A new method recently used for measuring the temperature is using tympanic thermometer. The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of this method with rectal and axillary measurement in children less than 6 years old. A total of 220 pair ears, axillaries, and rectal sites were used to determine the body temperature in patients aged between 3 months to 6 years who referred to Emergency De...

In the present paper we develop recursive algorithms to evaluate the distribution of the net present value (abbreviated as ”NPV”) of a health care contract. The duration of the program is a random variable representing the lifetime of an individual. We suggest a discrete time phase-type approach to model individual health care costs. In this approach, annual health care costs depend naturally o...

Since October 2010, over 700,000 cholera cases have been reported in Haiti. We used data from laboratory-based surveillance for diarrhea in Haiti to evaluate the sensitivity, specificity, and positive (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV) of the cholera case definitions recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). From April 2012 to May 2013, we tested 1,878 samples from hospitalize...

High-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) testing has a higher sensitivity but lower specificity than cytology for detection of high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). To avoid over-referral to colposcopy and overtreatment, hrHPV-positive women require triage testing and/or followup. A total of 25,658 women (30-60 years) enrolled in a population-based cohort study had an adequate baseline Pap ...

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS As colorectal cancer screening programs are being implemented worldwide, an increasing number of early (T1) cancers are being diagnosed. These cancers should be recognized during colonoscopy because they require a specific therapeutic approach. Several studies have shown that Asian experts can reliably recognize T1 cancers during colonoscopy. In daily practice, however...

BACKGROUND National guidelines suggest the use of natriuretic peptides in suspected heart failure but there have been no studies comparing assays in primary care. AIM To test and compare the diagnostic accuracy and utility of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal B-type natriuretic peptide (NT proBNP) in diagnosing heart failure due to left ventricular systolic dysfunction in patien...

OBJECTIVE To assess the validity of the International Classification of Disease (ICD) codes for identifying patients with dyslipidemia in electronic medical record (EMR) data. METHODS The EMRs of patients receiving primary care in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), Canada, were retrieved from the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network database. International Classificati...

STUDY OBJECTIVES Acute respiratory failure (ARF) can be treated with either invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) or noninvasive mechanical ventilation (NIMV), which can spare the complications of artificial airways. To evaluate the efficacy of an integrated approach using negative pressure ventilation (NPV) with iron lung and noninvasive positive pressure ventilation (NPPV), we performed a pro...