Early diagnosis of early childhood caries: A simple novel tool (MAAC charts) for parents and caretakers.

Early Childhood Caries (ECC) is a condition associated with nearly 123 risk factors. Among all the risk factors, enamel defects or enamel hypoplasia (ED/EH) has been shown to be the primary risk factor. ED/EH comprises the earliest changes that manifest on newly erupted primary tooth surfaces soon after its eruption.

Very large database of lipids: rationale and design.

Blood lipids have major cardiovascular and public health implications. Lipid-lowering drugs are prescribed based in part on categorization of patients into normal or abnormal lipid metabolism, yet relatively little emphasis has been placed on: (1) the accuracy of current lipid measures used in clinical practice, (2) the reliability of current categorizations of dyslipidemia states, and (3) the relationship of advanced lipid characterization to other cardiovascular disease biomarkers. To these ends, we developed the Very Large Database of Lipids (NCT01698489), an ongoing database protocol that harnesses deidentified data from the daily operations of a commercial lipid laboratory.

Leveraging the trusted clinician: documenting disease management program enrollment.

The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that an integrated disease management (IDM) protocol (patent-pending), which combines telephonic-delivered disease management (TDM) with a worksite-based primary care center and pharmacy delivery, would yield higher contact and enrollment rates than traditional remote disease management alone. IDM is characterized by the combination of standard TDM with a worksite-based primary care and pharmacy delivery protocol led by trusted clinicians. This prospective cohort study tracks contact and enrollment rates for persons assigned to either IDM or traditional TDM protocols, and compares them on contact and enrollment efficiency.

The reliability of the Shona version of the EQ-5D.

Background: There is an increasing need to have locally applicable health related quality of life outcome measures that are both reliable and valid. The aim of this paper was to present the Shona version of a Health Related Quality of Life Measure, the EQ-5D (Euro Quality of Life--5 Dimensions) and to examine the reliability and validity of the translated instrument.

Method: Thirty eight test-retest responses from randomly selected members of a high density suburb in Harare were analysed.

Comparative analysis of human papillomavirus detection by PCR and non-isotopic in situ hybridisation.

AIMS--To assess the relative diagnostic performance of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and non-isotopic in situ hybridisation (NISH) and to correlate these data with cytopathological assessment. METHODS--Paired analysis of human papillomavirus (HPV) detection was performed by PCR and NISH on exfoliated cervical cells from 122 women attending a routine gynaecological examination. PCR amplification followed by generic and HPV type specific hybridisation was compared with NISH on a parallel cervical smear.