Serological divergence of Dobrava and Saaremaa hantaviruses: evidence for two distinct serotypes. (25/274)

In order to investigate the serological relationship of Dobrava hantavirus (DOBV, originating from Slovenia) and the Dobrava-like Saaremaa virus (SAAV, recently discovered in Estonia) we analysed 37 human serum samples, 24 from Estonia and 13 from the Balkans, by focus reduction neutralization test (FRNT). Most of the Estonian sera (19), including all sera from Saaremaa island (12), reacted with higher FRNT end-point titres to the local SAAV; the majority of them (15 and 11, respectively), with at least fourfold or higher titres to SAAV than to DOBV. In contrast, out of the 13 sera collected in Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Greece, only one reacted more strongly with SAAV (with a twofold higher titre), while 10 of these sera reacted more strongly with the local DOBV (9/10 with fourfold or higher titres). These results indicate that DOBV and SAAV define unique hantavirus serotypes.  (+info)

Users' information-seeking behavior on a medical library Website. (26/274)

The Central Medical Library (CMK) at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, started to build a library Website that included a guide to library services and resources in 1997. The evaluation of Website usage plays an important role in its maintenance and development. Analyzing and exploring regularities in the visitors' behavior can be used to enhance the quality and facilitate delivery of information services, identify visitors' interests, and improve the server's performance. The analysis of the CMK Website users' navigational behavior was carried out by analyzing the Web server log files. These files contained information on all user accesses to the Website and provided a great opportunity to learn more about the behavior of visitors to the Website. The majority of the available tools for Web log file analysis provide a predefined set of reports showing the access count and the transferred bytes grouped along several dimensions. In addition to the reports mentioned above, the authors wanted to be able to perform interactive exploration and ad hoc analysis and discover trends in a user-friendly way. Because of that, we developed our own solution for exploring and analyzing the Web logs based on data warehousing and online analytical processing technologies. The analytical solution we developed proved successful, so it may find further application in the field of Web log file analysis. We will apply the findings of the analysis to restructuring the CMK Website.  (+info)

Epidemiological analysis of tuberculosis in the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia during 1901-1910. (27/274)

AIM: To analyze data on epidemiology and treatment of tuberculosis from the sources related to the history and epidemiology of tuberculosis in the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia in the 1900-1910 period. METHODS: Epidemiological data were obtained from the statistical yearbooks of the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia for years 1905 and 1910. A number of sources and publications on the history of medicine, especially on the history of tuberculosis in the studied period were analyzed. Mortality ratio, birth rate ratio, and population growth were calculated. Tuberculosis mortality per 100,000 inhabitants was calculated for four major cities and eight counties of the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia. The difference in tuberculosis mortality rates between urban and rural areas and socio-economic situation and organization of the health service were analyzed. The incidence, prevalence, and morbidity from tuberculosis were not analyzed because of the lack of data. RESULTS: The tuberculosis mortality ratio per 100,000 inhabitants in the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia were constantly high (above 400 on average), with higher mortality ratio in urban than in rural areas. According to the opinion of the Croatian physicians and statistical data of the period, this was due to the constant growth of population, insufficient health care system, and bad living conditions. The highest tuberculosis mortality rates were in the cities of Zemun (600-800) and Zagreb (500-700), and in the counties of Srijem (600-400), Virovitica (600-400), and Lika- Krbava (500-400). CONCLUSION: There was a concordance between the statistical data and the publications, reports, and articles written in the 19th and 20th century on tuberculosis situation in the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia. The analysis showed that tuberculosis was one of the major causes of death in the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia from 1901 to 1910. This fact had a significant influence on tuberculosis prevention and eradication efforts in the first half of the 20th century in Croatia and laid basis for further and more elaborate measures against tuberculosis epidemics.  (+info)

An evaluation of patient satisfaction amongst family practice patients with diverse ethnic backgrounds. (28/274)

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the impact of patients' ethnic diversity on the patient satisfaction rates. DESIGN: We used the methodology developed in an international EUROPE study. The patients were asked to fill in self-administered questionnaires on their evaluations of the care received in the year prior to the survey. The instrument consists of 23 questions regarding specific family physicians' tasks evaluated on a 5 point Likert scale. SETTING: Primary care practices of the National Railway Primary Health Care Services in Slovenia. STUDY PARTICIPANTS: A questionnaire was handed out to 600 patients cared for by 10 physicians. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Percentages of highly satisfied patients in groups of patients with different ethnic backgrounds. RESULTS: We achieved 65.7% response rate. The overall satisfaction was lower in non-Slovenian patients, however was not significant (83.6 vs. 85.8 points, p = NS). Non-Slovenian patients were less satisfied with regard to: "quick relief of their symptoms", "helping them to feel well so as to be able to perform their normal daily activities", physicians'"thoroughness" and their explanations concerning what the patients wanted to know about their symptoms and/or illness. In a multivariate analysis Slovenian nationality predicted higher patient satisfaction with the clinical "performance" of physicians. CONCLUSIONS: As family practice remains an important source of primary health care for all patients, the providers should address the needs of all members of society regardless their social or cultural background. Undergraduate and postgraduate curricula have to address communication skills emphasising cultural differences.  (+info)

Identification of novel mutations in FOXL2 associated with premature ovarian failure. (29/274)

Premature ovarian failure (POF) affects approximately 1% of women and is known to be caused by sex chromosome abnormalities, iatrogenic agents and autoimmune diseases, but in the majority of cases the cause is unknown. However, several families have been identified as having an inherited predisposition to POF, suggesting a genetic component to the condition in these cases. The FOXL2 gene of 70 POF patients from New Zealand and Slovenia was screened for mutations. In a Slovenian POF patient, a novel 30 bp deletion was identified that was predicted to remove 10 out of 14 alanines (A221_A230del), from the polyalanine tract downstream of the winged helix/forkhead domain of the FOXL2 protein. A novel single nucleotide substitution, 772(1009)T>A, which is predicted to change amino acid 258 from tyrosine to asparagine (Y258N), was identified in a New Zealand POF patient. Neither mutation was identified in 200 normal control chromosomes from 100 control samples. Three previously unreported single nucleotide substitutions, considered to be non-functional polymorphisms, were also identified.  (+info)

Years of potential life lost and valued years of potential life lost in assessing premature mortality in Slovenia. (30/274)

AIM: To determine the leading causes of death that contribute most to premature mortality in Slovenia; to classify premature mortality according to the cause of death, age, and sex; and to determine the age point before which premature mortality becomes a potential loss to the society. METHOD: Potential economic losses to society were estimated by use of years of potential life lost (YPLL), with a cut-off point at 65 years, and valued years of potential life lost (VYPLL) methods. We calculated the sex-, age-, and underlying causes of death-specific YPLL and VYPLL for residents of Slovenia who died at age younger than 65 years, using Slovene sex-specific life expectancy for 1998/1999 and age-specific weights of investment-producer-consumer model. RESULTS: In 1998, 4,558 YPLL per 100,000 population were lost to Slovenia. We found bimodal age distribution of YPLL, with the first peak in the 20-24 year age group and the second in the 45-49 year age group. Men to women rate ratio was 2.5. The leading causes of YPLL were external causes of death, followed by malignant neoplasms, and cardiovascular diseases. External causes, including suicides and traffic accidents, were the leading causes of death in men, whereas malignant neoplasms, including breast cancer and digestive cancer, were top-ranking causes in women. Among those, only external causes of death produced positive VYPLL, indicating a net loss to the society. CONCLUSION: In Slovenia, YPLL peaked in the 20-24 and 45-49 year age groups. Only external causes of death, most of which were preventable, accounted for the net economic loss to Slovenian society. We believe that YPLL and VYPLL, as specific mortality measures, can be reliably used in the evaluation of leading causes of death before age 65 and potential economic loss to the society caused by those deaths, and that they should be taken into account when setting public health priorities.  (+info)

Decline in sex ratio at birth after 10-day war in Slovenia: brief communication. (31/274)

BACKGROUND: We investigated whether the psychological stress related to a short war (26 June-7 July, 1991) in Slovenia induced changes in fertility, sex ratio at birth and semen quality characteristics. METHODS: Sex ratios [i.e. males/(males + females)] for 4966 births in the general population of Slovenia and separately for 1565 births in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana, from January-March 1992 were compared with the sex ratio calculated for the same time period in 1991 and 1993. Semen analyses for 38 normozoospermic men attending an outpatient infertility clinic from May to September 1991 were also evaluated. RESULTS: In the general population in Slovenia there was a significant fall in the sex ratio at birth in 1992, compared with 1991 (0.504 versus 0.518; P = 0.03). In Ljubljana, the decline in sex ratio in 1992 was even more pronounced: 0.483 versus 0.537 in 1991 (P = 0.0001) and 0.483 versus 0.516 in 1993 (P = 0.005). A decrease in the proportion of sperm that were progressively motile from 56% before the war to 52% after it (P = 0.01) and of those that were rapidly motile from 40 to 36% (P = 0.01) was observed. CONCLUSIONS: Acute psychological stress in relation to a short war in Slovenia resulted 6 to 9 months later in a decrease in the observed sex ratio at birth. Negative changes in sperm motility may be involved in the sex ratio modifications.  (+info)

BRCA2 founder mutation in Slovenian breast cancer families. (32/274)

Linkage analysis has identified BRCA1 and BRCA2 germline mutations as the major cause for cancer predisposition in breast and/or ovarian cancer families. In previous screening efforts on Belgian families we had a BRCA1/2 gene mutation detection rate of 25%.(1) Here we report the results of a BRCA mutation screening in seven high-risk breast/ovarian cancer families from Slovenia. We found a single but highly recurrent BRCA2 splice site mutation (IVS16-2A>G) in three breast cancer-only families. This cancer-linked mutation could not be identified in three families with ovarian cancer, suggesting that the mutation predisposes at least predominantly to breast cancer. All mutation carriers shared a common disease associated haplotype indicating a founder effect. This mutation most probably occurred in a single ancestor and seems essentially confined to the Slovene population.  (+info)