2,740 research outputs found
Initial Studies of Isolated Kidney Perfusion
Angiographic and gravametric studies of dog kidneys perfused with electrolyte, Dextran, or albumin solution are presented to demonstrate the possibility of extending organ preservation for transplantation without loss of function. Findings include a reduction in flow and weight gain with the nonprotein solutions and maintenance of flow with albumin solution. Gross changes of the perfused kidneys are also described
Evaluation of pharmaceutical concerns in Germany: frequency and potential reasons.
BACKGROUND: Generic substitution can have unintended consequences. In Germany, brand name to generic or generic to generic switching is mainly driven by rebate contracts. Frequent switching may raise concerns about bio- and therapeutic equivalence. Expected patient confusion may result in compromised medication adherence or new onset of other drug-related problems. Since 2008, pharmacists are allowed to deviate from rebate contracts by denying substitution due to pharmaceutical concerns on an individual basis. OBJECTIVES: To explore the frequency of documented pharmaceutical concerns in Germany between July 2011 and December 2013 and to identify the medicines most frequently related to pharmaceutical concerns in 2013. METHODS: We analyzed documented pharmaceutical concerns in all prescribed drugs at the expense of any statutory health insurance company requiring pharmacies' generic substitution according to rebate contracts. RESULTS: Since July 2011, the frequency of documented pharmaceutical concerns in relation to prescribed drug products with rebate contracts requiring substitution increased consistently and doubled between July 2011 and July 2013. Overall in 2013, the trend of the two previous years continued and reached approximately 1.5%. The most affected drugs/drug classes were thyroid hormones (in particular combinations with iodide; 15.9%) followed by ondansetron (12.5%), and levothyroxine (11.3%). For all drugs/drug classes under investigation, product-, patient- or disease-related aspects could be identified which are potential reasons to deny substitution and to document pharmaceutical concerns. CONCLUSIONS: Although there is no electronic recording of the specific reasons for pharmaceutical concerns in claims data, our analyses support the assumption that pharmacists make use of this instrument based on individual clinical decisions and as required by contract. Pharmaceutical concerns are, therefore, an important instrument for pharmacies to refuse generic substitution. They are considered to prevent compromised medication safety and to assure pharmacotherapy effectiveness in a generic substitution environment driven by low drug prizes above all
Thermodynamic properties of QCD in external magnetic fields
We consider the effect of strong external electromagnetic fields on
thermodynamic observables in QCD, through lattice simulations with 1+1+1
flavors of staggered quarks at physical quark masses. Continuum extrapolated
results are presented for the light quark condensates and for their tensor
polarizations, as functions of the temperature and the magnetic field. We find
the light condensates to undergo inverse magnetic catalysis in the transition
region, in a manner that the transition temperature decreases with growing
magnetic field. We also compare the results to other approaches and lattice
simulations. Furthermore, we relate the tensor polarization to the spin part of
the magnetic susceptibility of the QCD vacuum, and show that this contribution
is diamagnetic.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, talks presented by FB and GE at Xth Quark
Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum, 8-12 October 2012, TUM Campus Garching,
Munich, German
Chiral behavior of pseudo-Goldstone boson masses and decay constants in 2+1 flavor QCD
We present preliminary results for the chiral behavior of charged
pseudo-Goldstone-boson masses and decay constants. These are obtained in
simulations with N_f=2+1 flavors of tree-level, O(a)-improved Wilson sea
quarks. In these simulations, mesons are composed of either valence quarks
discretized in the same way as the sea quarks (unitary simulations) or of
overlap valence quarks (mixed-action simulations). We find that the chiral
behavior of the pseudoscalar meson masses in the mixed-action calculations
cannot be explained with continuum, partially-quenched chiral perturbation
theory. We show that the inclusion of O(a^2) unitarity violations in the chiral
expansion resolves this discrepancy and that the size of the unitarity
violations required are consistent with those which we observe in the
zero-momentum, scalar-isotriplet-meson propagator.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, talk by L. Lellouch at the XXV International
Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (LATTICE 2007), 30 July - 4 August 2007,
Regensburg, German
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