An inquiry form was distributed to 200 persons in Thuan Thanh commune, Hue city to investigate their awareness on hepatitis B virus. Most subjects (67.50%) known that the disease transfers through the blood way, depending on education level, a lower rate – 34% believe that the disease transfers from mother to child, and 29% by sexual relation. Most people recognized the high risk of intravenous drug use and prostitution. A low rate of people recognized the other risks as homosexual relation or health profession. A majority (69.5%) known the need of vaccine, but only 36% known the use of condom in intercourse as a preventive mean. Particularly, 36% believed on the isolation of hepatitis B patients
Hepatitis B virus ; Risk Factors ; Diseases ; transmission

Background: Mental retardation is a common pathological state in children, accounting for about 1 - 3%. Children with mental retardation should have a life of integrity and proper support. The discovery and assessment the children will help us to orient the education, assistance and early intervention for them at each location. Objectives: This study aimed at determining the prevalence of mental retardation (MR) among children in some quarters and communes of Hue city and the degrees of mental retardation in these children. Subjects and method: Screening by WHO questionnaire \u201cTen Question screen for disability\ufffd?and learning results (if possible) of children from 6 to under 16 years old in 5 quarters (urban) and 2 communes (rural) randomly selected in Hue. Diagnostics and evaluations are based on the criteria of ICD \ufffd?10. Results: The prevalence of MR in this study was 0.94% (95%CI = 0.82 \ufffd?1.07), 1.18% in rural area and 0.84% in urban area; 1.16% among boys and 0.70% among girls. Mild MR accounts for 62.67% moderate: 19.36%, severe: 11.52% and profound: 6.45%. Conclusion: The prevalence was statistically significant higher in rural area than in urban area and in boys than in girls. There were predominant percentages of severe and profound MR.
Mental Retardation/ epidemiology ; Prevalence ; Children ;

Background: Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) is the second cause of Mental Retardation (MR) and the first cause of familiar MR. This syndrome affects up to 1/4000 men and 1/8000 women. X syndrome is often diagnosed by molecular biology technique such as RCR and Southern blot. Until now there is no study on FXS in Vietnam. Objectives: This study is aimed at: (1) Determine FXS among children with MR by technique of molecular biology. (2) Determine the mutation of FMR1 gen in families having children with FXS. Subject and Method: 214 children between 6 and 16 years of age (136 male and 78 female) with MR were analyzed FMR1 gen by PCR and Southern blot techniques. Families of children with FXS were also analyzed. Result and conclusion: This is the first study on FXS using the techniques of molecular biology in Vietnam. Identified 3 children with FXS, accounting for 1.4% of MR. Children with FXS and members with full mutation and premutation were found.
Fragile X syndrome ; FMR1 gene ; Mental retardation

Background: Heparansulfate Interacting Protein (HIP) is a protein that belongs to a novel class of heparin and heparansulfate binding protein. It plays an important role in extracellular matrix structure and function, cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix adhesion, growth and differentiation. HIP was shown to be expressed in normal epithelia and epithelial cell lines at both mRNA and protein levels. Especially, HIP was found to be up-regulated in some cancer cell lines and related to different status and metastasis.\r\n', u'Objectives: To determinate HIP transcript level of mRNA in breast cancer tissues in comparison with normal tissues; to compare HIP transcript level at different cancer stages and cancer cell types. \r\n', u'Subjects and method: Total RNA was isolated from 62 tissue samples (47 breast cancer and 15 normal tissues); cDNA synthesis by reverse transcript \u2013polymerase chain reaction (RT \u2013 PCR); determination of HIP transcript using semi-quantitative RT \u2013 PCR. \r\n', u'Results: HIP transcript was particularly up \u2013 regulated in breast cancer tissues compared to normal tissues, especially this up-regulated in cancer tissues at different stages of development and cancer cell types. \r\n', u'Conclusion: These results show that the HIP transcript level was different between breast cancer and normal tissues and its expression was related to different status and metastasis in human cancer cell lines. HIP may be used as a prognostic marker for breast cancer.\r\n', u'
Heparansulfate Interacting Protein (HIP) ; breast cancer

Background: Currently, tracking, monitoring insecticide resistance of mosquitoes transmitting disease is an urgent need.\r\n', u'Objectives: To evaluate resistance to insecticide of three mosquito species: Aedes Aegypti, Culex quinquefasciatus and culex tritaenyorhynchus in Ha Noi\r\n', u'Subject and method: Aedes Aegypti, Culex quinquefasciatus culex tritaenyorhynchus mosquito species was collected from some districts of Ha Noi city. These mosquito species was tested sensitivity with 4 insecticides: permethrin 0.75%, lambda-cyhalothrin 0.05%, alpha-cypermethrin 30mg/m2 and DDT 4.0%.\r\n', u'Results: Three main vectors of Dengue fever, Japanese Encephalic and Filariasis mosquitoes were found in a very high density in some areas of Ha Noi City. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in the districts of Thanh Xuan (TX), Dong Da (DD) and Hoang Mai (HM) was found highly resistant to permethrin, alpha - cypermethrin, lambda - cyhalothrin and DDT with the mortalities rates of 51 % (TX) and 59%(DD); 70%(HM); 90%, 82% and 96%; 74%, 54% and 59%; 1 %, 8% and 32%, respectively. \r\n', u'Culex tritaenyorhynchus was found also highly resistant to permethrin with the mortality rate of 29%, alphacypermethrin - 18%, lambdacyhalothrin - only 3% and DDT x36%. Culex quinquefasciatus was found also highly resistant to those insecticides. \r\n', u'Conclusion: Other insecticides should choose to replace the chemicals used in this experiment to control, kill mosquitoes when epidemics occur.\r\n', u'
Insecticides ; resistance ; Aedes Aegypti ; Culex quinquefasciatus ; culex tritaenyorhynchus

Introduction and Purpose
Overweight and obesity have recently emerged as major problems of malnutrition among children in developing countries. However, risk factors for childhood obesity in Asian countries remain largely unknown. Identification of target populations for its prevention and intervention is urgently needed. This survey was conducted to assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity and identify possible risk factors among kindergarten children in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Methods
In this cross-sectional study conducted in March, 2005, 780 children in their third and fourth years in kindergarten and their mothers were randomly selected from eight local kindergartens. Height and weight of mother-child pairs were measured, and an interview was conducted by trained staff using a questionnaire in Vietnamese. Overweight/obesity was defined as a weight-for-height > 2 SD above the National Center for Health Statistics median reference value. Risk factors for overweight/obesity were analyzed using logistic regression.
Results
There were 741 respondents (377 boys and 364 girls); the response rate was 95.0%. Average age of children was 61.8 ± 6.8 months; the average age of mothers was 35.0 ± 5.2 years. The average height and weight were 110 ± 5.7cm and 21.2 ± 4.0kg respectively. Of the 741 children, 27.8% were identified as being overweight/obesity. Four possible variables selected were: 1) child's sex, 2) mother's awareness of her child's current body type, 3) mother's expectation for her child's body type in the future, 4) mother's awareness of her own current body type .
Conclusion
Our findings point to the importance of addressing appropriate body images in the management of children's nutritional health. Providing sufficient amounts of information on appropriate body type in addition to feeding practice to mothers should be a priority at the Ho Chi Minh City Nutrition Center to prevent child overweight and obesity.

Background: Bone marrow stem cells with their plasticity can be used to replace and repair the other damaged organs and tissues, so they can also be used to obtain bone healing of nonunions. Objective: to evaluate the results of percutaneous autologous bone marrow grafting to treat the tibia diaphyseal nonunions. Subjects and methods: 12 patients with noninfected nonunion of the tibia were diagnosed and treated in Viet Duc Hospital. About 250mL of marrow was aspirated, then separated and concentrated by density gradient centrifugation. The final mononuclear cell mass containing stem cells and progenitors was washed in 30ml of 0.9% NaCL and then injected into the damaged sites. Patients were evaluated by clinical and X-rays examinations with at least 6 months follow-up. Results: None of the patients had post - op complications. Bone union was obtained in eleven of the twelve patients (91,7%) at an average of 15,3 weeks (range, 9 - 30 weeks), the bone marrow grafts used for these patients who had bone union contained a mean of 5,65 \xb1 3,74 x 106 (0,95 - 11,73 x 106) CD34(+) stem cells in total. Conclusions: Percutaneous autologous bone - marrow grafting is a minimally invasive alternative and a simple, effective, safe method for the treatment of the tibia diaphyseal nonunions with the comparative bone healing rate. \r\n', u'\r\n', u'
Tibia/ pathology ; Bone Marrow/ anatomy & ; histology ; surgery

A new compound, 3β-acetoxylanosta-7,9(11),24-triene-26-al (3), and seven known compounds (1 – 2 and 4 – 8) were isolated from Ganoderma tropicum (Jung.) Bres. collected in Tay Nguyen, Vietnam. The structures of these compounds were determined by one- and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), and high-resolution ESI-MS, and by comparison with literature data. All of the isolated compounds were tested for nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) reduction activity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae-stimulated RAW 246.7 cells. Among them, compounds 2 – 4 and 6 – 8 enhanced the NBT reduction in a dose-dependent manner.

A new compound, 3β-acetoxylanosta-7,9(11),24-triene-26-al (3), and seven known compounds (1 – 2 and 4 – 8) were isolated from Ganoderma tropicum (Jung.) Bres. collected in Tay Nguyen, Vietnam. The structures of these compounds were determined by one- and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), and high-resolution ESI-MS, and by comparison with literature data. All of the isolated compounds were tested for nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) reduction activity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae-stimulated RAW 246.7 cells. Among them, compounds 2 – 4 and 6 – 8 enhanced the NBT reduction in a dose-dependent manner.

BACKGROUND: In the view of the epidemic growth of sensitization to indoor allergens in Southern Vietnam, there is a requirement to screen large population. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate skin prick tests (SPTs) as predictors of positive specific IgE (sIgE) to dust allergens, among patients with chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs). METHODS: The sensitization to Blomia tropicalis (Blo t), Dermatophagoides pteronissinus (Der p), and Blattella germanica allergens (Bla g) were evaluated among 610 CRD, both SPT (≥4 mm) and sIgE by immuno-CAP (≥0.7 kUA/L). RESULTS: Based on sIgE, 45%, 32%, and 33% of patients with CRD were sensitized to Blo t, Der p, and Bla g, respectively, compared to 19%, 18%, and 13% by SPT. The association between SPT and sIgE was statistically significant, though the Kappa factor was fair (i.e., 0.39 to 0.23). While the specificity of SPT to detect sensitization (compared to sIgE) was >90% among the whole population, the sensitivity was only 34%, 41%, and 24% for Bo t, Der p, and Bla g, suggesting that SPT was not enough sensitive to screen the indoor allergen sensitization. Though, among the < 10 pack-year (PY) smokers, the sensitivity was 43% for Blo t, 52% for Der p, and 61% for Blo t and/or Der p, compared to 27%, 30%, and 35% among the ≥10 PY smokers. The sensitivity/specificity was not associated with the diagnosis of asthma compared to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. CONCLUSION: In the present circumstance, SPT to dust mites allergens can be used to detect a sensitization among CRD population in Southern Vietnam.
Allergens ; Asthma ; Diagnosis ; Dust ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E ; Mites ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; Pyroglyphidae ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Skin Tests ; Skin ; Vietnam