Aboriginal Patients (aboriginal + patient)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Medical Sciences100%

Selected Abstracts

Higher rate and earlier peritonitis in Aboriginal patients compared to non-Aboriginal patients with end-stage renal failure maintained on peritoneal dialysis in Australia: Analysis of ANZDATA

NEPHROLOGY, Issue 2 2005
WAI H LIM
SUMMARY Background: Aboriginal patients maintained on peritoneal dialysis (PD) have a higher rate of technique failure than any other racial group in Australia. Peritonitis accounts for the bulk of these technique, failures,, but, it, is, uncertain, whether, the, increased, risk, of, peritonitis, in, Aboriginal, patients was independent of associated comorbid conditions, such as diabetes mellitus. Methods: Using data collected by the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry (ANZDATA), peritonitis rates and time to first peritonitis were compared between Aboriginal (n = 238) and non-Aboriginal patients (n = 2924) commencing PD in Australia between 1 April 1999 and 31 March 2003. Results: Aboriginal PD patients were younger, and had a higher incidence of diabetes than their non-Aboriginal counterparts. Mean peritonitis rates were significantly higher among Aboriginal (1.15 episodes/year; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03,1.28) than non-Aboriginal patients (0.60 episodes/year; 95% CI: 0.57,0.62, P < 0.05). Using multivariate negative binomial regression, independent predictors of higher peritonitis rates include Aboriginal racial origin (adjusted odds ratio 1.78; 95% CI: 1.45,2.19), obesity, age and absence of a recorded dialysate : plasma creatinine ratio (D/P creatinine) measurement. Aboriginal racial origin was also associated with a shorter median time to first peritonitis (9.9 vs 19.3 months, P < 0.05), which remained statistically significant in a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model (adjusted hazard ratio 1.76; 95% CI: 1.47,2.11, P < 0.05). Conclusion: Aboriginal and obese PD patients have a higher rate of peritonitis and a shorter time to first peritonitis, independent of demographic and comorbid factors. Further investigation of the causes of increased peritonitis risk in Aboriginal patients is needed. [source]

Benchmarking epidemiological characteristics of cervical cancer in advance of change in screening practice and commencement of vaccination

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 2 2007
Colin Luke
Abstract Objectives: To investigate trends in cervical cancer incidence, mortality and survival by histology for benchmarking purposes ahead of practice change and the introduction of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine. Methods: Using data from the South Australian Cancer Registry, age-standardised rates are presented for four-year periods from 1977 to 2004. Socio-demographic and secular predictors of glandular as opposed to squamous cancers are investigated, using multivariable logistic regression. Disease-specific survivals are analysed using Kaplan-Meier product-limit estimates and Cox proportional hazards regression. Results: Incidence and mortality rates reduced by 55.1% and 59.3% respectively between 1977,80 and 2001,04, with larger reductions for squamous than glandular cancers. The ratio of squamous to glandular cancer incidence reduced from 5.4:1 in 1977,88 to 2.8:1 in 1993,2004, with a corresponding reduction from 5.2:1 to 3.0:1 for mortality. Compared with squamous cancers, glandular lesions were more common in patients from higher socio-economic areas, but less common in those over 70 years of age, Aboriginal patients, and those born in Southern Europe. Conclusion: The proportion of cancers comprising glandular lesions has increased, possibly reflecting prevention of squamous cancers through treatment of screen-detected preinvasive lesions. Additional mortality reductions from screening may be limited where the proportion of glandular lesions is high, with vaccination offering the best prospects for gains in the long term. Priority should be given to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in vaccination programs in view of their high death rate from cervical cancer. [source]

First report on autochthonous urease-positive Trichophyton rubrum (T. raubitschekii) from South-east Europe

BRITISH JOURNAL OF DERMATOLOGY, Issue 1 2005
M. Arabatzis
Summary Background,Trichophyton raubitschekii is a dermatophyte belonging to the T. rubrum complex and is differentiated principally by its positive urease activity and production of profuse macroconidia and microconidia in culture. It is classically isolated from African, South-east Asian and Australian aboriginal patients with tinea corporis or tinea cruris. Objectives, This study was undertaken to screen Greek and Bulgarian clinical isolates identified as T. rubrum for T. raubitschekii and to delineate these strains by two molecular methods used for the first time in T. rubrum epidemiological studies. Methods, Ninety-five Greek and 10 Bulgarian strains, originating from various body sites, initially identified as T. rubrum, were screened for urease activity. The biochemical properties and morphology of the urease-positive strains were determined. Strains were delineated with polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-ribotyping amplifying repeat elements of the intergenic spacer region and by PCR fingerprinting. Results, Five Greek and one Bulgarian T. raubitschekii strains were identified comprising isolates from patients with tinea manuum (one), tinea corporis (one), tinea cruris (one) and tinea unguium (three). Only one strain had the classical T. raubitschekii microscopic morphology, whereas the remaining five presented a dominant arthroconidial phenotype. Both typing methods clustered all T. raubitschekii and T. rubrum isolates together in the same group, indicating strain homogeneity in the genetic regions examined. Conclusions, The reported isolation of T. raubitschekii in the Balkan and South-eastern Mediterranean regions extends the geographical distribution of this species. As the more primitive T. raubitschekii probably represents the parental population of T. rubrum, the Greek and Bulgarian T. raubitschekii strains could represent a remnant of the T. rubrum spread that took place after the First World War, rather than being a recent epidemiological event. [source]