ABSTRACT
The seroepidemiologic studies on anti-Toxoplasma antibody titers were carried out using ELISA and indirect latex agglutination test. Among 899 sera prepared from pregnant women, 39 cases (4.3%) revealed positive reaction and 218 sera from middle school students showed 4 positive reaction (1.8%) by ELISA. By LAT (newly established by National Veterinary Research Institute. Korea), the sera of 7 pregnant women (0.8%) showed positive reaction. When 80 sera showing > or = 1:8 by LAT were used for comparing the results obtained from LAT and Toxotest-MT (Eiken Chemical Co., Japan), 7 cases and 8 sera were positive, respectively. All of 11 sera of proven toxoplasmosis patients showed positive reaction in both tests. Overall proportion of agreement between LAT kit and Toxotest-MT was 0.94 (kappa-index = 0.632, p < 0.011, and LAT was considered to be useful for the screening of toxoplasmosis.
Subject(s)
Antibodies, Protozoan/analysis , Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay , Latex Fixation Tests/methods , Pregnancy Complications, Parasitic/epidemiology , Reagent Kits, Diagnostic , Toxoplasma/immunology , Toxoplasmosis/epidemiology , Adolescent , Adult , Animals , Female , Humans , Immunoglobulin G/analysis , Male , Pregnancy , Pregnancy Complications, Parasitic/diagnosis , Prevalence , Seroepidemiologic Studies , Toxoplasmosis/diagnosisABSTRACT
RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The authors assessed the effect of noise on the detectability of rib fractures by residents. METHODS: Eight radiology residents read chest posterior-anterior radiographs of 92 subjects with rib fracture(s) and 28 normal subjects to detect rib fracture(s) according to a five-point scale of confidence, under quiet and "noisy" conditions. Each individual's attitude toward noise was measured by a multiple-choice questionnaire. RESULTS: The readers were divided into two groups depending on the questionnaire result: group A readers were accustomed to a quiet environment, and group B readers were accustomed to noisy environments or were unaffected by noise. Group A's performance, measured by the area (Az) under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, was better in quiet conditions when compared with their performance in noisy conditions; however, the opposite tendency was observed for group B. There was a significant individual difference of performance in response to noise. CONCLUSION: Effect of noise on the detection of rib fractures depends on an individual's attitude toward sound and noise.
