The Association between health-related quality of life and prosthetic status and prosthetic needs in Taiwanese adults.

The objective of this study was to describe aspects of prosthetic statuses and needs and to evaluate their relationship with health-related quality of life in Taiwan. The study participants, aged 18 years and above, were recruited from a community survey, and each of the total 2469 participants received a dental examination and completed a questionnaire. Multivariable analysis was used to assess the adjusted means of health-related quality of life (SF-36) in both prosthetic status and need. The results showed that 12.6% of those aged 65 years and above were edentulous. The proportion of prosthetic need increased as age increased (39.7% to 61.3%). Multivariate analysis revealed that participants with 'removable prosthesis' had higher physical health scores than those with 'non-removable prosthesis'. The scores of mental health measurement decreased in people with need for full prostheses in relation to people without need for any prosthesis. Therefore, fulfilling prosthetic needs is not only about recovering oral masticatory function, but also concerns improvement of both physical and mental health-related quality of life.

Rapid and cost-effective antenatal diagnosis of haemoglobin Bart's hydrops foetalis syndrome using a duplex-polymerase chain reaction.

Haemoglobin Bart's hydrops foetalis syndrome (--SEA/--SEA) is not compatible with life and contributes to a majority of the hydropic foetuses in the Malaysian Chinese alpha-thalassaemia carriers who possess the 2-alpha-gene deletion in cis (--SEA/alphaalpha). A duplex-PCR which simultaneously amplifies a normal 136 bp sequence between the psialpha-alpha2-globin genes and a 730 bp Southeast Asian deletion-specific sequence (--SEA) between the psialpha2-theta1-globin genes was established. The duplex-PCR which detects the --SEA deletion in both chromosomes serves as a rapid and cost-effective confirmatory test in the antenatal diagnosis of Haemoglobin Bart's hydrops foetalis syndrome in Malaysia. In addition, the duplex-PCR is simple to perform as both the normal and deletion-specific alpha-globin gene sequences are amplified in the same PCR reaction.

Combine-ARMS: a rapid and cost-effective protocol for molecular characterization of beta-thalassemia in Malaysia.

Beta-thalassemia major patients have chronic anemia and are dependent on blood transfusions to sustain life. Molecular characterization and prenatal diagnosis of beta3-thalassemia is essential in Malaysia because about 4.5% of the population are heterozygous carriers for beta-thalassemia. The high percentage of compound heterozygosity (47.62%) found in beta-thalassemia major patients in the Thalassaemia Registry, University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), Malaysia, also supports a need for rapid, economical, and sensitive protocols for the detection of beta-thalassemia mutations. Molecular characterization of beta-thalassemia mutations in Malaysia is currently carried out using ARMS, which detects a single beta-thalassemia mutation per PCR reaction. We developed and evaluated Combine amplification refractory mutation system (C-ARMS) techniques for efficient molecular detection of two to three beta-thalassemia mutations in a single PCR reaction. Three C-ARMS protocols were evaluated and established for molecular characterization of common beta-thalassemia mutations in the Malay and Chinese ethnic groups in Malaysia. Two C-ARMS protocols (cd 41-42/IVSII #654 and -29/cd 71-72) detected the beta-thalassemia mutations in 74.98% of the Chinese patients studied. The CARMS for cd 41-42/IVSII #654 detected beta-thalassemia mutations in 72% of the Chinese families. C-ARMS for cd 41-42/IVSI #5/cd 17 allowed detection of beta-thalassemia mutations in 36.53% of beta-thalassemia in the Malay patients. C-ARMS for cd 41-42/IVSI #5/cd 17 detected beta-thalassemia in 45.54% of the Chinese patients. We conclude that C-ARMS with the ability to detect two to three mutations in a single reaction provides more rapid and cost-effective protocols for beta-thalassemia prenatal diagnosis and molecular analysis programs in Malaysia.