Cystic partially differentiated nephroblastoma in an 18-month-old girl: a case report.

Introduction and importance: Cystic partially differentiated nephroblastoma (CPDN) is a rare cystic tumor that affects the kidney. It has a low potential for malignancy. It usually presents as an abdominal mass. It may be difficult to confirm the diagnosis of CPDN without a histopathological study. Case presentation: The authors report a case of an 18-month-old girl with abdominal distention, which was noticed by her parents. An abdominal computed tomography scan showed a large multilocular cystic mass arising from the lower pole of the left kidney. A left total nephrectomy was performed. Immature blastemal elements without evidence of malignant cells were observed on histological analysis. Conclusion: The authors report a case of an 18-month-old girl with CPDN managed by total nephrectomy. CPDN should be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients with cystic renal lesions. The authors would also like to affirm that partial or total nephrectomy should be done in all cases of CPDN and other cystic renal tumors.

Differential gender effects of a reduced-calorie diet on systemic inflammatory and immune parameters in nonhuman primates.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Dietary manipulation, including caloric restriction, has been shown to impact host response capabilities significantly, particularly in association with aging. This investigation compared systemic inflammatory and immune-response molecules in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Monkeys on continuous long-term calorie-restricted diets and a matched group of animals on a control ad libitum diet, were examined for systemic response profiles including the effects of both gender and aging. RESULTS: The results demonstrated that haptoglobin and alpha1-antiglycoprotein levels were elevated in the serum of male monkeys. Serum IgG responses to Campylobacter rectus, Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans and Porphyromonas gingivalis were significantly elevated in female monkeys. While only the antibody to Fusobacterium nucleatum was significantly affected by the calorie-restricted diet in female monkeys, antibody levels to Prevotella intermedia, C. rectus and Treponema denticola demonstrated a similar trend. CONCLUSION: In this investigation, only certain serum antibody levels were influenced by the age of male animals, which was seemingly related to increasing clinical disease in this gender. More generally, analytes were modulated by gender and/or diet in this oral model system of mucosal microbial challenge.

Provider network instability: implications for choice, costs and continuity of care.

Many health care issues of greatest concern to consumers-including provider choice, costs and continuity of care-depend on health plans' ability to maintain adequate networks of hospitals, physicians and other caregivers. When providers drop out of plan networks, consumers may suddenly face the choice of changing caregivers or paying more for out-of-network care. Network instability is increasingly common in health care markets across the country and can arise from health plan-provider contract disputes and provider organization insolvencies. This Issue Brief, which is based on the Center for Studying Health System Change's (HSC) 2000-01 site visits to 12 nationally representative communities, examines this growing trend and the implications for consumers, including diminished choice and higher costs.

The contributions of managed care plans to public health practice: evidence from the nation's largest local health departments.

OBJECTIVE: The authors examine the extent and nature of managed care plans participating in local public health activities. METHODS: In 1998, the authors surveyed the directors of all US local health departments serving jurisdictions of at least 100,000 residents to collect information about public health activities performed in their jurisdictions and about organizations participating in the activities. Multivariate logistic and linear regression models were used to examine organizational and market characteristics associated with managed care plan participation in public health activities. RESULTS: Managed care plans were reported to participate in public health activities in 164 (46%) of the jurisdictions surveyed, and to contribute to 13% of the public health activities performed in the average jurisdiction. Plans appeared most likely to participate in public health activities involving the delivery or management of personal health services and the exchange of health-related information. Managed care participation was more likely to occur in jurisdictions with higher HMO penetration, fewer competing plans, and larger proportions of plans enrolling Medicaid recipients. Participation was positively associated with the overall scope and perceived effectiveness of local public health activities. CONCLUSIONS: Although plans participate in a narrow range of activities, these contributions may complement the work of public health agencies.

Consumers face higher costs as health plans seek to control drug spending.

Faced with relentless growth in pharmaceutical spending during the 1990s, health plans in recent years have tried to rein in costs by negotiating lower drug prices, encouraging more cost-conscious physician prescribing patterns and moderating the volume and mix of drugs demanded by consumers. Because of limited success with these strategies, plans have moved rapidly to three-tier benefit packages that offer broader drug choices but shift more costs to consumers. The move to three-tier pharmacy benefits appears to have slowed drug-spending growth for some plans--at least for the short term--but raises questions about the cost and quality of pharmaceutical care for consumers. Based on interviews with health plan executives in the 12 nationally representative communities the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) visits every two years, this Issue Brief examines plans' strategies to contain drug spending and the possible consequences for consumers.

Working together? Organizational and market determinants of collaboration between public health and medical care providers.

OBJECTIVES: This study examines organizational characteristics and market conditions likely to influence collaborative relationships between public health agencies and community medical care providers. METHODS: Public health directors in 60 US counties were surveyed by telephone concerning their relationships with area community hospitals (n = 263) and community health centers (n = 85). Multivariate models were used to estimate the effects of organizational and market characteristics on collaboration. RESULTS: Collaboration was reported among 55% of the hospitals and 64% of the health centers. Certain forms of collaboration were more likely in markets characterized by higher HMO penetration and lower HMO competition. CONCLUSIONS: Targeted efforts to facilitate collaboration may be required in settings where institutional and market incentives are lacking.

Conceptual and methodological issues in public health performance measurement: results from a computer-assisted expert panel process.

As part of the developmental process for the National Public Health Performance Standards Program, the CDC convened a group of experts in the fields of public health practice and research to evaluate key conceptual and methodological issues involved in measuring the performance of public health organizations. Participants engaged in a nominal group process and an electronic polling exercise designed to elicit expert opinions about these issues. Results revealed broad consensus around the need for measurement systems that support quality improvement and accountability applications, with scientific investigation viewed as an important but secondary objective of measurement. Substantial variation was observed in perceptions about the importance of specific measurement concepts and methods. Results highlight the need for performance measurement systems to reflect multiple organizational perspectives in their design and implementation.

Performance measurement in public health: conceptual and methodological issues in building the science base.

The use of scientific methods for examining performance in the field of public health has lagged behind comparable efforts in medical practice. Accomplishments in other health care settings demonstrate that performance measurement systems can, if pursued rigorously and systematically, advance scientific knowledge and enhance the production of information to support improvements in public health practice. Numerous conceptual and methodological issues need to be addressed in order to use public health performance measurement processes for scientific inquiry. Nonetheless, the reward for careful analytic work in this area will be an expanding body of evidence to inform policy and administrative decision making in public health.

Adoption of a health education intervention for family members of breast cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: Relatives of breast cancer patients often face substantial uncertainty and psychological stress regarding their own health risks and optimal strategies for prevention and early detection. Efficacious educational and counseling interventions are rarely evaluated for their potential adoption and use in medical practice settings. This study evaluates a health education program for first-degree relatives of breast cancer patients based on the program's potential for being adopted and used by medical practices affiliated with cancer centers. METHODS: A randomized, controlled trial was implemented in four community hospital-based medical practices. After 9 months, clinical and administrative staff at each practice were given self-administered surveys. Of 90 staff members recruited to respond, useable responses were received from 60 (67%), including 13 physicians (31%), 43 nurses (98%), and four program managers (100%). Participants made self-reports of program awareness, program support, perceived program performance, likelihood of program adoption and use, and barriers to adoption. RESULTS: A strong majority of respondents (80%) reported that all or most staff agreed with the need for the program. Perceived program performance in meeting goals was generally favorable but varied across sites and across staff types. Overall, 56% of respondents indicated that their practices were likely or highly likely to adopt the program in full. The likelihood of adoption varied substantially across sites and across program components. CONCLUSIONS: Evaluating the potential for program adoption offers insight for tailoring preventive health interventions and their implementation strategies to improve diffusion in the field of practice.

How managed care plans contribute to public health practice.

Growth in managed care enrollment potentially creates incentives for health plans to become involved in public health activities, such as health promotion and disease prevention interventions, and care for vulnerable populations. Using cross-sectional data from 60 diverse markets, this study explores the extent to which health maintenance organizations (HMOs) form cooperative alliances with local public health agencies to perform such activities. Results from multivariate models suggest that the incentives for cooperation vary substantially with health plan ownership and market structure. In view of recent HMO industry trends, these findings raise questions about the ability of alliances to integrate the practice of public health and medicine on a broad national scale, as some proponents suggest they do.

Functional and structural diversity of the human Dickkopf gene family.

Wnt proteins influence many aspects of embryonic development, and their activity is regulated by several secreted antagonists, including the Xenopus Dickkopf-1 (xDkk-1) protein. xDkk-1 inhibits Wnt activities in Xenopus embryos and may play a role in induction of head structures. Here, we characterize a family of human Dkk-related genes composed of Dkk-1, Dkk-2, Dkk-3, and Dkk-4, together with a unique Dkk-3 related protein termed Soggy (Sgy). hDkks 1-4 contain two distinct cysteine-rich domains in which the positions of 10 cysteine residues are highly conserved between family members. Sgy is a novel secreted protein related to Dkk-3 but which lacks the cysteine-rich domains. Members of the Dkk-related family display unique patterns of mRNA expression in human and mouse tissues, and are secreted when expressed in 293T cells. Furthermore, secreted hDkk-2 and hDkk-4 undergo proteolytic processing which results in cleavage of the second cysteine-rich domain from the full-length protein. Members of the human Dkk-related family differ not only in their structures and expression patterns, but also in their abilities to inhibit Wnt signaling. hDkk-1 and hDkk-4, but not hDkk-2, hDkk-3 or Sgy, suppress Wnt-induced secondary axis induction in Xenopus embryos. hDkk-1 and hDkk-4 do not block axis induction triggered either by Xenopus Dishevelled (Xdsh) or Xenopus Frizzled-8 (Xfz8), both of which function to transduce signals from Wnt ligands. Thus, hDkks 1 and 4 may inhibit Wnt activity by a mechanism upstream of Frizzled. Our findings highlight the structural and functional heterogeneity of human Dkk-related proteins.

Male caregivers of mentally ill relatives.

TOPIC: To describe the lived experiences of male caregivers of severely mentally ill relatives and their perceptions of this nontraditional role. METHODS: A qualitative study of informal interviews with purposively selected male caregivers (N = 10), using an informal interview guide that addressed psychosocial, physical, financial, and crisis-management categories. FINDINGS: The data yielded three themes of caregiving: expressions of burden, duration and depth of commitment, and role affirmation. CONCLUSIONS: The results can help health professionals develop needed education and support services for men in this emerging role and contribute to family health in the community.

Collaboration to improve community health: trends and alternative models.

BACKGROUND: Many health care organizations have begun to pursue collaborative approaches for addressing community-level health issues. To understand how these community health alliances develop and operate, a descriptive study was conducted within a nationally selected group of 60 local communities and supplemented by detailed case studies in 8 communities. ALLIANCE MODELS: A broad array of organizations were found to participate in community health alliances. Moreover, alliances were found to vary considerably. Strategically, alliances focused on one of three primary objectives: acquiring needed organizational knowledge and skills; addressing common resource needs; and pursuing a shared organizational mission. Functionally, alliances were observed in the areas of service delivery, planning and policy development, surveillance and assessment, and education and outreach. Structurally, alliances were found to operate through one of four interorganizational arrangements; informal collaboration, contractual agreements, shared governance, and shared ownership. ALLIANCE DEVELOPMENT: Organizational characteristics such as ownership type, organizational proximity, and market share appear to be important in the development of community health alliances. Community and market characteristics--including health resource availability, HMO penetration, and market consolidation--also appear to be influential in alliance development. Longitudinal observations suggest that alliances evolve over time in response to changing community health needs and organizational objectives. ALLIANCE MANAGEMENT: Several managerial tasks appear to be important to successful alliance operations, including developing a shared vision of collaboration; devising explicit strategies for addressing participation constraints; ensuring the compatibility of organizational incentives; managing communication and information flows across organizations; and developing appropriate processes for performance monitoring. CONCLUSIONS: The observed variation in alliance structures and functions appears healthy rather than problematic, as organizations develop arrangements to fit community needs, organizational capacities, and market conditions.

Assessing the performance of local public health systems: a survey of state health agency efforts.

Throughout the past decade, growing attention has focused on ways to monitor the performance of local public health organizations and ensure the adequacy of their services. We surveyed representatives of the nation's state health agencies during 1997 to examine their processes for local public health performance assessment. Eighty-eight percent of agencies reported some involvement in assessment activities. Of these agencies, 50 percent reported having an assessment process that was currently operative. States reported using a diversity of assessment methods. Results suggest that states are developing performance assessment processes that are tailored to local resources, needs, and priorities.

Vascular MADs: two novel MAD-related genes selectively inducible by flow in human vascular endothelium.

Vascular endothelium is an important transducer and integrator of both humoral and biomechanical stimuli within the cardiovascular system. Utilizing a differential display approach, we have identified two genes, Smad6 and Smad7, encoding members of the MAD-related family of molecules, selectively induced in cultured human vascular endothelial cells by steady laminar shear stress, a physiologic fluid mechanical stimulus. MAD-related proteins are a recently identified family of intracellular proteins that are thought to be essential components in the signaling pathways of the serine/threonine kinase receptors of the transforming growth factor beta superfamily. Smad6 and Smad7 possess unique structural features (compared with previously described MADs), and they can physically interact with each other, and, in the case of Smad6, with other known human MAD species, in endothelial cells. Transient expression of Smad6 or Smad7 in vascular endothelial cells inhibits the activation of a transfected reporter gene in response to both TGF-beta and fluid mechanical stimulation. Both Smad6 and Smad7 exhibit a selective pattern of expression in human vascular endothelium in vivo as detected by immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization. Thus, Smad6 and Smad7 constitute a novel class of MAD-related proteins, termed vascular MADs, that are induced by fluid mechanical forces and can modulate gene expression in response to both humoral and biomechanical stimulation in vascular endothelium.

Developing leaders in public health: the role of executive training programs.

The growing complexity of the nation's health care system is creating new challenges and opportunities for public health officials, and a renewed concern for leadership training among these officials. A focus group conducted with public health officials at local, state, and national levels reveals perceptions about the predominant trends effecting public health practice, the leadership skills required for effective public health practice, and the strategies that are needed for providing appropriate leadership training to public health executives. Officials indicate that public health practice is undergoing substantial changes in response to the growth of managed care and integrated delivery systems, changes in public health funding sources and levels, and efforts to privatize the delivery of public health services. The skills identified as critical for effective leadership in this environment include the ability to guide organizational behavior and cultivate interorganizational relationships; apply scientific knowledge to public health problems, and build and sustain community coalitions. In light of these skills, public health officials identify four essential components of an optimally effective executive training program in public health leadership: exposure to the core scientific disciplines within public health; exposure to organization theory and management science; training in community development and empowerment; and training in ethics and social justice. All of the officials agree with the need for distance learning programs for executives in public health leadership, and most officials also support the need for doctoral-level training in public health practice.