PMID: 16642929Apr 29, 2006Paper

The most probable clinical diagnosis to the applicants for the intractable disease registration of Parkinson's disease, spinocerebellar degeneration and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Rinshō shinkeigaku = Clinical neurology
Yugo NaritaShigeki Kuzuhara

Abstract

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease (PD) and spinocerebellar degeneration (SCD) are included in the 45 intractable diseases" acknowledged by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan. The registration of applicants is based on the attending doctors' diagnosis, and medical costs of registered patients are covered by the government. However, the accuracy of the diagnoses has not been investigated previously. The aim of the present study is to investigate the accuracy of the diagnoses of patients registered as PD, SCD and ALS in Mie prefecture of Japan. The study design was cross-sectional and the survey was carried out using an anonymous questionnaire. We asked the attending doctors the most probable clinical diagnosis in each applicant for PD, SCD or ALS at the annual renewal of application form of the specified diseases by the Ministry. The questionnaires were sent to the 57 neurologists in 20 general hospitals and 2 neurology clinics in Mie prefecture, Japan. The survey was carried out from July to September, 2003. For each disorder (PD, ALS, SCD), the accuracy rates were calculated as the ratio of the number of patients with the most probable diagnosis of the consistent disease to the number of ...Continue Reading

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