Background: Congenital heart disease is a malformation which the prevalence of 8 \ufffd?among alive infants. If it is not being treated on time, these malformations will develop to severe complication. The most common cause of cerebral abscess is congenital heart disease in infants. Objectives:This study aims to learn about some related factors and close consequence of cerebral abscess in congenital cardiac children. Subjects and method:A retrospective and prospective study was conducted on 37 patients with congenital heart disease were suffered from a cerebral abscess since January 2001 to 31 March 2007. Results:The boys were dominant with sex ratio: 1.85/1. Average age of acquired abscess was 6.8 years, 34/37 (91.9%) patients had curable congenital heart disease, including 33/37 (89.2%) diagnosed of right-left shunt. In comparison with patients whom over 2 years old and did not acquire abscess due to congenital cardiac shunt right-left type, there was no significant difference in hemoglobin, hematocrit, erythrocyte and saturation cutannee 13.5% among 37 patients of study were deaths, 26.5% had neurological sequelae and 8.1% were relapses. The average duration of hospitalization was longer (25.7 days) and the average costs were 4,317,000 Vietnam dong. Conclusion: Cerebral abscess was late complication of congenital heart disease and it was very necessary to treat completely the malformation of congenital heart disease in order to prevent of severe complication.
Heart Defects ; Congenital/ epidemiology ; therapy ; Brain Abscess/ epidemiology

Background: Recently, microplate almar blue assay has been used commonly in detecting gen related to tuberculosis drug resistance, which provides results after 5-7 days with lower cost compared to traditional methods. Objective: To evaluate the application of microplate almar blue assay for rapid detection of drug resistance of M. tuberculosis strains. Subject and Method: A microplate-based assay which uses Alamar blue reagent - an oxidation reduction dye (MABA), was used for the determination of the anti-tuberculosis drug (isoniazid-INH, rifampicine-RIF, streptomycine-STR and ethabuton=EMB) resistance of 96 M. tuberculosis strains isolated from Vietnamese patients in comparison to those obtained by conversional method. Result: MABA showed to have high sensitivity and specificity in testing the sensitivity to individual anti-tuberculosis drugs (from 82.4% for STR to 93.3% for - INH and from 82.5% for EMB to 98.4% for STR; respectively), as well as for the multi-drug resistant M.tuberculosis (86.4% of sensitivity), highly correlated with the result determined by proportion method. Conclusion: MABA reveals the advantage in shortening test time, in simple performance and lower cost compared with the conversional culture based methods.
Microplate almar blue assay ; M. tuberculosis ; drug resistance

Background: HIV/AIDS pandemic really become danger to mankind on the earth. Objectives: Description epidemiological characteristics of HIV/AIDS patients. Studying clinical expression, learning aboutdemands of infected patients and community care for infected patients. Subjects and method: 71 HIV/AIDS people in Thua Thien Hue were studied in 2006. Using descriptive method to give epidemiological characteristics and behaviour of HIV/AIDS people. People were determined HIV/AIDS infection based on the criteria of Ministry of Health. The information were collected by target study. Results: HIV/AIDS people mainly from the age of 20 to 39 (83,10%), males were 52,10% and in various levels of education and all kinds of occupation. The rate of sexually transmitted infection was 84,5% and infection transmission was 15,5%. The rate of sexually transmitted infection within the last 12 months was 57,7%. 63,4% of infected people used condom while having sex with their spouses or partners. 1,4% of infected people using drug infection within the last month. 38% of the infected people had manifestations of AIDS, 77,8% of HIV/AIDS were treated with antiviral drugs. Families and communities had positive attitudes and behaviors to the HIV/AIDS people. Infected people being remoted from the society was 12,7%, 88,7% of them receiving supports from their communities such as disease treatment, spirit and material supports and job opportunities. Conclusion: Strengthen communication activities to change behavior of HIV/AIDS people and in communitiy to reduce alienation, discrimination for infected people. Execute socialization in care and support for HIV/AIDS people.
HIV/ immunology ; isolation & ; purification ; pathogenicity ; Community Health Services/ organization & ; administration ; Epidemiologic Methods ;

Background: With the development of HIV/AIDS pandemic in community, amount of HIV/AIDS people more and more increase in prison. Objectives: Determine the rate of HIV/AIDS infection of prisoners at Binh Dien prison. Learning about related elements to HIV/AIDS infection. Subjects and method: Prisoners at Binh Dien prison. Method: 492 prisoners were chosen, interviewed directly and taken blood samples to HIV test. Using cross-sectional study on accidental samples. Techniques were used in this study: SERODIA-HIV and ELISA technique. Results: The rate of current HIV/AIDS infections was 21,74%, some HIV/AIDS related factors in the prison included sex, religion, income source, marrital status, common knowledge of HIV/AIDS, drug addiction history, needle sharing, sexually transmitted disease history, body tatoos and forskin inserted with metal balls, alcohol and beer drinking history, some factors such as: age and educational level were not associated with HIV/AIDS infection in prison. Conclusion: Strengthen interventional activities in prison to prevent HIV/AIDS spread between prisoners. To prisoners who were not infected HIV/AIDS: strengthen educational communication to they may prevent themselves from HIV/AIDS infection behaviors. To HIV/AIDS prisoners: Need to educate and consult especially to they have right behaviors, prevent HIV/AIDS spread for the others while they were in prison as well as they return to society.
HIV Infections/ blood ; complications ; epidemiology ;

Sphaeranthus africanus is commonly used as a traditional remedy for sore throats and pain treatment in Vietnam. The aerial parts have been studied for its anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative properties. However, the antioxidant and antidiabetic potential of the plant has not been explored. In this work, hydrophilic extracts of the plant's aerial parts were prepared in order to investigate its antioxidant and anti-diabetic properties. Also, the cytotoxicity of the root was evaluated and compared to that of the aerial parts. All of the extracts inhibited lipid peroxidation with IC 50 values ranging from 2.05 to 3.56 µg/mL, indicating substantial antioxidant activity. At an IC 50 value of 4.80 μg/mL, the 50% ethanol extract exhibited the most potent inhibition of α-glucosidase. The cytotoxic activity of root extracts is 2 to 5-fold less than that of the aerial parts. Nevertheless, dichloromethane and ethyl acetate extracts of the root demonstrated a selective effect on leukemia cells, with no harm towards the normal HEK-293 cell line. This work provides a scientific support for the antioxidant and antidiabetic activity of the plant. Hence, it may find a promising material for the development of novel antioxidant and antidiabetic agents. More research can be conducted on the phytochemistry and anticancer activities of the plant’s root.

Animals ; Antibodies, Neutralizing ; Blotting, Western ; Classical swine fever virus ; Classical Swine Fever ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Genotype ; Mortality ; Spleen ; Swine ; Vaccines ; Vaccines, Subunit ; Vietnam ; Virulence

Background: One of the most important elements for improving the primary care quality is to meet the growing needs of patients and to increase patient satisfaction. In-depth studies on patients’ expectation is vital for healthcare facilities to achieve a more reliable and valid healthcare outcome. This study aims: to explore people’s expectations towards primary care services and related factors at Family Medicine Clinic, Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy. Methods: A mixed method study on 308 patients visiting the Family Physician Clinic, Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy. Results: The most important aspects were: “Doctor provides correct diagnoses and cure it.”, “Doctor provides careful examination”, “Doctor takes full history taking”, “Doctor clearly explains diagnosis and treatment plan”, “List of medication covered by health insurance is enough and qualified”, “Doctor/healthcare worker ensures patient confidentiality” and “Healthcare workers are friendly”. There were differences in the expectations of prioritizing primary care services in different target groups. Younger patients groups placed more expectations on facility factors than older patient groups; Patients in different occupational groups differed in their expectations of healthcare workers and the quality of medical care.Conclusion: Factors related to health care workers and quality of medical care were the most prioritizing expectations at the Family Medicine Clinic. It is necessarry to improve primary care services to meet the expectations of different target groups.