low- and ultralow-abundance proteins, making low-abundance species detection extremely challenging. While traditional highly abundant protein depletion techniques are effective, they suffer from nonspecific binding problems and laborious sample manipulation procedures, and the kinetics of release of current separation systems is inadequately long, causing dilution of the eluted low-abundance protein samples. Here, we introduce an on-chip light-controlled reusable platform for the direct and fast depletion of highly abundant proteins from serum biosamples.

Linking the health utilities index to National Medical Expenditure Survey data.

Measures of health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) are becoming increasingly important in assessing the effects of chronic illness and healthcare interventions designed to treat them. Obtaining measures of HR-QOL for a nationally representative sample of individuals would enhance understanding of health status in the US, and promote further study of the economic causes and effects of health status. This study reports on our efforts to link a prominent HR-QOL scale, the Health Utilities Index Mark I (HUI), to the National Medical Expenditure Survey (NMES).

Randomized trial comparing the tolerability of sargramostim (yeast-derived RhuGM-CSF) and filgrastim (bacteria-derived RhuG-CSF) in cancer patients receiving myelosuppressive chemotherapy.

A prospective, randomized, double-blind, multicenter study in cancer patients receiving myelosuppressive chemotherapy was undertaken to evaluate and compare the tolerability of sargramostim (yeast-derived recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, RhuGM-CSF) and filgrastim (bacteria-derived recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, RhuG-CSF) in the prophylaxis or treatment of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia. In all, 137 evaluable patients received sargramostim (300 micrograms; 193 mg/m2) or filgrastim (481 mg; 7 mg/kg) once daily by self-administered s.c.

Death rates among patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia: a reexamination with data from three states.

Objectives: Death rates for community-acquired pneumonia based on relatively small-scale, published studies tend to exceed 15% to 20%. This study reexamined these estimates by using very large, population-based databases.

Methods: Death rates from 1993 associated with community-acquired pneumonia were reexamined with hospital discharge data from all of Washington, Illinois, and Florida.

Labour productivity effects of prescribed medicines for chronically ill workers.

Previous work on the labour productivity effects of chronic illness has not separated the effects of chronic illnesses from the effects of prescription medications taken to alleviate these conditions. Using nationally representative observational data, this study estimates the pure effect of chronic illness, and the marginal effect of prescription medicines, on labour productivity. As Americans continue to scrutinize health care expenditures, such estimates will play an increasing role in determining the allocation of resources for medical treatments.