Canadian Medical Association journal
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This update reviews several important topics in the field of Parkinson's disease, including etiologic studies, the types and mechanisms of drug complications and their treatment, when and how to begin treatment, the association of dementia with Parkinson's disease, and the development of the newer research tools. The recent discovery of a highly selective neurotoxin (MPTP) that causes parkinsonism in humans and other primates and the use of positron emission tomography in living patients should improve our understanding of the cause of cell death in Parkinson's disease and assist in the development of more definitive treatment for this common, disabling neurologic condition.
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During 1979 and 1980 the Department of National Health and Welfare carried out a survey and later routine testing to determine the prevalence of serologic markers of hepatitis B in Indochinese refugees entering Canada. Between March and July 1981 the hepatitis-B-marker status of 220 selected refugees in the Ottawa-Hull area was reassessed. ⋯ The most significant changes were the loss of antigenemia in 22% of those who had been HBsAg-positive and the appearance of evidence of infection in 18% of those who had been seronegative. Most of these changes occurred among persons under 30 years of age, especially females aged 10 to 19 years.
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Comparative Study
Evaluation of the beta-Neocept test for early pregnancy.
We tested the validity of the beta-Neocept test for early pregnancy against that of the plasma human chorionic gonadotropin beta-subunit radioimmunoassay (beta-HCG RIA). The beta-Neocept test had a sensitivity of 88%, a specificity of 93%, a positive predictive value of 95%, a negative predictive value of 84% and an accuracy of 90%. In view of these performance characteristics, its low cost and its ease of use, the beta-Neocept test could be used as the initial pregnancy test when there is a high probability of pregnancy, as there was in this study population, which consisted of 111 women attending endocrine infertility clinics. The more expensive beta-HCG RIA could be reserved for special indications and for patients in whom the results of the urinary hemagglutination inhibition tests are inconsistent with the clinical signs and symptoms.