In 1982, following the recommendations of a WHO study group, multidrug therapy (MDT) was introduced into French Polynesia to treat all patients suffering from active leprosy, and--only on request--those still on dapsone monotherapy. After 5 years, a clear-cut decrease of prevalence and mean annual detection rates for leprosy (except for detection rates among children aged less than 15 years, ma...

OBJECTIVE To determine the frequency, time interval to relapse and the possible risk factors for relapse in multibacillary (MB) leprosy after 1 year's treatment with the standard multi-drug therapy (MDT). MATERIALS AND METHODS Smear positive MB patients treated with MDT for 1 year were enrolled in a prospective relapse study between 1999 and 2005 at the Leonard Wood Memorial Center for Lepros...

Fifty-two BB-LL relapse cases referred to our centre during 1997-2003 were investigated in detail. Twenty-four cases had been treated with extended MB-MDT [until smear negativity (NON-FDT)]. The remaining 28 cases (54%) had received one of the fixed duration regimens (FDT), of whom 11 had 24 months and 6 had 12 months of WHO MB-MDT. Eleven cases had received rifampicin/ofloxacin (RO) treatment....

PURPOSE The quality of decision-making in the colorectal multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings can significantly affect the quality of care delivered to patients with colorectal cancer. We performed a prospective study to assess the quality of the MDT meetings in a specialized colorectal unit using an externally observational validated tool. METHODS An externally validated observational tool,...

Framed Slotted Aloha (FSA) protocols are widely used in various communication systems. This paper investigates the performance of FSA systems that employ diversity transmission (DT) techniques over erasable wireless channels. Two DT schemes, DT-SWIR and DT-SWOR, differentiated by the underlying channel sampling procedures, i.e., sampling with/without replacement (SWIR/SWOR), are proposed. Modif...

BACKGROUND Comorbidity is very common among patients with cancer. Multidisciplinary team meetings (MDTs) are increasingly the context within which cancer treatment decisions are made internationally. Little is known about how comorbidity is considered, or impacts decisions, in MDTs. METHODS A systematic literature review was conducted to evaluate previous evidence on consideration, and impact...

Background and Aims Multidrug therapy (MDT) in leprosy has brought the prevalence of leprosy to elimination levels. However, these drugs are not without toxicity. The primary aim of this study was to find the prevalence of adverse drug reactions (ADR) to MDT and the secondary aim to study the clinical features of these drug reactions. Materials and Methods This is a19-year retrospective descr...

Purpose. To prospectively evaluate regional referrals into a soft tissue sarcoma service from outside the tertiary centre with local hospital imaging. Materials and Methods. Consecutive referrals were prospectively assessed for: patient demographics, source, referral date, date received by Multidisciplinary Team (MDT), lesion size, local radiology, MDT radiology and final diagnoses. Radiology d...

Abstract Background Multidisciplinary teamwork is a critical aspect of patient care. It has well recognised impact on healthcare outcomes. Communication among the multidisciplinary team (MDT) paramount for effective collaboration, joint care planning and co-ordinated assessments patients. Aim To evaluate an MDT teaching programme understanding roles, communication MDT. Methods A questionnaire w...

Leprosy control depends solely on case detection and treatment with multi-drug therapy (MDT). – 3 This strategy is based on the principle that identifying and treating chronic infectious diseases with combinations of effective antibiotics limits the emergence and spread of new or existing antibiotic resistant pathogens. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), MDT formulated for lepros...