Epidemiological Characteristics of HIV/AIDS Pandemic in Romania

Objectives: A comparative research regarding the occurrence and evolution patterns of the HIV-AIDS epidemic between Romania and the major areas (Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and the USA, respectively) in order to establish the current trends of the diseases and the specific prognosis. Material and Methods: The research represents a systematic study over the entire period, of the HIV-AIDS pandemic from 1981-2008, based on specialty literature published in English or Romanian. In addition to theses, published articles, materials presented at conferences and congresses, reports and information from the main governmental and international organizations such as WHO, CDC, UNAIDS have been consulted. Results: Romania was the first country in Central and Eastern Europe to announce the diagnosis of an AIDS case in 1985. Since then, the prevalence per 100000 population of HIV infection cases, has demonstrated an ascending trend from 0.27 in 1992 to 19.67 in 2007. HIV-AIDS infection in children from Romania is unique worldwide. Therefore, from the cumulative total of 7606 AIDS pediatric cases between 1989-2007, 4885 have had a nosocomial transmission. The mother-to-child transmission is well controlled in Romania, similar to the USA. High-risk groups (injecting drug users or men having sex with men), represent a small percentage among the Romanian HIV-AIDS and SSA cases, compared to the USA. Romania, similar to the rest of Europe and USA, has not experienced in general population

Ontology-Based Search Procedure to Identify Tissue Samples in an Autopsy Archive: A Pilot Study

This study aimed to obtain a detailed record of all autopsy specimens analyzed in the Pathology Department of the Emergency Clinical Hospital for Children, Cluj-Napoca from 1974 to 2018, by using an ontology-based search procedure (OSP) intended to identify the paraffin-embedded stored specimens in pathology reports. Two thousand nine hundred and fifty-six autopsy reports were analyzed using a list of histology terms and expressions commonly found in the microscopic descriptions of the autopsy reports, in Romanian. One pathologist was asked to evaluate the microscopic descriptive part of the autopsy reports for 300 cases and to classify the identified histology specimens according to the ICD-topography codes. The results were then compared with the OSP results. The validation assay returned a 97.32% sensitivity and a 99.48% specificity of the applied ontology-based search procedure when taking as a reference the assessment performed by a pathologist. The most common specimens identified were in the categories of the lower respiratory system (lung, trachea), liver, biliary tract, pancreas and urinary system. The proposed ontology can link valuable information to a highly reliable pathology-based autopsy registry allowing researchers to gain access to specimens stored in the pathology archives, and to facilitate disease registration, data extraction and reporting. This procedure represents a good starting point for developing suitable solutions to be implemented in registries, data banks and for the development of ontology-based registration tools

Satistical Graphical User Interface Plug-In for Survival Analysis in R Statistical and Graphics Language and Environment

Introduction: R is a statistical and graphics language and environment. Although it is extensively used in command line, graphical user interfaces exist to ease the accommodation with it for new users. Rcmdr is an R package providing a basic-statistics graphical user interface to R. Survival analysis interface is not provided by Rcmdr. The AIM of this paper was to create a plug-in for Rcmdr to provide survival analysis user interface for some basic R survival analysis functions.Materials and Methods: The Rcmdr plug-in code was written in Tinn-R. The plug-in package was tested and built with Rtools. The plug-in was installed and tested in R with Rcmdr package on a Windows XP workstation with the "aml" and "kidney" data sets from survival R package.Results: The Rcmdr survival analysis plug-in was successfully built and it provides the functionality it was designed to offer: interface for Kaplan Meier and log log survival graph, interface for the log-rank test, interface to create a Cox proportional hazard regression model, interface commands to test and assess graphically the proportional hazard assumption, and influence observations. Conclusion: Rcmdr and R though their flexible and well planed structure, offer an easy way to expand their functionality that was used here to make the statistical environment more user friendly in respect with survival analysis

Identification and Hierarchy of Main Electronic Health Record Components in Occupational Medicine

Starting from the legal requirements relating to structuring of medical records in occupational medicine and international requirements regarding the certification of electronic health records we have focused on structuring and then evaluating an EHR model in occupational medicine that integrates the main functions and certification criteria required by the European and US certification bodies. The application we designed, called Medmun, structured for use in occupational medicine practices based on the model of medical file provided by the Romanian legislation, integrates both necessary components of occupational medicine practice for administration of characteristic information related to socio-economic unit, work place, health surveillance as well as components of specific EHR functionality. The application has been submitted for free evaluation by specialist physicians of five counties over a period of nine months and subsequently assessed using a questionnaire on the usefulness of specific functional components in the EHR occupational medicine practice. The model was positively evaluated after experimental employment by occupational health practitioners. They consider that absence of legislative support for EHR implementation in medical practice is the main obstacle to the use of such applications in occupational medicine practice