Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a new disease with symptoms similar to those of atypical pneumonia, raised a global alert in March 2003. Because of its relatively high transmissibility and mortality upon infection, probable SARS patients were quarantined and treated with special and intensive care. Therefore, instant and accurate laboratory confirmation of SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) infection has become a worldwide interest. For this need, we purified recombinant proteins including the nucleocapsid (N), envelope (E), membrane (M), and truncated forms of the spike protein (S1-S7) of SARS-CoV in Escherichia coli. The six proteins N, E, M, S2, S5, and S6 were used for Western blotting (WB) to detect various immunoglobulin classes in 90 serum samples from 54 probable SARS patients. The results indicated that N was recognized in most of the sera. In some cases, S6 could be recognized as early as 2 or 3 days after illness onset, while S5 was recognized at a later stage. Furthermore, the result of recombinant-protein-based WB showed a 90% agreement with that of the whole-virus-based immunofluorescence assay. Combining WB with existing RT-PCR, the laboratory confirmation for SARS-CoV infection was greatly enhanced by 24.1%, from 48.1% (RT-PCR alone) to 72.2%. Finally, our results show that IgA antibodies against SARS-CoV can be detected within 1 week after illness onset in a few SARS patients.
BackgroundThe increasing prevalence of multiple chronic conditions has accentuated the importance of coordinating and integrating health care services. Patients with better continuity of care (COC) have a lower utilization rate of emergency department (ED) services, lower hospitalization and better care outcomes. Previous COC studies have focused on the care outcome of patients with a single chronic condition or that of physician-patient relationships; few studies have investigated the care outcome of patients with multiple chronic conditions. Using multi-chronic patients as subjects, this study proposes an integrated continuity of care (ICOC) index to verify the association between COC and care outcomes for two scopes of chronic conditions, at physician and medical facility levels.MethodsThis study used a dataset of 280,840 subjects, obtained from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database (LHID 2005), compiled by the National Health Research Institutes, of the National Health Insurance Bureau of Taiwan. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to integrate the indices of density, dispersion and sequence into ICOC to measure COC outcomes - the utilization rate of ED services and hospitalization. A Generalized Estimating Equations model was used to verify the care outcomes.ResultsWe discovered that the higher the COC at medical facility level, the lower the utilization rate of ED services and hospitalization for patients; by contrast, the higher the COC at physician level, the higher the utilization rate of ED services (odds ratio > 1; Exp(β) = 2.116) and hospitalization (odds ratio > 1; Exp(β) = 1.688). When only those patients with major chronic conditions with the highest number of medical visits were considered, it was found that the higher the COC at both medical facility and physician levels, the lower the utilization rate of ED services and hospitalization.ConclusionsThe study shows that ICOC is more stable than single indices and it can be widely used to measure the care outcomes of different chronic conditions to accumulate empirical evidence. Concentrated care of multi-chronic patients by a single physician often results in unsatisfactory care outcomes. This highlights the need for referral mechanisms and integration of specialties inside or outside medical facilities, in order to optimize patient-centered care.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2025 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.