Emotional disturbance in Chinese obstetrical patients: a pilot study.

The level of psychiatric morbidity in Chinese obstetrical patients in a clinic in New York's Chinatown is investigated, in order to examine the preconception that Chinese living in America have less need for mental health services. One hundred twenty-four patients completed the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) and received a standard clinical psychiatric assessment. Twenty-three percent of the patients received DSM-III diagnoses, an amount similar to that found in other studies in the general population. The GHQ-28 proved to be a good screening instrument to detect these cases, with a sensitivity of 74% and a specificity of 98% using GHQ greater than or equal to 9 as a predictor of probable psychiatric morbidity. Recent immigrants were overrepresented among high GHQ-28 scorers and among patients who received DSM-III diagnoses.

Evaluation of a paper-patch test for sweat chloride determination.

This article evaluates a recently developed qualitative sweat patch test (SPT). A battery-powered stimulator with polymer pad electrodes is used to stimulate sweating, followed by the application of a paper patch which collects the sweat and shows color change on sweat chloride levels above 40 to 50 mEq/l. Our data consist of 66 patients with cystic fibrosis, 75 control subjects, and 37 relatives of patients with cystic fibrosis, excluding 22 subjects (11%) with insufficient sweat. There were no false-negative results among 66 patients with cystic fibrosis, and in the control group, 71 of 75 subjects gave negative results and the other four gave positive results. Of the 37 relatives, eight gave positive results; all of the eight subjects are parents of patients with cystic fibrosis. Our results indicate that SPT is useful and reliable when there is sufficient sweat. This portable and simple patch test may serve as an excellent screening test for cystic fibrosis.

Evaluation of a cystic fibrosis screening system incorporating a miniature sweat stimulator and disposable chloride sensor.

A new sweat test (CF Indicator; Medtronic, Inc.) for cystic fibrosis (CF) features a compact, portable configuration of electrodes that dispense pilocarpine for iontophoresis. A disposable chloride sensor patch absorbs a specified volume of sweat, in which the chloride concentration is immediately determined as less than 40, 40-60, or greater than 60 mmol/L. We assessed the performance of the system in a five-center study, in relation to the clinical diagnosis and to the Gibson-Cooke sweat test (GCST) as a control test. With sweat chloride concentrations of less than or equal to 40 mmol/L defined as normal and greater than 40 mmol/L as indicating persons at risk for CF, the new system showed 91% specificity and 100% sensitivity for CF, as compared with 92.8% and 100%, respectively, for the GCST. When we used sweat chloride concentrations of less than or equal to 60 mmol/L as probably normal and greater than 60 mmol/L as probably indicative of CF, the new system showed a 99.1% specificity and 98.6% sensitivity, vs 97.8% specificity and 97.9% sensitivity for the GCST test. In both procedures, occasionally insufficient sweat was collected, and this appeared related to the age of the subject. We conclude that the new sweat test system is potentially useful in physicians' offices, in clinics, and similar settings.