BACKGROUND: Serologic testing is considered a standard method for syphilis diagnosis. We compared Auto RPR Plus and Auto TPIM Plus with previously developed assays. METHODS: The precision around the cut-off, linearity, and recovery rate of Auto RPR Plus and Auto TPIM Plus was evaluated using their positive/negative control materials. The results of these two tests were compared with those of Mediace RPR and Abbott Syphilis TP using 431 remnant serum samples collected from people who underwent medical examinations. RESULTS: The within-run precisions (coefficient of variation, CV values) of negative/positive control materials of Auto RPR Plus, Mediace RPR, Auto TPIM Plus and Abbott Syphilis TP were 15.7/2.3%, 20.4/2.3%, -/2.7%, and 8.5/2.3%, respectively; between-run precisions were 67.7/3.3%, 39.1/3.4%, -/4.0%, and 7.0/1.5%, respectively. Auto RPR Plus showed better precision around the cutoff level (1.0 U) compared to Mediace RPR (7.2–7.3% vs. 12.2–14.3%). The CVs of Auto TPIM Plus around the cutoff (10.0 U) were 13.5% at 10.5 U and 6.6% at 12.5 U. Agreement rates between Auto RPR Plus and Mediace RPR and between Auto TPIM Plus and Abbott Syphilis TP were 97.2% and 98.4%, respectively. However, twelve samples showed discrepant results for Auto RPR Plus (−)/Mediace RPR (+) and false-positive Mediace RPR results could not be excluded around the cutoff of 1.0 U. CONCLUSIONS: Auto RPR Plus showing good precision near the cutoff can be used for syphilis screening in health checkups. However, Auto TPIM Plus needs improvement in precision and adjusting the cutoff to be used for syphilis screening.
Diagnosis* ; Mass Screening ; Methods ; Serologic Tests ; Syphilis*

No abstract available.
Kidney Diseases* ; Kidney* ; Mass Screening* ; Methods* ; Proteinuria*

BACKGROUND: Fecal occult blood tests have been widely used as a means of gastrointestinal bleeding and colorectal cancer screening. HM-JACKarc (Kyowa Medex Co. Ltd, Japan) is a recently introduced automated fecal occult blood test analyser, which uses latex agglutination method. We evaluated the analytical performance of HM-JACKarc. METHODS: The linearity and precision for HM-JACKarc were evaluated according to the corresponding Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute guidelines. The comparison study between HM-JACKarc and OC-SENSOR DIANA (Eiken Chemical Co. Ltd., Japan) was done with stool specimens. RESULTS: The linearity was good (R²=0.999) and the coefficients of variation of within-day precision and between-day precision were 5.2% and 4.9%, respectively, in low concentration and 2.7% each in high concentration. The concordance rate between HM-JACKarc and OCSENSOR DIANA was 99.0% (198 out of 200). CONCLUSIONS: HM-JACKarc showed excellent performance in linearity, precision, and comparison studies. Therefore, it appears to be a useful automated fecal occult blood test analyser.
Agglutination ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; Hemorrhage ; Latex ; Mass Screening ; Methods ; Occult Blood*

BACKGROUND: The use of automated systems for pre-transfusion tests is increasing in an attempt to reduce workload and the impact of human errors in blood banks. We evaluated the clinical performance of the automated blood bank systems IH-500 (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Switzerland) and VISION Max (Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, USA) for ABO-RhD blood typing and unexpected antibody screening. METHODS: ABO-RhD blood typing was performed for 410 samples, and antibody screening was performed for 332 samples, including 15 antibody-positive samples. The results obtained from the two automated instruments were compared with those obtained using manual methods for ABO-RhD blood typing and a semiautomated method (DiaMed-ID system) for antibody screening. Additionally, both instruments were evaluated in terms of concordance rates, sensitivity, and carryover. RESULTS: The concordance rate of the ABO-RhD blood typing results between the manual methods and the two automated instruments was 100%. For antibody screening tests, the concordance rates between the semiautomated method (DiaMed-ID system) and the automated methods were 100% and 99.7% for the IH-500 and VISION Max instruments, respectively. The sole discrepant result was obtained for a sample identified as antibody-positive only on the VISION Max; the antibody was identified as anti-Le(a). The overall sensitivity of the two automated instruments was the same as or higher than that of the semiautomated method. Carryover was not observed in antibody screening. CONCLUSIONS: The IH-500 and VISION Max instruments showed reliable results for ABO-RhD blood typing and unexpected antibody screening, and can be used clinically, with confidence, for pre-transfusion tests in the blood bank.
Automation ; Blood Banks* ; Blood Grouping and Crossmatching* ; Humans ; Mass Screening* ; Methods

BACKGROUND: The recent revision of South Korea's Mental Health Law emphasizes the role of the Mental Health Review Board. For this study, we examined the current status of continuing hospitalization judgement in Mental Health Review Board at the national level and aimed to determine the directions of improvement. METHODS: Using a qualitative case study as the research method, we interviewed 30 Mental Health Review Board members and analyzed the results. RESULTS: Each municipality had very different continuing hospitalization judgement methods. In our systematic review, which consisted of document inspection, we identified reliability problems due to limitations in Mental Health Review Board's operating systems, discharge orders, etc. Additionally, continuing hospitalization judgement needs to improve the objectivity, fairness, and effectiveness of their screening examinations. CONCLUSION: Based on the results of this study, we suggest policy proposals to improve these systems, such as standardizing examination processes, strengthening on-site inspections, increasing the independence and neutrality of judgment in Mental Health Review Board, building community mental health infrastructures, and establishing integrated management systems.
Hospitalization ; Judgment ; Jurisprudence ; Mass Screening ; Mental Health ; Methods ; Qualitative Research

OBJECTIVES: Automated audiometry provides an opportunity to do audiometry when there is no direct access to a clinical audiologist. This approach will help to use hearing services and resources efficiently. The purpose of this study was to review studies related to automated audiometry by focusing on the implementation of an audiometer, the use of transducers and evaluation methods. METHODS: This review study was conducted in 2017. The papers related to the design and implementation of automated audiometry were searched in the following databases: Science Direct, Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus. The time frame for the papers was between January 1, 2010 and August 31, 2017. Initially, 143 papers were found, and after screening, the number of papers was reduced to 16. RESULTS: The findings showed that the implementation methods were categorized into the use of software (7 papers), hardware (3 papers) and smartphones/tablets (6 papers). The used transducers were a variety of earphones and bone vibrators. Different evaluation methods were used to evaluate the accuracy and the reliability of the diagnoses. However, in most studies, no significant difference was found between automated and traditional audiometry. CONCLUSIONS: It seems that automated audiometry produces the same results compared with traditional audiometry. However, the main advantages of this method; namely, saving costs and increased accessibility to hearing services, can lead to a faster diagnosis of hearing impairment, especially in poor areas.
Audiology ; Audiometry* ; Diagnosis ; Hearing ; Hearing Loss ; Mass Screening ; Methods* ; Transducers

Colorectal Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; methods

OBJECTIVETo conduct a systematic review of studies reporting the comparison of digital radiography (DR) with conventional film-screen radiograph (FSR) in the screening and recognition of pneumoconiosis worldwide, to evaluate the feasibility of DR in the screening and recognition of pneumoconiosis, to analyze the similarity and difference between DR and FSR, to explore the main challenge to utilize DR in the future.

METHODSThe national and international databases were systematically searched for original articles on DR for screening and recognition of pneumoconiosis published from first Jan 1998 to first Nov 2013, making evaluation and selection of them, and qualitative data and quantitative data were extracted independently from the selected articles and systematically reviewed.

RESULTSFive hundred and twenty articles were found and evaluated and nine of them met the inclusion criteria of systematic review. The research time started from 2002 to 2011 whose objects mainly came from pneumoconiosis cases and dust-exposed workers and control population examined with DR and FSR using the high kV radiography from 120 to 130 kV. The chest radiographs were read at blind and random and standard control method. There were only two papers compare the validity of DR and FSR for recognition and classification of pneumoconiosis using gold standards. There were still some diversity of imaging processing and imaging reading without design and assessment using Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy (STARD) in these researches. The evaluation index of the nine articles include detection rate of small opacities, crude agreement, Kappa value of Kappa Consistency Test, Area Under the Curve of ROC, etc. Seven of the nine selected articles estimated DR has generally produced superior image qualities compared to FSR. Four papers had a conclusion that DR could be equivalent to FSR in identification of shapes and profusion of small opacities and in classification of pneumoconiosis. Five papers considered DR had higher presence of pneumoconiosis comparing with FSR especially in recognition the pneumoconiosis of category 1. The variation between different film formats of DR and FSR were smaller than that within and between readers for classification of pneumoconiosis.

CONCLUSIONAlthough there are still some imperfections in the existent researches to solve, DR can be equivalent to FSR in screening and recognition of pneumoconiosis. It is necessary to develop technical specifications of DR and standard digital chest radiographs for pneumoconiosis including both hard copy and soft copy, and develop an evaluation criterion on chest images of DR.

BACKGROUND: Sequence type 131 (ST131) O25b serogroup Escherichia coli, producing CTX-M type extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL), is a major clone involved in worldwide pandemic spread in both community- and healthcare-associated infections. Recently, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has become a routine tool for the identification of bacteria in many laboratories. This study aimed to assess the performance of MALDI-TOF MS for the screening of ESBL-producing E. coli ST131 in a rapid, inexpensive, and simple way. METHODS: A total 26 clinical E. coli, isolated from blood between 2013 and 2014, were used. The characteristics are ST131-O25b ESBL producers (n=6), ST131-O16 ESBL producers (n=4), non-ST131 ESBL producers (n=11), and non-ST131 non-ESBL producers (n=5). Specific biomarker peaks to distinguish the ST131 clonal group from others were investigated by MicroIDSys (ASTA, South Korea) and ASTA Tinkerbell 2.0 software. RESULTS: A peak at 9,713 m/z peak is useful to screen for ST131 E. coli, regardless of serogroup O25 or O16, showing a sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 56.2%, positive predictive value of 58.8%, and negative predictive value of 100% when using a relative intensity cutoff of 15%. CONCLUSION: We can screen for ST131 E. coli using MicroIDSys (ASTA), MALDI-TOF MS in a rapid, inexpensive, and simple way. However, other confirmatory tests are needed to confirm ST131 E. coli due to the low specificity of this method.
Bacteria ; Clone Cells ; Escherichia coli* ; Escherichia* ; Mass Screening ; Mass Spectrometry* ; Methods ; Pandemics ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Serogroup

Incidence and mortality of colorectal cancer has increased significantly in recent years. Screening for colorectal cancer is the most effective method to decrease mortality. Colorectal adenoma is the precancerous lesion of colorectal cancer and can be detected through colonoscopy, which is the crucial in the early diagnosis and early treatment for colorectal cancer. The first step of screening is the selection of target population and the second step is colorectal examination. The selection of candidate for screening has direct effect on the efficacy of screening. The methods in common use include fecal occult blood test, questionnaire for high risk factors of colorectal cancer, colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, and CT virtual colonoscopy. Among those, colonoscopy is the most reliable method and widely used in the screening for colorectal cancer.
China ; Colonoscopy ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; Early Detection of Cancer ; methods ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; methods ; Occult Blood