[Folic acid consumption by pregnant women prior to and during pregnancy.].

Objective: To study consumption of folic acid supplements by women before conception and during pregnancy. Concurrently, the incidence of planned pregnancy and the women's knowledge of the preventive value of folic acid was investigated.

Material And Methods: A questionnaire was presented to all 128 pregnant women attending a maternal clinic in rural area during one month's period.

Comparison of Roche Cobas Amplicor and Abbott LCx for the rapid detection of Chlamydia trachomatis in specimens from high-risk patients.

Objective: To evaluate two automated amplification systems for the detection of Chlamydia trachomatis in urogenital specimens, the Cobas Amplicor (Roche Diagnostic Systems, Branchburg, NJ) and the LCx (Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, IL).

Study Design: The two systems were compared testing specimens from 302 high-risk patients, including 98 female cervical swab specimens and 204 male urine specimens. The patients attended the state STD clinic in Reykjavik, Iceland, either because of symptoms or as a result of contract tracing.

Psoriasis treatment: bathing in a thermal lagoon combined with UVB, versus UVB treatment only.

We have compared bathing in a thermal lagoon in Iceland, combined with UVB treatment, to UVB treatment only in an open comparative study. Twenty-three psoriasis patients bathed 3 times daily and were treated with UVB 5 times a week for 4 weeks. The control group was only treated with UVB 5 times a week for 4 weeks.

Diagnosis of Chlamydia trachomatis infection in high-risk females with PCR on first void urine.

Recently the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been shown to be more sensitive than older methods in detecting Chlamydia trachomatis, when performed on endocervical swabs. A total of 203 high-risk females were enrolled in a comparative study of 3 methods for diagnosing C. trachomatis infections: McCoy cell culture and Amplicor PCR on endocervical swabs, and urine.

[Clinical evaluation of two immunoassay methods for the rapid detection of chlamydia trachomatis: antigen in endocervical specimens from high risk female patients.].

Two rapid immunoassay methods, QuickVue-Chlamydia (Quidel Corp., San Diego California) and Kodak Surecell (Kodak Corp. Rochester, N.