[EVALUATION OF THE MEDICAL AND ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF NON-INVASIVE PRENATAL TESTING IN MOSCOW].

AIM: to evaluate the medical and economic efficiency of prenatal diagnostics of fetal chromosomal abnormalities (CA) in pregnant women in Moscow using a non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT) as a second-line model. A comparative analysis of the medical and economic efficiency of standard prenatal screening and prenatal screening with NIPT in groups of pregnant women, registered in Moscow, with high and medium fetal CA risk was carried out. Analysis was based on the number of children born with CA and the costs of medical care (direct costs) and social payments (indirect costs), calculated for both scenarios. Following standard prenatal screening 111 children with CA would be born, following prenatal screening with NIPT - only 26. Including NIPT in prenatal diagnostics increases direct costs by 299.97 million rubles and reduces annual indirect costs from 61.19 to 28.95 million rubles. Starting from the 13th year of using NIPT the estimated effect of reducing indirect costs would exceed direct costs. NIPT in prenatal diagnostics can increase the detection of fetal CA and reduce indirect costs. Assessing the indirect costs in economic efficiency enhances the accuracy of the estimate.

[The present and future of providing iodinated salt to the population]. / K súcasnej a budúcej situáchii suplementácie obyvatel'stva jodidovanou sol'ou.

Iodine content was estimated in 401 samples of table salt (out of which 365 from the distribution network and 101 from households). The values of 85.5% of samples from the distribution network were in normal range (i.e. 25 +/- 10 mg KI/kg) while 9.8% of samples showed the values below that range. The samples from households showed lower values, only 70.2% being in normal range and 28.6% below that which was 3 times more than in those from the distribution network. Such difference may be explained by the loss of iodine from the salt during the storage due to the effects of moisture, temperature and light. However, less satisfactory iodine levels were found in the salt imported from Poland (9 of 28 samples below the normal range, i.e. 32%), Austria (5 from 9 samples below normal range, i.e. 55%) and in the sea salt (7 from 11 samples below normal range, i.e. 63%), while satisfactory values were found in the salt from Germany (all 5 samples examined were in normal range). From 1126 samples from the distribution network examined during 1981-1986 were 63.6 in normal range, while 88.4% out of 612 samples examined during the period 1987-1990 hat their iodine levels in normal range. Present data show satisfactory iodine content in the salt which justifies the assumption of satisfactory iodine intake in the population of Slovakia. (Tab. 2, Ref. 6.).

Effect of excitation and emission wavelength on the fluorescence lifetimes of chlorophyll a.

The effect of excitation and emission wavelengths on fluorescence decay times of Chlorophyll a were measured in four solutions (C approximately 10(-5) mol X 1(-1] and in polymethyl methacrylate films. The decay times observed were corrected with respect to self-absorption and re-emission effects. The fluorescence decay times of Chlorophyll a was found to depend on both the excitation and the emission wavelengths.