Seung-Ryong Kim

Folic acid prevents neural tube defects : International comparison of awareness among obstetricians/gynecologists and urologists

Aim:  It has been suggested that periconceptional intake of folic acid prevents risks of having fetuses afflicted with neural tube defects. We aim to internationally investigate knowledge of the role of folic acid and attitudes toward the life‐style of young women of child‐bearing age among obstetricians/gynecologists and urologists.

Comparison between mixed lysate antigen and α-actinin antigen in ELISA for serodiagnosis of trichomoniasis.

The aim of this study was to identify an antigen suitable for ELISA for serodiagnosis of Trichomonas vaginalis (T. vaginalis) infection. Mixed lysate antigen (Ag) from eight strains of T. vaginalis and recombinant α-actinin protein was compared. The sera of three groups were examined by ELISA: 73 women infected with trichomoniasis served as a positive control, 31 male volunteers as a negative control, and 424 women attending an outpatient health screening at Hanyang University Guri Hospital. Based on the cutoff optical density for each Ag obtained with a negative control, the serosensitivity of the mixed lysate Ag (79.5%) was significantly higher than that of the α-actinin (52.1%) in the 73 patients with trichomoniasis. The specificity using lysate Ag and α-actinin was 100% and 96.8%, respectively. On the other hand, the positivity rate in 424 outpatients was 39.2% and 11.8% with mixed lysate and α-actinin Ag, respectively. Taken together, mixed lysate Ag showed higher sensitivity and specificity than α-actinin. Therefore, mixed lysate may be a better Ag than α-actinin for ELISA for the diagnosis of trichomoniasis.