OBJECTIVE Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) is highly prevalent in Bihar, India. India and its neighbours aim at eliminating VL, but several knowledge gaps in the epidemiology of VL may hamper that effort. The prevalence of asymptomatic infections with Leishmania donovani and their role in transmission dynamics are not well understood. We report data from a sero-survey in Bihar. METHODS Demographic...

BACKGROUND Haemophilia is a rare hereditary haemorrhagic disease that requires regular intravenous injections of clotting factor (CF) concentrates. This study sought to estimate the health and economic burden of haemophilia in Belgium. This is the first study of its type to be conducted, and reflects the Belgian authorities' growing interest for haemophilia as part of their priority planning fo...

A new direct agglutination test (DAT) for use with urine samples for the diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) has been developed and compared with the conventional DAT with serum samples and our previously reported enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with urine samples (urine ELISA). The new DAT, in which anti-human IgG was used as enhancing antibody, was tested with urine samples fro...

Reverse osmosis (RO) has been widely applied in various water and wastewater treatment processes as a promising membrane technology. However, RO membrane fouling is a global issue, which limits it operating flux, decreases water production, increases power consumption and requires periodical membranes Cleaning-in-Place (CIP) procedure. This may result in low effectiveness, high cost and adds en...

BACKGROUND We evaluated the Ziehl-Neelsen staining (ZNS) technique for the diagnosis of paragonimiasis in Laos and compared different modifications of the ZNS techniques. METHODOLOGY WE APPLIED THE FOLLOWING APPROACH: We (1) examined a paragonimiasis index case's sputum with wet film direct examination (WF) and ZNS; (2) re-examined stored ZNS slides from two provinces; (3) compared prospectiv...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Cost in healthcare is an increasing and justifiable concern that impacts decisions about the introduction of new devices such as the da Vinci(®) surgical robot. Because equipment expenses represent only a portion of overall medical costs, we set out to make more specific cost comparisons between open and robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS We perf...

BACKGROUND Detection of hypertensive retinopathy (HR) with direct ophthalmoscopy is part of the assessment of hypertensive patients. Its use has been questioned because of its subjectivity and high interobserver variability. OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of HR in hypertensive patients under outpatient monitoring, the correlation between diagnosis and ophthalmoscopy and angiography, an...

Previous studies suggest that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can facilitate motor performance and learning. In this double-blind experiment, 60 healthy human subjects (29 females) were randomized into three groups (active tDCS, sham tDCS, and no-treatment control group) in order to investigate the effect of a 20 min session of 2 mA tDCS over the motor cortex contralateral to the...

OBJECTIVES To estimate the cost and characterize the management of asthma attacks in primary care. DESIGN Prospective, observational study of 1 year's duration. Setting. 10 physician's offices at 9 primary care centers located in 5 provinces (Asturias, Barcelona, Cadiz, Madrid, and Valencia) of Spain. PARTICIPANTS 10 family physicians who saw 133 consecutive patients with an asthma attack. ...

The cost-effectiveness of four production systems of a short-straw form of winter triticale (cv. Alekto) with different levels of nitrogen fertilization and fungicide treatment was determined. Based on the current prices of means of production, the total cost of winter triticale production was estimated at PLN 2200-2600, and direct costs accounted for 60-65% of total costs. Regardless of the ap...