AIM This cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the diagnostic performance of a new rapid immunochromatographic test named "Paracheck pf" in the diagnosis of malaria in Nigerian children. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 380 Nigerian children aged between 6 and 59 months who presented at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Enugu with fever and no obvious focus of any o...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether semen and plasma presepsin values measured in men with normozoospermia and oligoasthenospermia undergoing invitro-fertilization would be helpful in predicting ongoing pregnancy and live birth. METHODS Group-I was defined as patients who had pregnancy after treatment and Group-II comprised those with no pregnancy. Semen and blood presepsin values were subsequentl...

OBJECTIVE To establish the accuracy of unenhanced CT in the preoperative diagnosis of acute appendicitis. DESIGN Accuracy study, prospective and blinded. SETTING The University Hospital. PARTICIPANTS 52 patients with clinical and laboratorial manifestations of acute appendicitis. CT diagnosis was made by: presence of an abnormal appendix, appendiceal calculi with pericecal phlegmon or alt...

I first encountered sensitivity and specificity in medical school. That is, I remember my eyes glazing over on being told that “sensitivity = TP/TP+FN, where TP is the number of true positives and FN is the number of false negatives.” As a doctor I continued to encounter sensitivity and specificity, and my bewilderment turned to frustration—these seemed such basic concepts; why were they so har...

BACKGROUND Post-extubation stridor occurs after translaryngeal intubation results to re-intubation in a number of patients. OBJECTIVE To determine the cut-off value of the cuff leak volume test among Thai patients as a predictor for post-extubation stridor MATERIAL AND METHOD Demographic data and cuff leak volume were collected from patients who had been intubated with planned extubation. C...

AIMS The aim of this study was to determine whether Subjective Interpretation of paper markings is a reliable method for identifying the relative occlusal force content of tooth contacts. METHODOLOGY 295 clinicians selected the "Most Forceful" and "Least Forceful" occlusal contacts in six occlusal-view photographs of articulating paper marks that were later compared against computerized occlu...

BACKGROUND Acute appendicitis is the most frequent surgical emergency encountered worldwide. This study was conducted to compare the efficacy of Tzanakis score and Alvarado score in diagnosing acute appendicitis. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study is to compare the efficacy of Tzanakis scoring system with Alvarado scoring system in diagnosing AA. METHODS This was a retrospective and nonrandom...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this research was to measure fever prevalence and the effectiveness of a fever screening procedure in detecting febrile arrivals at an international airport in Korea. METHODS Data were retrieved from arrivals' health declaration forms and questionnaires for febrile arrivals at an international airport collected by a national quarantine station during the year 2012. S...

The prevention and control of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are important, particularly in emergency units. The active surveillance of MRSA was prospectively performed at the emergency medical center of Nagasaki University Hospital. After obtaining nasal swab specimens, a fully automated molecular test (FAMT) and a culture-screening method were utilized for MRSA detection. ...

BACKGROUND Electrodermal reactions (EDRs) can be attributed to many origins, including spontaneous fluctuations of electrodermal activity (EDA) and stimuli such as deep inspirations, voluntary mental activity and startling events. In fields that use EDA as a measure of psychophysiological state, the fact that EDRs may be elicited from many different stimuli is often ignored. This study attempts...