Conclusion In conclusion, our study showed that spine specialty h

Conclusion In conclusion, our study showed that spine specialty hospitals have higher per day inpatient charges and much shorter LOS than other types of hospitals due to their specialty volume and experience. Specialty hospitals endeavour to be more efficient after

governmental ‘specialty’ designation. In addition, phosphatase inhibitor the patient readmission rate was lower for specialty hospitals than general hospitals. To promote a successful specialty hospital system, a broader discussion that includes patient satisfaction and the real cost of care should be initiated. Supplementary Material Author’s manuscript: Click here to view.(1.2M, pdf) Reviewer comments: Click here to view.(311K, pdf) Footnotes Contributors: SJK designed the study, researched data, performed statistical analyses and wrote the manuscript. JWY, SGL, THK, K-TH and E-CP contributed to the discussion, and reviewed and edited the manuscript. E-CP

is the guarantor. Competing interests: None. Provenance and peer review: Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed. Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
In 2003, the seventh report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC 7) proposed a new blood pressure (BP) category, including 120–139 mm Hg systolic BP (SBP) or 80–89 mm Hg diastolic BP (DBP), designated as ‘prehypertension’.1 The prevalence of prehypertension is up to 30–50% worldwide, as well as in many districts of China.2–4 It is known that in China the prevalence of hypertension is significantly higher in the northern area than in the southern area because of the colder climate and high sodium intake.5 Such regional factors may also affect the prevalence of prehypertension. However, the prevalence of prehypertension in Guangdong Province, southern China has been rarely reported. Prehypertensive individuals are prone to progress into frank hypertension, and most of them present with clustering of other cardiovascular

risk factors.6–8 However, the use of the term ‘prehypertension’ is still controversial. Most of the arguments against using this term consist of the possible public anxiety and Anacetrapib overtreatment it may cause. Further, there is a high heterogeneity within this category because the risk of progressing to hypertension and developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) is higher among people with BP 130–139/85–89 mm Hg than among those with BP 120–129/80–84 mm Hg.6 9 Furthermore, the question of whether the concurrent cardiovascular risk factors in subgroups of prehypertension are different remains unanswered. Given these inconsistent results, we conducted a retrospective analysis to explore the prevalence of prehypertension, and the cardiovascular risk factors in the subgroups of prehypertension in Guangdong Province, southern China.

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