Table 3.
Utilization and costs of diagnostic procedures related to gastroenterological diseases among cohorts (n = 183 976) in 2001: top 20 by total cost
| Item of diagnostic proceduresa | No. of patients | No. of orders |
Total cost |
||
| US $ | % | Cum.% | |||
| Whole body computer | 2 541 | 3 092 | 374 106 | 19.7% | 19.7% |
| tomography (without contrast) | |||||
| Abdominal sonography | 11 132 | 15 730 | 349 690 | 18.4% | 38.1% |
| Whole body computer tomography | 1 644 | 2 106 | 320 943 | 16.9% | 55.0% |
| (with/without contrast) | |||||
| Upper GI panendoscopy | 4 693 | 5 606 | 247 458 | 13.0% | 68.0% |
| Serum GPT | 25 427 | 47 523 | 69 765 | 3.7% | 71.7% |
| Serum GOT | 24 265 | 45 653 | 67 676 | 3.6% | 75.2% |
| Whole body computer | 337 | 437 | 59 522 | 3.1% | 78.3% |
| tomography (with contrast) | |||||
| Colon fiberoscopy | 730 | 780 | 50 698 | 2.7% | 81.0% |
| Double-contrast study | 421 | 432 | 29 421 | 1.5% | 82.6% |
| of lower GI series | |||||
| AFP (RIA) | 1 461 | 2 408 | 28 361 | 1.5% | 84.1% |
| AFP (EIA) | 2 363 | 3 570 | 20 86 | 1.1% | 85.2% |
| Plain abdomen X-ray | 2 338 | 2 856 | 18 498 | 1.0% | 86.1% |
| Serum bilirubin, total | 6 345 | 12 553 | 18 307 | 1.0% | 87.1% |
| HbsAg (EIA) | 3 678 | 3 999 | 17 237 | 0.9% | 88.0% |
| Serum albumin | 6 989 | 14 638 | 15 522 | 0.8% | 88.8% |
| CEA (EIA) | 856 | 1 308 | 15 293 | 0.8% | 89.6% |
| Alkaline phosphatase | 5 686 | 10 091 | 14 159 | 0.7% | 90.4% |
| Upper GI series | 296 | 315 | 13 347 | 0.7% | 91.1% |
| CEA (RIA) | 647 | 1 127 | 13 344 | 0.7% | 91.8% |
| Sigmoid fiberoscopy | 311 | 327 | 11 620 | 0.6% | 92.4% |
| Others | 144 922 | 7.6% | 100.0% | ||
| Totalb | 36 004 | 210 156 | 1 900 752 | 100.0% | |
a
Magnet resonance imaging (MRI) was excluded from analy-sis because the fee schedule of the National Health Insurance did not differentiate MRI for abdomen from MRI for other body parts.
b
Numbers might not add to totals because of rounding.