Comparative quality of private and public health services in rural Vietnam.

Background: Private health care services were officially recognized in Vietnam in 1989, and for the last 15 years have competed with the public health system in providing primary curative care and pharmaceutical sales to rural populations. However, the quality of these private and public health care services has not been evaluated and compared.

Methods: A community-based survey was conducted in 30 of the 160 communes in Hung Yen, which were selected by probability proportional to population size (PPS) sampling.

Leukotrienes in patients with clinically active multiple sclerosis.

Objectives: The role of leukotrienes (LTs) in the pathophysiology of multiple sclerosis (MS) has been controversially discussed in the past. Studies of LTs in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) revealed different results mainly because of analytical difficulties.

Material And Methods: In the present study we used highly sensitive and specific analytical methods for measuring LTs in the CSF as well as in urine samples from 20 patients with active MS and 20 control patients with noninflammatory neurological disorders.