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Health Reform: Good For Small Business, According To President's Economic Advisors
A report from President Obama"s Council of Economic Advisers finds that "health care reform would be good for small businesses because it would enable them to obtain better insurance coverage for less money," The Denver Business Journal writes. "Small businesses pay up to 18 percent more than large businesses do for the same coverage because of high broker fees, administrative costs and adverse selection, according to the CEA"s report." Christina Romer, chair of the CEA, "said the health care reform bills moving through Congress are specifically designed to address the burden the current health care system places on small businesses. The legislation would create insurance exchanges, where individuals and small businesses could "choose among a multitude of plans that would provide better coverage at lower costs than they could find in the current small group market," the report said." But, The Journal notes: "Many small business groups also doubt that health insurance would be cheaper under the House bills or the Senate HELP Committee bill. Including a government-run plan in the insurance exchange would undermine private insurers, ultimately driving premiums higher, they contend. Not all small businesses would be able to access the exchange. Plus, the bills call for the federal government to establish minimum coverage levels for insurance plans, which could be pricier than what small businesses now provide. (Hoover, 8/3).
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FDA Approves LIVALO(R) For Primary Hypercholesterolemia And Combined Dyslipidemia
Kowa Research Institute (KRI) based in Morrisville, NC and Kowa Pharmaceuticals America, Inc. (KPA), a privately-held specialty pharmaceutical company headquartered in Montgomery, AL, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved LIVALO(R) (pitavastatin), a potent HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor (statin), for the primary treatment of hypercholesterolemia and combined dyslipidemia.
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Lifestyle Program For Patients With COPD Is Health And Cost Effective
Patients with moderate COPD were randomized to receive "usual care" or to undergo an interdisciplinary, community-based program (INTERCOM) that offered an intensive lifestyle moderation phase of four months, during which patients were instructed in detail to perform two 15-minute intervals of pleasurable walking or cycling, and offered instruction in other lifestyle changes such as nutrition and smoking cessation. After the four-month introductory period, there was a less intensive 20-month maintenance during which patients were offered guidance but not intensive intervention.
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Is 31P MRS A Useful Tool For Evaluating Early Acute Hepatic Radiation Injury?

Acute hepatic radiation injury could lead to necrosis of hepatocytes, fatty degeneration and hepatic fibrosis. At the present, the gold standard test is liver biopsy. However, this procedure is invasive, uncomfortable for the patients and sometimes results in serious complications. 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) has been used to study liver metabolism in vivo for several years. A research team led by Jian-Shan Mao from Zhejiang University investigated whether changes of 31P MRS in the liver with early acute radiation injury were related to the liver damage score (LDS) and pathologic changes. They also determined the value of 31P MRS in detecting early acute hepatic radiation injury, and identified the most valuable phosphorylated metabolite for detecting acute hepatic injury. Their study was published on June 14, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology. In this study, 30 rabbits which received different radiation doses (ranging 5-20 Gy) were used to establish acute hepatic injury models. Blood biochemical tests, 31P MRS and pathological examinations were carried out 24 h after irradiation. The degree of injury was evaluated according to LDS and pathology. Ten healthy rabbits served as controls. The MR examination was performed on a 1.5 T imager using a 1H/31P surface coil by the 2D chemical shift imaging technique. The relative quantities of phosphomonoesters (PME), phosphodiesters (PDE), inorganic phosphate (Pi) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) were measured. They found that there were significant differences of ATP relative quantification among control group, mild injured group, moderate injured group, and severe injured group according to both LDS grading and pathological grading, respectively, and it decreased progressively with the increased degree of injury (r = -0.723, P = 0.000). The relative quantification of PME and Pi decreased significantly in the severe injured group, and the difference between the control group and severe injured group was significant (P Notes: Reference: Yu RS, Hao L, Dong F, Mao JS, Sun JZ, Chen Y, Lin M, Wang ZK, Ding WH. Biochemical metabolic changes assessed by 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy after radiationinduced hepatic injury in rabbits. World J Gastroenterol 2009; 15(22): 2723-2730 http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/15/2723.asp Correspondence to: Dr. Jian-Shan Mao, Department of Internal Medicine, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310009, Zhejiang Province, China. jshmao@zju.edu.cn Lai-Fu Li World Journal of Gastroenterology


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