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Biomedical subjects

M S Thompson

Publications and source records attributed to M S Thompson.

42 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1980

The incidence and economic costs of cancer, motor vehicle injuries, coronary heart disease, and stroke: a comparative analysis.

The economic impact of disease and injury has most often been calculated by examining the costs associated with the prevalence of the impairments in the reference year. An alternative accounting approach is to assign all disease costs to the year of incidence, an approach which entails present-valuing to the year of incidence both health care expenditures and lost productivity. The incidence approach is the more appropriate for gauging the economic gains achievable through prevention, immediate rehabilitation, and arresting progression. Incidence-based costs have been estimated for the United States in 1975 for cancer, coronary heart disease, motor vehicle injuries, and stroke. A noteworthy finding is the relative economic importance of motor vehicle injuries, which frequently have been overlooked in the ordering of public health expenditure priorities. After cancer, which generated approximately $23.1 billion in present-valued costs in 1975 (discounted at 6 per cent), motor vehicle injuries and coronary heart disease constitute the next most expensive conditions--having generated estimated annual costs of $14.4 billion and $13.7 billion, respectively. Stroke, at $6.5 billion, follows in economic importance.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Tensile mechanical properties of polyacetal after one and six months' immersion in Ringer's solution.

The engineering polymer polyacetal (also known as polyoxymethylene) has a long history of clinical use including in the femoral component of the Freeman all-polymer knee replacement. The polymer is a promising material for novel applications including the femoral component of hip resurfacing prostheses. However, no work following the effect on mechanical properties of extended immersion in the physiological environment has been reported. Samples of five grades of polyacetal were obtained and tested on an MTS Bionix 858 at 37 degrees C in physiological saline. Three groups of specimens were tested: "as received"; immersed in Ringer's solution at 37 degrees C for one month; immersed in Ringer's solution at 37 degrees C for six months'. While there were negligible reductions in the ultimate tensile strengths, the Young's moduli of all polymer grades showed significant reductions (p < 0.01) of up to 19.5% following one months' immersion. There were negligible changes in ultimate tensile strength and stiffness between one and six months' immersion, however some polymers showed a small, but significant (p < 0.05) increase in stiffness. The percentage elongation and true stress for plastic instability showed negligible changes following immersion for one and six months'. These results encourage the use of polyacetal in load-bearing orthopaedic applications.

Journal Article↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Acute paraplegia in a puppy with hemophilia A.

A seven-week-old, male chow chow-keeshond cross puppy was presented with acute paraplegia and episcleral hemorrhage. An X-linked, hereditary coagulopathy was suspected and confirmed by clotting factor analysis and necropsy findings of intraspinal hemorrhage. In young, male puppies with acute spinal pain and long-tract signs, intraspinal hematoma secondary to inherited X-linked coagulation factor deficiencies should be considered in the differential diagnosis.

Acute Disease↗
PubMedDate not supplied

One peer review organization's experience in developing hospital peer groups.

The Health Care Quality Improvement Initiative is moving Medicare's quality improvement activities from review and action on individual cases to the analysis of patterns of care. A primary source for pattern analysis is the mortality data presented in the Medicare Hospital Information release. One of the requirements set forth by the Health Care Financing Administration is that peer review organizations classify hospitals into peer groups in order to compare mortality rates within and among groups. It is hoped that this type of analysis will lead to a better understanding of the relationship between process and outcome for a variety of medical conditions. This report describes the experience of one peer review organization in establishing hospital peer groups.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.↗