Predicting group practice conditions.

Influenced by the need to be competitive in an environment plagued by an oversupply of physicians, medical groups must give serious attention to major trends in terms of strategic planning. Group practice can benefit from the experience of other businesses which have survived in their respective marketplace. To assist medical groups in their strategic planning efforts, three health-care consultants offer predictions of future conditions in medical group practice.

The use of high-dose human menopausal gonadotropin in an in vitro fertilization program.

Sixty-three normal ovulatory women suffering from obstructive tubal disease not corrected by previous surgery were enrolled in an in vitro fertilization (IVF) program. To achieve a large number of mature follicles, a relatively high dose of human menopausal gonadotropin (hMG) was administered (19 +/- 4 ampules/cycle). Monitoring consisted of daily follicular ultrasonography and serum estradiol measurements.

Palmitate incorporation into different brain regions in the awake rat.

A quantitative method is presented to examine palmitate flux into a stable metabolic compartment in individual brain regions of awake rats. Following the i.v.

The TRH test and urinary MHPG in unipolar depression.

Twenty-five men and 26 women with major unipolar depression were evaluated by the TRH test and urinary MHPG excretion. A significant positive correlation between TSH response to TRH and urinary MHPG was found in the men, though not in the women. These findings suggest that at least for depressed men, central norepinephrine deficiency may be the neurobiological substrate of blunted TSH responses to TRH.

Two-photon-excited fluorescence measurement of hydrogen atoms in flames.

We report the first two-photon-excited hydrogen-atom fluorescence measurements in flames made to our knowledge. The n = 3 level of the H atom was excited by 205.1-nm radiation generated by Raman shifting a 224-nm beam produced by frequency mixing.

Corneal edema accompanying aphakic extended lens wear.

Corneal swelling was monitored for nine hours in 14 unilateral aphakic patients who wore +13.25-diopter extended-wear lenses. After closed-eye wear, the corneal swelling was 6.

Methadone in brain and its effects on locomotor activity of young and aged mice.

Plasma and brain levels of methadone produced by subcutaneous injections of the chloride salt (7.5, 15.0 or 22.

Cortisol secretion and urinary MHPG in unipolar depression.

The authors examined the relationship between both pre-dexamethasone 8:00 AM serum cortisol level and the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) with urinary 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenyl glycol (MHPG) excretion in a group of fifteen men and fourteen women with unipolar depression. No significant difference was found between the mean MHPG excretion for either male or female DST suppressors or non-suppressors. No significant correlation was found between the pre-dexamethasone 8:00 AM serum cortisol level and urinary MHPG.

Plasma levels of tricyclic antidepressants in panic disorder.

Five patients with panic disorder were placed on low doses of imipramine. All patients had shown dramatic improvement after three weeks of treatment, when plasma levels of imipramine and desipramine were measured. Plasma levels corresponded to the low doses being administered.

Phenobarbital pharmacokinetics in rat as a function of age.

Biodisposition of phenobarbital was examined in male Fischer-344 rats of different ages (3-4, 11-12, 23-24, and 32-34 months). Phenobarbital was administered intraperitoneally as a bolus (20 mg/kg) or continuously for 5 days from an implanted osmotic minipump (4.73 mg/day).