Introduction: Prostate cancer is a heterogenous disease and the mechanisms that drive it to behave differently are not well understood. Tumour expression of the ERG oncogene occurs in the majority of patients with prostate cancer in Western studies. This is considered to be oncogenic as ERG acts as a transcription factor to regulate genes involved in tumour proliferation and invasion. In this study we investigated expression of ERG in Malaysian men with prostate cancer. Methods: Tissues were collected from 80 patients with clinically detected prostate cancer and treated with radical prostatectomy. Cases were tested for ERG by immunohistochemistry using the mouse monoclonal antibody EP111. All blocks on 48 cases were tested in order to determine the extent of heterogeneity of ERG expression within individual cases. ERG expression was analysed in relation to patient age, ethnicity and tumour stage and grade. Results: Forty-six percent of cases were ERG positive. There was no significant association between ERG and tumour grade or stage. Sixty-nine percent of Indian patients had ERG positive tumours; this was significantly higher (p=0.031) than for Chinese (40%) and Malay (44%) patients. Heterogeneity of ERG expression, in which both positive and negative clones were present, was seen in 35% of evaluated cases. Evaluation by tumour foci showed younger patients had more ERG positive tumour foci than older patients (p=0.01). Indian patients were more likely to have the majority of tumour foci with ERG staining positively, compared to either Chinese or Malay patients (P <0.01). Conclusion: In this study, tumour expression of ERG was more likely to occur in patients of Indian ethnicity.
ethnic variation

Allergic disease is a complex disorder in which the interaction between environmental and genetic effects may modify both the susceptibility to and severity of the disease. Over the last few years, our understanding of the genetic basis of allergic diseases has improved markedly, which has led to the identification of several chromosome regions and loci showing linkage to allergic disease. As another approach, association studies between candidate gene polymorphisms and allergic diseases have been conducted in many areas and replicated in different ethnic groups. These approaches need to be followed by validation processes to confirm their functional relevance in the pathophysiology of allergic disease. This review updates genetic studies of and recent findings in, allergic disease.
Ethnic Groups ; Humans

Background: Since 1991-2000, the prevalence of malaria is reduced remarkably in Vietnam. The malaria related mortality reduced 98%. Objective: To evaluate effect of health education in malaria control for ethnic minority people. Subject and Method: The study was carried out in 4 districts: Hoang Su Phi and Quan Ba (Ha Giang); Ia grai and K'Bang (Gia Lai). Qualitative and quantitative method was used in this study. Results: The findings of the study after 2 years showed that the Information - Education and Communication (IEC) is increased in 2007. The proportion of the households have radio, TV, leaflets/pictures is higher than year 2005: 39.1 %, 60.0% and 6.3%. The number of people were communicated about malaria is increased by 61%. The most information channel that the people received is from health staff (93%); from radio and TV: 22.5 and 25.6%. People know the right cause and its prevention of malaria is increased 55% in 2005 to 80% in 2007. The proportion of bed net coverage among community is increased, the number of bed net per households is 2.8 and number of people per bed net is 2.2. Conclusion: Almost people in this study site desired to utilize bed net: 99%. About 88.3% (2005) and 87.5% (2007) of people utilized the public health service when they get sick. After two years of health education intervention, the malaria morbidity in the study site is reduced remarkably by 45 - 50%.
Malaria ; IEC ; ethnic minority

A total of 238 stool samples were taken from Ede ethnic people at three villages of DakLak province. The results showed that: the rate of common parasite infection was 81.5%. The highest rate was ankylostomiasis (61.5%) and the lowest was trichuriasis 6.7%. No difference of rate was recorded in sex and age groups of habitants. It was also found that 87% of the households have no latrine.
Parasites ; Ethnic Groups

A study conducted in a mountainous commune with ethnic minorities by some interventing measures including broadcasting, training for key cadres, determination of monitoring regime that affecting on the householder and women having children under 5 years, commune health and communal administrative management. During 2 years, the enviromental sanitary and health at intervented hamlet have been significantly inproved compared with these in the normal hamlets. 1856 Khæng ThÞ H¬n, TrÞnh H÷u V¸ch, Lª ThÞ TuyÕt: Interventing effectiveness of public health and enviromental sanitation education on the intestinal parasitic infection controll at a commune in Thai Binh province. Vn J Prev Med 2002; 12(3): 65-68: (CIMSI)
Hygiene ; Ethnic Groups

52 non-keratinzed epithelial carcinoma (NPC) patients treated by radiotherapy were studied in Thai Nguyen Central Hospital in 2002-2003 year period. Result showed the gender rate male/female = 1.7:1, the most common age: 40-60, ethnic groups: Kinh 48.1%, minority 51.9%, smoking rate: 93.9% in male. Most of tumor forms were revealed consisting of 61.5% mixed form 2.2%, underdermal form 13.5%. Pathoanatomically, undifferential carcinoma cosisted of 84.6%, NPC 3.84% and keratinized 11.53%. 55.8% of cases had responsiveness with radiotherapy and 5.8 no responsiveness. Common side effect was mouth drying 75%, weakenness of chewing muscle 76%, burn on radiated skin area 53.8%, swallowing difficulty 32.7%, reduce white blood count 38.5%, hair loss 11.5%
Carcinoma ; Radiotherapy ; Ethnic Groups

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the deficit in the recognition of facial emotions in a sample of medicated, stable Korean patients with schizophrenia using Korean facial emotion pictures and examined whether the possible impairments would corroborate previous findings. METHODS: Fifty-five patients with schizophrenia and 62 healthy control subjects completed the Facial Affect Identification Test with a new set of 44 colored photographs of Korean faces including the six universal emotions as well as neutral faces. RESULTS: Korean patients with schizophrenia showed impairments in the recognition of sad, fearful, and angry faces [F(1,114)=6.26, p=0.014; F(1,114)=6.18, p=0.014; F(1,114)=9.28, p=0.003, respectively], but their accuracy was no different from that of controls in the recognition of happy emotions. Higher total and three subscale scores of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) correlated with worse performance on both angry and neutral faces. Correct responses on happy stimuli were negatively correlated with negative symptom scores of the PANSS. Patients with schizophrenia also exhibited different patterns of misidentification relative to normal controls. CONCLUSION: These findings were consistent with previous studies carried out with different ethnic groups, suggesting cross-cultural similarities in facial recognition impairment in schizophrenia.
Collodion ; Ethnic Groups ; Humans ; Schizophrenia

Background: The rate of Khmer ethnic minority living in An Giang, Kien Giang and Hau Giang were 3%, 12.9% and 3%, respectively.These provinces had some specific factors such as low education, income and knowledge about HIV/AIDS, high risk behavior and it is difficult to practice intervention methods therefore the awareness of HIV infection risk on this group is required. Objectives: To determine the HIV prevalence, describe knowledge, attitude and risky behaviors that led to syphilis and HIV infection of the Khmer ethnic group, which are used to propose suitable intervention and prevention models. Subject and methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted from September 2006 to June 2007 in the Khmer ethnic group, including both genders at the age ranging from 15 to 49, living in some districts of An Giang, Hau Giang and Kien Giang. Results: A total of 877 households and 2.400 people were interviewed. 98.62% of the people agreed to take a blood test for HIV. The average age of first intercourse was 20. The condom usage proportion was very low. The number of men using condoms in the latest intercourse with their wives or lovers accounted for only 7.2%. Moreover, only 3% of the women used condoms in the last 12 months. The drug usage was 0.6% in Hau Giang and 0.1 % in Kien Giang. The knowledge about HIV/AIDS of both men and women were 9.2% and 4.5%. The prevalence of people, who made HIV test in the three provinces accounted for only 3 to 4.6%. HIV infection rate was 0.2% in An Giang, 0.5% in Kien Giang and 0.5% in Hau Giang. Syphilis infection rates were 1.6%, 1.4% and 1.5%, respectively. Conclusions: Appropriate communicative model is an effective way for the prevention HIV/AIDS among Khmer ethnic group.
HIV/AIDS ; Khmer ethnic minority

For medical devices, there might have clinical differences in medical device efficacy and safety among different racial and ethnic subgroups. The acceptability of various data generated during the design and development stage of medical devices between different regions and national regulatory agencies faces huge challenges. This study discusses the considerations of racial and ethnic factors in the design and development of medical devices, with a view to improve the quality and availability of safety and effectiveness data under one framework.
Ethnic Groups ; Humans ; United States

The field of forensic DNA requires not only genetic typing but also social systems. The systems include the establishment of Korean guidelines for DNA typing. There were some publications relating DNA typing guidelines in 2001 and 2002, but the works could not be sustained. Although KOLAS and KIGTE are operating now, we can hardly say that these are optimal for forensic purposes. There also have been foreign publications about the DNA typing guidelines. Considering various differences among nationality, however, we need to establish suitable guidelines for Korean. Therefore, expert members in forensic society should be concern about Korean guidelines for DNA typing and participate in this work.
DNA ; DNA Fingerprinting ; Ethnic Groups ; Humans