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Biomedical subjects

D Chollet

Publications and source records attributed to D Chollet.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Opportunity wages and workforce adjustments: understanding the cost of in-home elder care.

Time spent providing informal care represents a real cost to caregivers and potentially affects their decisions about alternative activities, including paid work. This study offers estimates of opportunity wages incurred by informal caregivers and explores the impact of these costs on their decisions to reduce or abandon workforce participation. We consider caregivers at two points in time: 1982 and 1989. Our estimates of caregivers' imputed wages vary more widely and range higher than those reported elsewhere, varying from $0.78 to $27.18 per hour, compared to values in the literature ranging from $4.64 to $10.30. In both years, caregivers with higher imputed wages were significantly more likely to work, with this effect stronger in 1989 as all noneconomic factors became less important. However, accommodation (working fewer hours or foregoing job opportunities) decreased with higher imputed wages in 1982 only. In 1989, elders' frailty became a significant determinant of accommodation.

Aged↗

Sodium-magnesium exchange in erythrocyte membranes from patients with affective disorders.

The Vmax of erythrocyte sodium-magnesium exchange was measured for the first time in 63 patients suffering from affective disorders and compared to that in 33 healthy subjects. Depressed patients had a significantly higher Vmax (215 +/- 13 vs. 151 +/- 14 mumol/l.cells/h; p < 0.005; mean +/- SEM). This tendency was conserved after division of the 63 patients into three clinical subgroups according to the DSM-III-R criteria. Thirty-four patients from this panel were divided into three subgroups according to the chemical class of the antidepressant drug used and were followed up during a 3-month period of drug treatment. Mood improvement over the 3-month period was associated with a slow increase in Vmax of Na/Mg exchange (delta increase approximately 25 mumol/l.cells/h), except in the subgroup of patients treated with non-tricyclic antidepressants (n = 8). These results are consistent with the previously reported link between high erythrocyte magnesium content and affective disorders. Indeed, enhanced Na/Mg exchange Vmax, which probably results from an increased number of transport units per cell, contributes to the normalization of red blood cell magnesium content correlated with mood improvement.

Adolescent↗

Adjuvant treatment with a vitamin A analogue (etretinate) after transurethral resection of superficial bladder tumors. Final analysis of a prospective, randomized multicenter trial in Switzerland.

Vitamin A and its derivatives, the retinoids, have antiproliferative effects and may induce cellular differentiation. Etretinate, a synthetic retinoid, has a more favorable therapeutic index experimentally than all-trans-retinoic acid or 13-cis-retinoic acid. Ninety patients with superficial papillary bladder tumors stages Ta and T1 entered a prospective randomized double-blind multicenter trial in Switzerland. Seventy-nine of the patients were eligible and received either 25 mg of etretinate or a placebo orally each day. The early withdrawal of a significantly greater number of patients in the placebo group for treatment failure during the first year of the study resulted in a secondary positive selection in this group. High-risk patients were removed and low-risk patients remained. In those patients who had tumor recurrences after randomization, the time to first recurrence was similar in both groups with 13.5 and 13.6 months in the placebo and etretinate groups, respectively. However, the mean interval to subsequent tumor recurrence was significantly longer in the etretinate group. The mean interval between recurrences in these subgroups was 12.7 months in the placebo arm and 20.3 months in the etretinate arm (p = 0.006). Consequently, the number of transurethral resections per patient-year was also reduced significantly in the etretinate group (p < 0.001). In patients with more than one transurethral resection of papillary tumors before randomization, the annual transurethral resection rate in the two treatment groups dropped from 1.7 to 1.3 in the 30 patients in the placebo group (NS, p = 0.1) and from 2.1 to 0.95 in the 25 patients in the etretinate group (p < 0.001). The side effects of etretinate (cheilitis, dryness of mucous membranes and skin) were acceptable to most patients. The relationship of the 3 myocardial infarcts observed in the etretinate group to the retinoid is not clear. Despite their significant effect on the recurrence rate of superficial papillary bladder tumors, retinoids should only be used in well-controlled prospective trials until more is known about their dosage-toxicity profiles.

Adult↗

Employer-based health insurance in a changing work force.

The loss of manufacturing jobs and the expansion of service jobs and part-time employment have contributed to a decline in the rate of employer-sponsored health insurance among workers. Not only does manufacturing provide more of its own workers with coverage compared with other industry groups, but it also is a significant net "exporter" of coverage to dependent workers in other industries. In 1991 the net export of coverage represented a 20 percent tax on manufacturing employers per covered worker, while professional services--the fastest-growing industry group-collected a subsidy from other industry groups equal to more than 12 percent per covered worker. Similarly, larger firms--those that employed 100 workers or more--paid a self-imposed tax of as much as 13 percent per covered worker to support dependent workers employed in smaller firms.

Cost Allocation↗

Fast systematic approach for the determination of drugs in biological fluids by fully automated high-performance liquid chromatography with on-line solid-phase extraction and automated cartridge exchange. Application to cebaracetam in human urine.

A fast stepwise systematic approach for the conversion of conventional reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) assays involving liquid-liquid extraction of biological fluids into fully automated HPLC assays using solid-phase extraction and cartridge exchange is described. The suitability of this procedure is demonstrated for the determination of cebaracetam in human urine.

Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid↗

Determination of Zy 17617B in plasma by solid-phase extraction and liquid chromatography with automated pre-column exchange.

An automated chromatographic system, combining solid-phase extraction and automated pre-column exchange, is described for the routine determination of Zy 17617B at the pmol/ml level in human plasma. The sample extraction and elution onto the analytical column were performed automatically and concomitantly using a conventional liquid chromatographic apparatus equipped with a Merck OSP-2 on-line sample preparator. Validation data demonstrate the reliability of the method.

Antidiarrheals↗

Atrial septal defect with cyanosis without pulmonary hypertension or anomalous systemic venous drainage to the left atrium.

A case of a 29-year-old patient with cyanosis due to a right-to-left shunt is reported. This patient presented an atrial septal defect within the oval fossa and an anomalous left superior caval vein. The direction of this shunt is explained by the anatomical relationship between the oval fossa and the dilated coronary sinus, draining venous blood into the left atrium across the atrial septal defect. Cyanosis disappeared after surgical correction of the defect.

Adult↗

[Prospective study of the prevalence of coronary involvement in isolated aortic stenosis].

From 1980 to 1982, 148 consecutive patients with isolated aortic stenosis (AS) were studied prospectively with coronary angiography. Significant coronary artery disease was discovered in 27 patients (18.4 percent of cases), with involvement of the left main coronary artery 4 times (15 percent of cases), three-vessel involvement 10 times (37 percent of cases), two-vessel involvement 8 times (30 percent of cases), and single-vessel involvement 9 times (33 percent of cases). Clinical information such as age, sex, the existence of angina (present in 81 out of 148 patients, or 54.7 percent of cases), or electrocardiographic findings could not accurately predict coronary artery involvement except for the previous history of a myocardial infarction. Five patients with coronary artery lesions had no manifestations of angina, comprising 18.5 percent of patients with coronary artery disease, 3.4 percent of the entire group of 148 patients with AS, and 7 percent of patients without angina. This study's originality resides in the fact that it is a prospective study which demonstrates that coronary artery lesions associated with AS can often be severe and can not be predicted without coronary angiography. No other examination can reliably identify the association of these two conditions, making coronary angiography a routine part of the preoperative evaluation of AS if these lesions are to be discovered.

Adult↗

Prevention of recurrent superficial bladder tumors by oral etretinate: preliminary results of a randomized, double blind multicenter trial in Switzerland.

Retinoids influence the proliferation and differentiation of epithelial tissues. Preliminary results of a double-blind randomized trial in the prevention of recurrent superficial bladder tumors are promising. Patients treated with an oral etretinate tend to have less tumor recurrences and transurethral resections. The number of multifocal recurrences after 12 months of treatment is significantly lower (p less than 0.02). There also are less dropouts owing to inefficacy of treatment (p less than 0.036).

Administration, Oral↗