People suffering from severe asthma attacks don’t need full-scale, inpatient hospital care, a study at Cook County Hospital suggests.
Researchers from the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago concluded that instead of admitting asthma patients, hospital emergency rooms can treat them in an observation unit. The reduced level of care provided about the same results for 113 patients in a study at Cook County’s emergency room. The lower level of care cost about half as much, an average of $1,202 per patient compared to $2,247 for inpatient care.
“As third-party payers come to realize the cost savings and higher patient satisfaction in emergency department outpatient units, they will serve as the preferred standard of care for a great many asthmatics,” said Robert Rydman, the study’s author and an associate professor of health policy.
NEW IMPOTENCE TREATMENTS
Approval by the Food and Drug Administration last month of a pill to treat male impotence created considerable interest because many regard it as the last word in therapy for this affliction.
Taking a pill is far easier than having an inflatable device surgically implanted, of course, and less objectionable than giving injections into the male organ, operating external vacuum devices or even placing a tiny pellet inside the urethra.
But don’t underestimate the imagination of researchers once they focus on a problem. The introduction of an impotence pill won’t mark the end of innovation in this field. One gizmo now being tried in a Chicago test uses an external penile support that holds the organ erect something like scaffolding around an office building.
Dr. Laurence Levine, a urologist affiliated with Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, said that the supporting structure is unobtrusive and barely noticeable. He is seeking volunteers of all ages and their partners to test the new device. Information is available by calling 312-829-1820 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays.
THERAPEUTIC USE FOR VENOM?
Venoms secreted by Gila monsters and Mexican beaded lizards have been analyzed chemically and found to bear a close resemblance to a human enzyme associated with blood pressure control.
Anthony Tu, a Colorado State University biochemistry professor, found that the venom from the world’s only two poisonous lizards is a neurotoxin with chemical properties similar to kallikrein, a human enzyme that stimulates release of another substance, bradykinin, which in turns lowers blood pressure.
It is theoretically possible that Tu’s discovery, presented to a regional meeting in Tucson of the American Chemical Society, could help control high blood pressure in people.
“If one eliminates the toxic action (of the venom), it may have positive results for blood-pressure control,” said Tu.
STUDY QUESTIONS HEPARIN’S VALUE
The blood-thinning drug heparin, which helps some heart patients avoid heart attacks, may do little good in elderly patients, a new study suggests.
“Heparin is a widely used treatment, but there is little evidence to support its use in the contemporary era of treatment, and we failed to find any beneficial effects in our study,” said Dr. Harlan M. Krumholz, a Yale University researcher whose study appears in the April issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Krumholz and colleagues analyzed records of nearly 7,000 elderly patients in four states who had heart attacks from June 1992, through February 1993, and found no significant difference in 30-day mortality rates between those who received heparin and those who didn’t.
Many patients administered heparin didn’t get aspirin or beta blockers, two drugs with proven benefit.
