Replies to post #154804 on Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Zeev Hed]

Thanks Akvetch, now, if I was a conspiracy theorist, I would say that Wachovia planned their downgrade perfectly, a week before BSTE announces a minor shortfall (which I am still not sure will be actualised) and before a relatively good announcement from the company (the results actually indicates that emergency rooms are discharging quite a number of people without appropriate treatment that die within 90 days...they also keep in the hospital a bunch of people that only discomfort is a stomach ache (g).....The active use of BNP should eliminate that small problem.

[drzzzzz]

I am very interested in this technology and have no position or opinion of the stock (yet). However, I do find this "abstract"/press release of concern when the authors compare "median" BNP levels in discharged patients versus "mean" BNP levels in admitted patients and then try to draw a presumed statistical conclusion (27% percent higher in discharged patients). Using two different group averages for comparison is unusual and might make one wonder whether something is not quite kosher; the raw data likely needs to be evaluated to ensure that the means are truly different. I do agree, however, that the greatest benefit would be to screen out patients who do not need to be admitted and thereby reduce hospital costs. I also note that 30 day mortality was the same in both groups. Any patient with an exacerbation of congestive heart failure would normally see his physician within a few days of his ED visit and subsequent risk factors and severity of the patient's disease should be reassessed at that time. I am not sure using 90 day mortalitiy data is a good indicator for the ED pump that this article is encouraging.