Diagnostic Testing

An Orange County company that provided heart monitoring services has agreed to pay $3.6 million to settle a lawsuit in which it was accused of defrauding government healthcare programs, the U.S. attorney's office said Thursday. The lawsuit alleged that National Cardio Labs LLC; the company's manager, Adrienne Stanman; and Stanman's husband, Robert Parsons, a former manager, defrauded Medicare, Tricare and health insurance carriers contracted through the federal government. National Cardio Labs, with offices in Santa Ana, Aliso Viejo and Irvine, was operating as an independent diagnostic testing facility that received, analyzed and printed out data from heart monitors and other medical devices, authorities said.

A lot of us find our way to the doctor with strange aches and pains that are very, very unlikely to be caused by serious illness -- headaches, back pains or stomach troubles, to name a few. To be on the safe side, physicians will often order tests to rule out the scary stuff and, the thinking goes, provide reassurance.  But a recent examination of 14 randomized, controlled trials found that ordering diagnostic tests for people who have a low...

Early indications from a new study to explain last year's mysteriously high bacteria levels off Huntington Beach support suspicions that Talbert Marsh--contaminated with urban runoff--is the culprit, researchers said Monday. Workers began the experiment Monday by pumping 150 liters of magenta dye into the water at the mouth of the marsh and the Santa Ana River.

Even among psychiatric disorders, depression is a difficult disease to diagnose. Its causes remain a mystery, its symptoms can't be defined with precision, and treatments are spotty at best. But that may soon change. Scientists are looking for ways to identify patients with depression as reliably as they diagnose cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. A new study takes a significant, though preliminary, step in that direction by demonstrating that a simple blood test can distinguish between people who are depressed and those who are not. The test examined a panel of 28 biological markers that circulate in the bloodstream and found that 11 of them could predict the presence of depression at accuracy levels that ranged from medium to large.

Five specially equipped vans will offer free AIDS tests and counseling at drug and alcohol abuse centers throughout Los Angeles County this fall, but health experts say the program will fail to reach those who need it most--addicts and alcoholics not in treatment. Active substance abusers are twice as likely to be infected with the human immunodeficiency virus as those enrolled in treatment programs, according to surveys by county health authorities.

The Medical Center of North Hollywood Community Health Foundation has agreed to donate $6,000 to the Valley Community Clinic to meet an increased demand for AIDS testing in the San Fernando Valley. The community clinic offers free and anonymous testing for the acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus at its facility at 5648 Vineland Ave. The clinic is testing 800 people each month, twice the number of a year ago.

The Bush administration on Thursday backed away from a plan to end mandatory testing for illness-causing salmonella in hamburger served in school lunches, only hours after the proposed change became widely known. Industry groups had lobbied to ease the zero-tolerance policy for salmonella, saying it was costly and unnecessary. A U.S.

After a bitter three-hour debate, a Los Angeles City Council panel on Monday voted to kill a controversial proposal to have restaurant waitresses, busboys and cooks throughout the city tested for the AIDS virus every six months. City Councilman Nate Holden, who authored the proposal, said such testing was needed because "there is so much unknown about the disease."

Apria Healthcare Group Inc. has received another warning from federal regulators about infractions at one of its plants. Apria's facility in Lima, Ohio, failed to properly test certain batches of liquid oxygen before filling patient units, according to a warning letter last month from the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA also said the company failed to maintain adequate records.

Water won't wait Re "Messing with Devil's Gate," Editorial, May 6 I lived in La Crescenta during the great flood of 1938. I remember listening to radio reports that Devil's Gate Dam was in imminent danger of collapsing. Fortunately it didn't, and the Arroyo Seco and the communities below were saved from a deluge of mud and water. The fact that the dam's basin has been allowed to fill with sediment over the years is a sign of ignorance and mismanagement. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors should make clearing out the basin a top priority.

A new automated test to detect tuberculosis infections and the presence of an antibiotic-resistant TB strain can shave days to weeks off the time it takes to identify new infections, allowing treatment to be started immediately to prevent further spread of the bacterium. The new test, which can be performed by technicians with only limited training, could prove highly valuable not only in the developing world, but also in the inner cities of the developed world where outbreaks of the deadly disease are becoming more common.

An Orange County company that provided heart monitoring services has agreed to pay $3.6 million to settle a lawsuit in which it was accused of defrauding government healthcare programs, the U.S. attorney's office said Thursday. The lawsuit alleged that National Cardio Labs LLC; the company's manager, Adrienne Stanman; and Stanman's husband, Robert Parsons, a former manager, defrauded Medicare, Tricare and health insurance carriers contracted through the federal government. National Cardio Labs, with offices in Santa Ana, Aliso Viejo and Irvine, was operating as an independent diagnostic testing facility that received, analyzed and printed out data from heart monitors and other medical devices, authorities said.

Diabetes rates have climbed steeply in this country in the last two decades. Fortunately, scientists' knowledge of how best to manage the disease is advancing as well. Researchers gathered at the American Diabetes Assn. meeting last week in New Orleans to consider the latest developments, including a new test for diagnosing the disease and a better understanding of the risks of aggressive control of blood sugar.

People with Alzheimer's face an awkward juncture in the near future. They'll be able to learn early on whether they have Alzheimer's disease -- even if they can't do much about it. With therapies to halt or slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease seeming ever more elusive, several blood tests currently in development could determine who has the disease even before symptoms develop or become severe.

Autistic children have abnormalities in their immune systems and unusual constellations of proteins in their blood that may be an indicator of the disorder, UC Davis researchers said Thursday.

The Santa Ana Unified School District now requires all first-grade students as well as all other students in any grade who are new to the county to be tested for tuberculosis. The Board of Education adopted the policy this week to meet new county requirements designed to reduce the risk of infections at schools, district spokeswoman Diane Thomas said.

In the early morning hours, as he drives his Jeep through the sands of 17 miles of Orange County coastline, surfers and other regulars ask Eddie Rabago one overwhelming question: "Dude, is the water OK?" The 77-year-old "beach sampler" for the county's Sanitation District cuts a striking figure as he sets out at 4 a.m. from Sunset Beach to Crystal Cove on his five-hour route.

More intensive medical care -- even at some of the most reputable hospitals in the nation -- does not necessarily translate into longer life or better health and may in fact leave patients worse off, according to research released Thursday.

Ovarian cancer is uncommonly deadly. Tumors aren't usually detected until the disease has spread beyond the ovaries, at which point only a third of patients survive more than five years. A promising blood test could change this bleak picture, enabling doctors to identify ovarian cancer at its earliest, most treatable stage. "This has the potential of being an important advance," says Dr. Philip DiSaia, director of gynecological oncology at the UC Irvine School of Medicine.