PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

M Heckman

Publications and source records attributed to M Heckman.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Quality improvement principles in practice: the reduction of umbilical cord blood errors in the labor and delivery suite.

Mislabeled umbilical cord blood specimens were identified as an important and difficult problem to solve. Quality improvement principles were employed after education-based interventions failed to achieve measurable improvement. A small interdisciplinary working group of key stakeholders investigated, designed, and evaluated interventions for a solution. This article describes a system-based change where substantial qualitative and quantitative improvements were measured. The success of the change is attributed to the involvement and commitment by key stakeholders and use of systems reengineering principles.

Blood Specimen Collection↗
PubMed1995

The link between the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and medical administration. Managing the quality continuum.

As hospital-based physicians, pathologists are positioned to play a key role in quality management at their institutions. As we enter into the era of increased competition for scarce health care resources, opportunities to increase efficiency, improve quality, and reduce expenses will expand. Laboratory medicine specialists possess much needed expertise in data management and quality improvement. Pathologists must now reach beyond their own departments, redefining their mission through a focus on clinical-managerial relationships.

Laboratories, Hospital↗
PubMed1994

Family studies in narcolepsy.

Out of a population of 188 unrelated narcoleptic probands, we identified 14 probands (7.44%) with a family history of narcolepsy, 23 (12.23%) with a family history of isolated repeated episodes of naps and/or lapses into sleep and 151 (80.31%) without a family history of either condition. Clinical, polysomnographic or zygotic differences could not be evidenced in the three groups. Empirical risk for narcolepsy was 40.7 times greater among first-degree relatives of narcoleptics than in the general population. Narcolepsy and the condition characterized by isolated repeated episodes of naps and/or lapses into sleep have a common genetic component. This finding has important implications. Indeed, when the latter condition is included in the spectrum of narcolepsy, the empirical risk figure is relatively close to that expected in cases of simple mode of inheritance. A trend in favor of a more frequent transmission through mothers than fathers is emphasized.

Age of Onset↗
PubMed1992

Energy metabolism of the hypertrophied heart studied by 31P nuclear magnetic resonance.

We report studies on the isolated hearts of rats treated with triiodothyronine (0.2 mg/kg daily) for 14 days, on spontaneously hypertensive rats (12 and 21 weeks old, Lyon strain) and on their respective controls. A 30% increase in cardiac weight was developed with triiodothyronine and a 40% increase in heart weight in the presence of spontaneous hypertension. The hearts were perfused in the presence of 2 mM pyruvate and the intracellular content of phosphocreatine, inorganic phosphate and ATP measured by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy with 31P. The left ventricular developed pressure was measured with an intraventricular balloon. Changes in contractile strength were induced by stepwise modifications of the extracellular concentration of calcium from 0.5 mM to 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mM. In all experimental groups, each increase in the extracellular calcium induced an increase in the developed pressure, together with a decrease in phosphocreatine and an increase in inorganic phosphate; the ATP level remained unchanged. These metabolic changes increased progressively with the increase in developed pressure. In the hearts of animals treated with triiodothyronine and of the 21 weeks old hypertensive rats, the extent of changes in phosphocreatine and inorganic phosphate was the same as in the controls; but, in the hearts of 12 weeks old hypertensive rats, the changes were significantly greater than in their controls. These observations suggest that, during the development of cardiac hypertrophy from spontaneous hypertension, there is a transitory deficiency in the capacity for aerobic ATP production relative to the rate of hydrolysis of ATP induced by an inotropic effect.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗
PubMed1985

Measure of tissue resistivity in experimental electrical burns.

Studies were conducted in 14 mongrel dogs to compare resistivities in normal muscle with those from muscle subjected to electrical burns. One-ampere, 60-Hz currents were passed between the hind limbs of the dogs producing injury in three measurement regions of the gracilis muscle. Histology, heart rate, body temperature, arterial and pulmonary artery pressure, cardiac output, hematocrit, leukocyte counts, fibrinogen levels, and platelet levels were determined. Muscle resistivity associated with severe tissue necrosis was 70% lower than control values. Resistivity in tissue showing edema and minimal necrosis decreased 20 to 40% from control values. Muscle showing only edema had a 10 to 30% decrease in resistivity.

Animals↗