[Telemedicine in rural areas: general practitioners’ representations and experiences].

Introduction: Telemedicine is a rapidly growing new mode of healthcare practice. It is particularly used and needed in remote areas in Lorraine (North East of France) that currently face a shortage of general practitioners and specialists. The objective of this study was to analyse general practitioner’s representations of telemedicine and teleconsultation.

Variability of the computerized single-breath nitrogen washout test in healthy adults. Results from a field survey in a French rural area.

Within-subject (difference between paired tests, or coefficient of variation [c. var.] of three consecutive measurements) and between-subjects (standard deviation of the mean group) variability were assessed for the variables derived from the single-breath nitrogen (SBN2) test in a group of healthy, asymptomatic subjects (n = 289) aged 20-64 years, from a rural area in North-East France.

[Skin sensitivity to respiratory allergens in agricultural workers and wage-earners].

Prick tests were performed with "pneumallergerns" (mites, cereal dusts, animal dander, pollens, moulds--totalling 35 allergens) among 742 agricultural workers of the Meuse department (North East of France) as part of an epidemiological study on respiratory and immuno-allergological problems. Among those with positive skin tests, 47.9% had positive skin tests for mites, 22.