The Clinical Pathology Characteristics and Tetanus Quick Stick Evaluation for Tetanus Patients in Daegu Emergency Medical Center

Tetanus has high lethality and can cause serious complication, so it is very important to have a quick and exact checkup and treatment. In this study, we conducted a study about clinical characteristics and types of tetanus patients in Daegu Emergency Medical Center and we studied possibility of Tetanos Quick Stick (TQS) as a selective check up to treat tentanus by comparing the results of local checkup kit measured from tetanus quick stick developed to check up tetanus antibody titer and results measured from ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay). The result of the study showed that tetanus happens more to males, and by looking at season, tetanus happened most in summer (from June-August) as 19 cases (45.3%), and when patients come to the emergency medical center, the diagnosis name was electrolyte imbalance 14 cases (33.3%), peripheral nerve 11 cases (26.2%), Meningitis 8 cases (19.0%), drug addiction 7 cases (16.7%), and the patients who are diagnosed as tetanus at the beginning of hospitalization was 2 cases (4.8%). The result of TQS usefulness by comparing with ELISA, in TQS, 42 people was positive and 478 people was negative. it was positive when the result was over 0.1 IU/mL, 48 people was ELISA positive while 472 people was negative. TQS checkup has accuracy of 98%, sensitivity of 83.3%, specificity of 99.5%, positive predictability of 95.2% and negative predictability of 98.3%. The evaluation of current immunity statuses of tetanus patients is available for TQS checkup, and it has an advantage of preventing side effects coming from the injection of unnecessary vaccine and immunoglobulin, and it is thought that it can give help to emergency checkup and treatment at the beginning.