Health planning scenario: 2000 A.D.

The role of the HSA in the year 2000, termed the Health and Wellness Authority, is sketched in a scenario of a future certificate of need review. This article is the first of the "Health Planning in the Year 2000" pieces which will appear in this Journal on a regular basis.

Reliable detection of cystic fibrosis in skin-derived fibroblast cultures.

The specific induction of alkaline phosphatase with Tamm-Horsfall glycoprotein, isoproterenol, and theophylline in skin-derived fibroblast cultures from patients with cystic fibrosis permits one to reliably discriminate between cystic fibrosis patients on the one hand, and heterozygotes and normals on the other. It was found the fibroblast-like and intermediary types of amniotic fluid-derived cells behave essentially like skin-derived fibroblasts. These findings imply that if different amniotic fluid cell types can be reliably separated, prenatal diagnosis of cystic fibrosis should become feasable in the near future.

[Result of an antifibrinolytic treatment using tranexamic acid for the reduction of blood-loss during and after tonsillectomy].

Blood loss during and after tonsillectomy was assessed in 80 patients, 40 of whom were treated with tranexamic acid. A statistically significant reduction of blood loss (28%) was observed in this group during operation. Later bleedings occurred only in 27.

Polycythemia vera treated with -32p and myleran: development of chronic granulocytic leukemia with chromosomal abnormalities in one patient.

Chronic granulocytic leukemia developed in a 59-year-old woman who had previously received a total of 21 mCi -32P for polycythemia vera. She was treated with Myleran (busulphan) for her chronic granulocytic leukemia. Cytogenic studied revealed deletion of chromosomes No.