Useful modifications and variations of technics in work on I system antibodies.
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Antibodies↗
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Results for “Technical working group”
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[Localization of prostate cancer within the central gland by endorectal MR spectroscopic imaging].
OBJECTIVES: The endorectal MR spectroscopic imaging is a new imaging test which allows more accurate and reliable localization and staging of prostate cancer than simple endorectal MRI. The combination of spectroscopic MR and MRI has recently achieved technical improvements that increased reliability in the detection of prostate cancer. Our group is now working in the detection of prostate cancer with the spectroscopic MR, in co-operation with the Agency for the Evaluation of Technology for Medical Research (Agencia de Evaluación de Tecnología para la Investigación Médica-AATRM); although we are waiting for definitive results, we can advance that this technique may be used as a good alternative for localization of prostate cancer in patients with previous negative biopsies in whom the suspicion of prostate cancer persists. METHODS: We present a series of 5 patients under control for permanent elevation of PSA with previous negative biopsies. We were performing ultrasound guided sextant biopsies every 6 months, after blood test for PSA. Endorectal MRI and spectroscopic MRI were performed to try to localize the prostate cancer so diminishing the number of biopsies. RESULTS: All patients in the series had a low intensity lesion within the normal low intensity of the central gland, with an obvious spectroscopic metabolic abnormality suggesting the existence of prostate cancer, as it was then demonstrated by biopsy. CONCLUSIONS: The endorectal MR spectroscopic imaging is a non invasive method which offers the ability to detect prostate cancer within the central gland with a higher reliability in selected patients. The central gland is an area in which prostate cancer is less commonly localized, but it often shows the same signal intensity than hyperplastic tissue, so that it is difficult to be detected by purely morphological methods. Endorectal MR spectroscopic imaging allows evaluating the metabolic disturbances in the whole gland, increasing the reliability of detection of prostate cancer both in the central and peripherical glands.
Aged↗
The search for standards.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigned the responsibility for developing valve standards to its technical committee on surgical implants. A sub-committee on cardiovascular implants and the working group for heart valves were formed more than 20 years ago. The working group has learned a great deal, not only from its experience with ISO, but most of all from the collaboration of its international experts representing science, engineering and manufacturing. The first valve standard was published in 1984, revised in 1989, and the next revision will probably be published in 1995. After the formation of this ISO working group in 1972, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) developed regulations for the premarket approval of heart valves in the United States. The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) was subsequently formed and appointed a working group to develop heart valve standards for Europe. It rapidly became apparent that the lack of co-ordination and communication of three separate organizations writing documents with different requirements and tests would lead to inconsistent and conflicting requirements. The ultimate outcome could have been a threat to public welfare by limiting the availability of medical devices. The commitment to the harmonization of standards by CEN and ISO, and the recent FDA policy to participate actively in standards development, have greatly improved this situation. Past errors, omissions and inappropriate attitudes have often slowed the standards process or have resulted in incomplete standards. This learning experience, while painful, should point the way to more timely and complete standards development in the future.
Biomedical Engineering↗
The activities of veterinary vaccine control laboratories.
The activities of veterinary vaccine control laboratories are reviewed. The National Veterinary Assay Laboratory (NVAL) in Japan is used as an example to describe a quality control system for veterinary vaccines. Veterinary vaccine control laboratories conduct tests on veterinary vaccines and perform studies to improve test methods to ensure quality, efficacy and safety. The primary responsibility of the veterinary vaccine control laboratory is the assay of animal vaccines for national use. In addition, vaccine control laboratories perform activities for the distribution of reference products, examinations, inspection of other laboratories to ensure implementation of 'good laboratory practices', technical training and other duties prescribed by the Ministry of Agriculture. The NVAL and veterinary control laboratories from other countries have participated in the work of the International Co-operation on Harmonisation of Veterinary Medicinal Products (VICH) group initiated by the Office International des Epizooties to harmonise technical requirements for registration of veterinary vaccines.
Animals↗
Pooled normal values, a useful technic.
Few laboratories determine their normal values, because of the work involved. This study attempted to see whether a group of laboratories, each contributing a portion of the samples, could pool their information to yield data applicable to the whole group. Each of 20 VA Hospital laboratories obtained approximately 20 fasting early morning specimens from healthy men, aged 20-29 years, during a four-week period. Routine chemistry examinations (16) were performed on Technicon AutoAnalyzers (12/60, 6/60, and AAII), and model S Coulter Counters were used for five hematology tests (381 values for each constituent). Within-day, day-to-day, and interlaboratory variance were determined in parallel-method variability studies. The data showed: (1) it is valid to pool normal values from different laboratories when non-random variables have been eliminated; (2) non-random variables can be identified by increased interlaboratory variance, whether differences such as methods and equipment are obvious or not; (3) normal values so derived agree well with those from large series performed in single laboratories.
Adult↗
Quality control parameters of intraoperative radiation therapy.
We have tried to outline many of the factors which must be considered in the technical delivery of IORT and in subsequent evaluation of these patients. Unless careful attention is given to details of patient selection, surgery, pathology, radiation therapy and follow-up, it is likely that a vast morass of data will be obtained which will be very difficult to interpret. It is the hope of the IORT Working Group that other institutions using IORT will employ our recommendations with regard to dosimetry, follow-up, and the general technical approach. This will likely lead to an earlier understanding of the exact role of this modality in cancer therapy today.
Combined Modality Therapy↗
Can a senior house officer's time be used more effectively?
OBJECTIVES: To determine the amount of time senior house officers (SHO) spent performing tasks that could be delegated to a technician or administrative assistant and therefore to quantify the expected benefit that could be obtained by employing such physicians' assistants (PA). METHODS: SHOs working in the emergency department were observed for one week by pre-clinical students who had been trained to code and time each task performed by SHOs. Activity was grouped into four categories (clinical, technical, administrative, and other). Those activities in the technical and administrative categories were those we believed could be performed by a PA. RESULTS: The SHOs worked 430 hours in total, of which only 25 hours were not coded due to lack of an observer. Of the 405 hours observed 86.2% of time was accounted for by the various codes. The process of taking a history and examining patients accounted for an average of 22% of coded time. Writing the patient's notes accounted for an average of 20% of coded time. Discussion with relatives and patients accounted for 4.7% of coded time and performing procedures accounted for 5.2% of coded time. On average across all shifts, 15% of coded time was spent doing either technical or administrative tasks. CONCLUSION: In this department an average of 15% of coded SHOs working time was spent performing administrative and technical tasks, rising to 17% of coded time during a night shift. This is equivalent to an average time of 78 minutes per 10 hour shift/SHO. Most tasks included in these categories could be performed by PAs thus potentially decreasing patient waiting times, improving risk management, allowing doctors to spend more time with their patients, and possibly improving doctors' training.
Emergency Service, Hospital↗
Medical issues in the ILO's draft consolidated maritime labour convention.
Following a recommendation of the shipowners and seafarers representatives within the ILO's Joint Maritime Commission (JMC) in what is called the "Geneva Accord", the ILO decided to consolidate the entire body of its international maritime labour standards in a single instrument. A high level tripartite working group was established and met several times betwen 2001 and 2004 to prepare a draft text. A Preparatory Technical Maritime Conference was held in September 2004 and a Maritime Sesssion of the International Labour Conference is due to be held in February 2006 for the adoption of the consolidated instrument. The contents and structure of this instrument, which consolidates sixty maritime labour Conventions and Recommendations, with particular stress on its medical issues are briefly presented. Among the medical issues covered are the following: medical care on board and ashore, medical examinations of seafarers, their health protection, ship's medical chests and medical advice at sea, welfare of seafarers, safety of work at sea and prevention of accidents; and social security including sickness and injury coverage.
Consensus↗
European standards development in healthcare informatics: actual and future challenges.
This paper focuses on the current and future standardisation activities in CEN TC251 (European Standardisation Committee, Technical Committee on Medical Informatics). The progress of the Committee's standards development is summarized per working group. The main challenges of the next years are enumerated: coordination across working groups and project teams, quality management, and international harmonisation (especially with the USA).
Accreditation↗
[Radionuclide cardangiography as non-invasive assessment in coronary heart disease (author's transl)].
The method of radionuclide cardangiography (RNCA) has become a well-established method amongst non-invasive assessments in coronary heart disease (CHD). By means of RNCA the most important parameters of left ventricular function, viz. ejection fraction (EF) and wall motion (WM), can be determined very exactly. The first bolus pass method (FBP), which allows satisfactory separation between right and left heart, enables the additional determination of EF distribution, stroke volume (SV) and SV distribution. This method requires the technical necessity of a multicrystal gamma camera. Special nuclear medicine characteristics have been worked out for different groups of CHD. EF and WM show typical signs of angina pectoris, caused by exercise correlating with reduced perfusion in the referring section of WM. While these changes may be reversible after nitrate administration, pathological myocardial function caused by acute myocardial infarction (AMI) or manifest heart failure is not reversed by nitroglycerine. Typical findings were seen in the course of AMI: initial decrease in global EF and diffuse (multilocated) asynergies in the left ventricular wall; in the second week possible start of recovery, including regression of dyskinesia to akinesia at the end of hospitalization. Especially in the early phase of AMI it was demonstrated that FBP--as a non-invasive technique--gives high information quality which is unequalled by other comparable methods. Therefore, the described method of FBP should be classified as very useful and effective in clinical cardiology.
Angina Pectoris↗
Comparison of the job attitudes and interest patterns of air traffic and airway facility personnel.
Air traffic control specialists (ATCSs) and airway facility technicians (AFTs) were compared on measures of job attitudes and interests. A total of 792 ATCs and 2,366 AFTs completed the Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB) and questionnaires concerning job satisfaction and job attitudes. Both groups indicated high overall job satisfaction and general agreement about areas of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. However, ATCSs. On the SVIB, ATCSs had higher scores than AFTs on scales concerned with interpersonally oriented vocations (e. g. social service, sales) and lower scores on technical-scientific occupational scales. The findings suggest that these two employee groups have many common attitudes toward work while at the same time having certain discriminable characteristics that have implications for both personnel and motivational programs.
Adult↗
International standardization of gene amplification technology.
The WHO international Working Group on the standardization of Gene Amplification Techniques for the Virological Safety Testing of Blood and Blood Products (SoGAT) was established in 1995 as a technical discussion group. It is the only international forum for the exchange of information on scientific aspects of the technology, evaluation of the technology for the testing of products and the organisation of international collaborative studies for the development, evaluation and provision of reference materials and working standards. Materials suitable as working reagents in hepatitis C virus (HCV) gene amplification are in widespread use and plans for a collaborative study for the establishment on an HCV RNA International Standard are well underway as are studies aimed at standardizing the technology for other viruses.
Blood↗
The role of the Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe in combating drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking.
The Pompidou Group, a co-operation group to combat drug abuse and illicit trafficking in drugs, has functioned at the Council of Europe since 1980 as a section of the Directorate of Economic and Social Affairs. Owing to its specific features, it is the only organization of its kind in Europe that deals with all areas of drug control, including the work of police and customs authorities, as well as work on prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, epidemiology and research. It also deals with fellowship programmes. The political and technical activities of the Pompidou Group are described in this article, illustrating how it operates in the area of combating drug abuse at the international level.
Crime↗
Paternal occupational group and risk of offspring with neural tube defects.
Selected paternal occupations as well as specific occupational exposures to chemicals such as organic solvents have been suggested as possible risk factors for neural tube defects (NTD). We investigated data from a population-based, case-control study of fetuses and liveborn infants with NTDs among 1989-91 California births and fetal deaths. Interviews were conducted with mothers of 538 NTD cases and 539 non- malformed controls. Mothers were asked to report the occupations that the fathers had in the period 3 months before and 3 months after conception. Each job title and industry reported was coded in accordance with the 1990 US Census. Considering those fathers who worked in managerial and professional occupations as the reference group, elevated odds ratios (OR) for NTDs were observed for the categories: technical, sales and administrative, OR = 1.5 [95% confidence interval 1.0, 2.4]; service, OR = 2.0 [1.2, 3.1]; farming, forestry and fishing, OR = 2.1 [1.3, 3.3]; operators, fabricators and labourers, OR = 1.8 [1.2, 2.7]; and military, OR = 1.9 [0.7, 5.0]. Stratification by NTD phenotype revealed that these elevated ORs were primarily observed for spina bifida phenotypes. Analyses adjusted for maternal body mass index, maternal periconceptional use of multivitamins containing folic acid, paternal race/ethnicity, maternal race/ethnicity and maternal education revealed attenuated risk estimates for most of the occupational groups. Analyses of 182 more specific occupational groups defined by aggregating fathers on similar job titles, when compared with fathers who worked in managerial and professional occupations, revealed that four job title groups were associated with fairly precise effect estimates of >or=1.5. These groups were: cooks; janitors and cleaners; farm workers; and groundsmen/gardeners. Using occupational titles as defined in previous investigations, we did not observe an elevated OR associated with paternal occupational solvent exposures, OR = 0.8 [0.5, 1.3]. These analyses generated potential clues regarding paternal occupational exposures as NTD risk factors. Risk variation observed by spina bifida phenotype is interesting and will need to be investigated further.
Anencephaly↗
Hereditary anaemias: genetic basis, clinical features, diagnosis, and treatment. WHO working group.
The hereditary anaemias present a major genetic health problem that contributes considerably to childhood mortality and morbidity in many developing countries. This article summarizes recent scientific and technical advances in knowledge concerning the genes involved and their interaction to produce major haemoglobinopathies, the clinical pictures of these conditions, and their diagnostic criteria. Though there is no definitive cure, supportive treatment for the haemoglobinopathies has improved significantly, offering better quality of life and improved survival, and should be attempted for all such patients. For sickle cell disease, this comprises a simple set of rules that should be incorporated into existing medical care, whereas for thalassaemia, a regimen of intensive blood transfusion and regular subcutaneous infusion of deferoxamine is recommended. This treatment is stressful and probably too expensive to be applied in many developing countries until the birth rate of patients needing it can be sufficiently reduced by community control programmes.
Anemia↗
[Trends in the teaching of epidemiology in Brazil].
The teaching of epidemiology in Brazil began in the 1920s and has always been connected to public health. The 1970s witnessed an expansion in the number of graduate-level courses in epidemiology. The 1980s were characterized by "social epidemiology," which incorporated the social sciences and their methods into epidemiology; the second half of the decade was marked by the development of biostatistical techniques. Currently, the definition of guidelines for the teaching of epidemiology in Brazil depends on careful reflection regarding a number of issues, among which are the reformulation or elimination of medical residency programs in preventive medicine, social medicine, and collective health; the creation of masters and doctoral programs exclusively in epidemiology; the conflict between a theoretical emphasis and a technical emphasis; and the development of strategies to strengthen new instructional groups that are being created in teaching institutions in less developed regions of the country. A positive trend is that teaching institutions are working more closely with health services, both for training personnel and for providing technical support in planning, organizing, and evaluating health programs. Regarding the teaching of health service professionals, successful training depends on how well teachers can provide in-service training that ties students' learning to real work situations, where the application of theories can be understood in the natural context of real problems.
Brazil↗
IPI, MEDICOM and DICOM: relations and possible future.
In October 1993, DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) Version 3.0 was approved by the ACR-NEMA committee as an ACR-NEMA standard for medical image interchange. At about the same time, IPI (Image Processing and Interchange) was approved as an ISO standard for general imaging. Within the European Committee for Standardisation, CEN, work on a European standard for medical image interchange, MEDICOM, has been going on for the last few years. It has been decided within the CEN Technical Committee for Medical Informatics (CEN/TC 251) that such a European standard should be based on IPI. In December 1993 it was also agreed that CEN would use DICOM 3.0 as a starting point in this work. Joint meetings between CEN/TC 251 Working Group 4 (Medical Imaging and Multimedia) and ACR-NEMA have been held held during 1994 and continue in 1995. This paper points to some of the reasons, both technical and economical, why IPI is suitable for medical imaging. It also shows how DICOM and IPI are complementary and that they could be used together to cover the requirements of future applications in medical imaging.
Cardiology↗
A study of well-being among a population of Swedish workers using a job-related criterion-referenced multidimensional vocational assessment.
OBJECTIVES: This study involved Swedish workers (n = 106) who perform jobs categorized into four occupational groups from Jist's Enhanced Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) (Technical, Clerical, Service and Miscellaneous occupations) [1]. The workers capacity for work were investigated according to the Criterion Referenced Multidimensional Vocational Assessment (CMVA) comprising four aspects (described below), which were assessed in 14 different ways using 465 items. METHOD: The participants were interviewed [2], observed during performance of simulated work tasks [3], and answered mailed questionnaires [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. The collected data were statistically analyzed using descriptive statistics and the tests of Cronbach's alpha coefficient, ANOVA, Chi-square, linear regression and Pearson's correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The participants' work contained different level of occupationally substantive complexity showing that the work demands were different for the four work groups. For some of the participants ill-health were detected; The workers' work skills, e.g., the demands (VALPAR work samples) [3] the jobs required of the worker was higher than 14 of the workers' capacity for work. It was remarkable that many of the workers (34%) estimated themselves in need for rehabilitative measures (Functional Status Questionnaire) [12,13]. The results suggested that there was a negative discrepancy of what the workers' valued and strived for in connection to what they had attained in their work-lives [15,16]. The psychosocial work environment influenced the worker both positively and negatively. Participants (about 17%) who are performing their usual work for at least 20 hours a week had risks for ill-health [6]. In several components of CMVA there were significant differences between male and female workers, probably showing that the female workers had a greater burden to perform all the myriad of daily occupations (Self-Assessed Capabilities to Perform Daily Occupations) [7] including salaried work.
Journal Article↗