Prevalence Estimation of Cataract based on a Screening Test

PURPOSE: To estimate the prevalence of cataracts based on screening test results and statistical estimation methods. METHODS: Between June 1994 and September 2005, 85,505 persons aged 20 years and older were screened at a health promotion center for a general health care screen. We assumed that all subjects had complete screening results; however some subjects had an unknown disease status. A 2x3 table form could be generated from this data set. To estimate cataract prevalence, we used a maximum likelihood estimation method to reconstruct a 2x2 table including probabilities for each cell. RESULTS: The overall estimated cataract prevalence was 13.98% (95% confidence intervals, 13.75% to 14.21%). We estimated the prevalence of cataracts to be 15.29% in men (95% confidence intervals, 14.95% to 15.63%) and 12.97% in women (95% confidence intervals, 12.65% to 13.29%). In addition, we found that the cataract prevalence distinctly increased in people aged 60 years or older. CONCLUSIONS: We found that these estimated cataract prevalences were not considerably different from study results obtained in other countries. Therefore, our method may be considered to be appropriate for estimating prevalence. Our results indicate that cataract prevalence in our study population increases with age and highlight the need for early detection and early interventions.

Comparison of tramadol/acetaminophen and codeine/acetaminophen/ibuprofen in onset of analgesia and analgesic efficacy for postoperative acute pain

BACKGROUND: Some clinical trials have reported that a new analgesic combination of tramadol and acetaminophen provides good efficacy in various pain models. For the more clinical uses of this agent, comparisons about the onset of analgesia and analgesic efficacy in the acute state of pain with the other drugs known as strong analgesics were needed. PURPOSE: The goal of this study was to compare the times to onset of analgesia and the other analgesic efficacy of 75 mg tramadol/650 mg acetaminophen and 20 mg codeine/500 mg acetaminophen/400 mg ibuprofen in the treatment of acute pain after oral surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Using a randomized, single-dose, parallel-group, single-center, and active-controlled test design, this clinical study compared the times to onset of analgesia using a two-stopwatch technique and the other analgesic efficacy of the single-dose tramadol/ acetaminophen and odeine/acetaminophen/ibuprofen. These were assessed in 128 healthy subjects with pain from oral surgical procedures involving extraction of one or more impacted third molars requiring bone removal. From the time of pain development, the times to onset of perceptible and meaningful pain relief, pain intensity, pain relief, an overall assessment, and adverse events of the study medications were recorded for 6 hours. RESULTS: The demographic distribution and baseline pain data in the two groups were statistically similar. The median times to onset of perceptible pain relief were 21.0 and 24.4 minutes in the tramadol/acetaminophen and codeine/acetaminophen/ibuprofen groups respectively and those to onset of meaningful pain relief were 56.4 and 57.3 minutes, which were statistically similar. The other efficacy variables such as mean total pain relief (TOTPAR) and the sum of pain intensity differences (SPID) were also similar in the early period after pain development and drug dosing. The safety of tramadol/acetaminophen was well tolerated and very comparable to that of codeine/acetaminophen/ibuprofen. CONCLUSIONS: In this acute dental pain model, the onset of analgesia and analgesic efficacy of tramadol/acetaminophen was comparable to that of codeine/acetaminophen/ibuprofen. These results showed that tramadol/acetaminophen was recommendable for fast and effective treatment in the management of postoperative acute pain.