TOWARDS AN IMPROVEMENT OF HOSPITAL SERVICES AND STREAMLING OF HEALTH CARE COSTS: THE DRG ANALYSIS IN ITALY.

The term Diagnosis-related-Group (DRG) refers to a classification system used to assess hospital services with the aim of a better menagement of a health care costs and improving performance. The DRG system focuses on the utilization of resources, and is not concerned with the specific type of care provided to the patient. This system highlights any diseconomies and eventual critical aspectsof the hospital system. This article, starting from the history of heath care financing in Italy and pointing out the difficulty to define the "quality" of health care services, describes the variables used to evaluated correctly hospital performance based on the DRG system. These include Average Length of Stay, Average Daily Patient Load, Comparative Performance Index, and Case Mix Index

Obtaining Mesenchymal Stem Cells From Adipose Tissue Of Murin Origin: Experimental Study

The aim of this study was to isolate and characterize rat Adipose Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (AD-MSCs) in order to evaluate their proliferative potential and their ability to differentiate in different cell types. AD-MSCs and Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (BM-MSCs) have the same characteristics in terms of plasticity. The advantage of adipose tissue is that it is an easier accessible source and it offers a large amount of MSCs by less invasive surgical tecniques. MSCs were obtained from subcutaneous adipose tissue of Wistar rats. First of all microbiological controls were made to exclude the presence of bacteria or fungi in the tissue. Adipose tissue was mechanically and enzimatically fragmented and stomal cell fraction was seeded in adherent culture flasks in DMEM 20% FBS. After 48h the medium was replaced. Cells were characterized by evaluating: 1)their ability to adhere to the plastic; 2) the clonogenic potential by Colony Forming Unit (CFU) assay; 3) their ability to differentiate in 3 mesodermal lineages (adipocytes, osteocytes and chondrocytes). AD-MSCs are able to differentiate in adipocytes, osteocytes and chondrocytes as confirmed by Oil Red’O staining, von Kossa staining and histological analysis respectively. This first characterization is essential for the second part of our study in which we are planning to use AD-MSCs in vivo to restore renal function after an induced ischemic damage in experimental animals

Obtaining Mesenchymal Stem Cells From Adipose Tissue Of Murin Origin: Experimental Study

The aim of this study was to isolate and characterize rat Adipose Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (AD-MSCs) in order to evaluate their proliferative potential and their ability to differentiate in different cell types. AD-MSCs and Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (BM-MSCs) have the same characteristics in terms of plasticity. The advantage of adipose tissue is that it is an easier accessible source and it offers a large amount of MSCs by less invasive surgical tecniques. MSCs were obtained from subcutaneous adipose tissue of Wistar rats. First of all microbiological controls were made to exclude the presence of bacteria or fungi in the tissue. Adipose tissue was mechanically and enzimatically fragmented and stomal cell fraction was seeded in adherent culture flasks in DMEM 20% FBS. After 48h the medium was replaced. Cells were characterized by evaluating: 1)their ability to adhere to the plastic; 2) the clonogenic potential by Colony Forming Unit (CFU) assay; 3) their ability to differentiate in 3 mesodermal lineages (adipocytes, osteocytes and chondrocytes). AD-MSCs are able to differentiate in adipocytes, osteocytes and chondrocytes as confirmed by Oil Red’O staining, von Kossa staining and histological analysis respectively. This first characterization is essential for the second part of our study in which we are planning to use AD-MSCs in vivo to restore renal function after an induced ischemic damage in experimental animals