Radiographic assessment of pulmonary fluid clearance and lung aeration in newborn calves delivered by elective Caesarean section.

The aim of this study was to develop a radiographic standard for the assessment of pulmonary fluid clearance and lung aeration in newborn calves. Caesarean-delivered mature calves (n = 9) underwent lung assessment by thoracic radiography as well as arterial and venous blood gas analysis within the first 30 min, 1, 2, 3, 6, 12 and 24 hr after birth. The results indicated that newborn calves delivered by elective Caesarean section suffered from a physiological combined respiratory and metabolic acidosis with the dominance of respiratory acidosis, and an improvement in these conditions was recorded within 24 hr after birth. Concerning the radiographic results, clear lung fields, improvement in lung expansion, air content of the lung and absence of lung opacification occurred within 24 hr of birth. Furthermore, the ventral lung quadrant showed an improvement in radiographic opacification and lung expansion earlier than the dorsal lung regions. The findings of this study support the potential role of thoracic radiography in the assessment of pulmonary fluid clearance and lung aeration in newborn calves.

[Changing the internal cost allocation (ICA) on DRG shares : Example of computed tomography in a university radiology setting]. / Umstellung der internen Leistungsverrechnung (ILV) auf DRG-Anteile : Beispiel der Computertomographie einer universitären Radiologie.

BACKGROUND: In hospitals, the radiological services provided to non-privately insured in-house patients are mostly distributed to requesting disciplines through internal cost allocation (ICA). In many institutions, computed tomography (CT) is the modality with the largest amount of allocation credits. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this work is to compare the ICA to respective DRG (Diagnosis Related Groups) shares for diagnostic CT services in a university hospital setting. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The data from four CT scanners in a large university hospital were processed for the 2012 fiscal year. For each of the 50 DRG groups with the most case-mix points, all diagnostic CT services were documented including their respective amount of GOÄ allocation credits and invoiced ICA value. As the German Institute for Reimbursement of Hospitals (InEK) database groups the radiation disciplines (radiology, nuclear medicine and radiation therapy) together and also lacks any modality differentiation, the determination of the diagnostic CT component was based on the existing institutional distribution of ICA allocations. RESULTS: Within the included 24,854 cases, 63,062,060 GOÄ-based performance credits were counted. The ICA relieved these diagnostic CT services by € 819,029 (single credit value of 1.30 Eurocent), whereas accounting by using DRG shares would have resulted in € 1,127,591 (single credit value of 1.79 Eurocent). The GOÄ single credit value is 5.62 Eurocent. CONCLUSIONS: The diagnostic CT service was basically rendered as relatively inexpensive. In addition to a better financial result, changing the current ICA to DRG shares might also mean a chance for real revenues. However, the attractiveness considerably depends on how the DRG shares are distributed to the different radiation disciplines of one institution.