The Federal Joint Committee has decided to introduce organized cervical carcinoma screening in 2020. The present work describes the development of decision aids that will be sent to women in this ...program.
A systematic search for qualitative studies and surveys was conducted to gather information on experiences, attitudes and information needs. Furthermore, we searched for systematic reviews on advantages and disadvantages of screening. An existing decision analysis for cervical carcinoma screening in Germany was used. The designs were subjected to a qualitative test (focus groups with 26 women and 8 expert interviews), to a quantitative user test (online survey n=2,014 women) and to a public hearing.
Most women found the decision aids informative and helpful. The majority would recommend the use of these materials to others. For many women, part of the information was new, although they had been involved in cervical cancer screening for some time. The presentation of the advantages and disadvantages was judged to be balanced. However, 10% changed their attitude towards participation and 70% of women would attend screening.
The decision aids found a high acceptance among the users. They can help to reduce knowledge deficits on cervical carcinoma screening and support a informed decision making.
The purpose of this study was to determine the distribution of the putative periodontal pathogens Prevotella intermedia, Prevotella nigrescens, the three oral Capnocytophaga species (C. ochracea, C. ...sputigena, C. gingivalis), as well as Porphyromonas gingivalis and Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans in plaque samples of periodontally healthy individuals. We chose a newly developed 16S rDNA directed polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and a previously described dot-blot hybridization assay to detect, differentiate, and quantify these bacteria directly in clinical samples. The subjects of these investigations were 66 sulcus fluid samples from 17 children (ages 3 to 5) attending a kindergarten, 48 sulcus fluid samples from 12 children (ages 9 and 10) from a primary school, and 25 subgingival plaque samples isolated from 6 different periodontally healthy dental students (ages 24 to 27). We were able to demonstrate the presence of P. nigrescens in 54 (kindergarten: 5; primary school: 33; students: 16) samples by PCR and quantified it by dot-blot hybridization. In addition, we found C. ochracea in 12 (kindergarten: 2; primary school: 10) samples by PCR reaction only. The other tested bacterial species were absent by the methods used. Furthermore we confirmed the specificity of our P. nigrescens-PCR in selected samples by enzyme electrophoresis.
The karyotypes of 312 successfully analyzed samples of children with acute non-lymphoblastic leukemia (ANLL), which were sent to us by 72 German hospitals, were examined in order to find new ...recurrent chromosome abnormalities of possible clinical relevance. Whereas most of the patients had one of the specific aberrations of ANLL or a normal karyotype, random numerical or structural changes were found in 61 children (20%). Four of them showed an abnormality involving band 12q13: t(12;17)(q13;q21), t(12;21)(q13;q21), t(2;12)(p13;q13), and t(5;12)(p11;q13). Despite the fact that FAB subtypes were different (M0, M1 M6, AHL), the blasts of all patients were characterized by immaturity and were difficult to classify. The breakpoint 12q13 might be of clinical importance in ANLL, because the four patients in our study, as well as the 21 patients with this aberration found in the literature, had a very poor prognosis.
