Search

Laboratory medicine and hospital central laboratory system were adopted in Taiwan after World War II. In medical schools, laboratory medicine or clinical pathology teaching is allocated to junior students. Three years of clinical pathology or four years of anatomical pathology training is required for pathology resident. Recent trend indicates that both the hospitals and the young doctors favor the five years combined C.P. (two-years) and A.P. (three years) training program. At present, 75 clinical pathologists and 213 anatomical pathologists are qualified. Approximately 70% of them work in medical centers and medical schools. Consequently, the medium and small size hospitals suffer from serious shortage of pathologist. Studies during the part 50 years indicate substantial difference in the improvement of laboratory medicine and central laboratory before and after 1975. Significant improvement in the working space, facility, equipment, staff, quality control and productivity was evident after 1975. The three health care policies contributing to the overall improvement are: 1. hospital accreditation project, 2. medical care network plan, and 3. medical specialist system.

In this study 26 males (average age: 16 y 9 m) and 23 females (average age: 16 y 7 m) were selected from Chungtai Medical Junior College in Taichung, Taiwan. Head films of these students were traced and analysed. Mean values of the Chinese young adults in Taiwan were calculated and the conclusions were as follows: 1) Linear measurements of this present study were compared to Lin's in both males and females. A significant difference was noticed in the skeletal pattern. 2) Angular measurements of this present study were compared to Lin's data of stage IIIC. The gonial angle of this present study was smaller than Lin's data. However, no significant differences were noticed in the positional relationship of upper and lower jaws. 3) Regarding the axes of the anterior teeth, a lingual tipping tendency of the upper anterior teeth and a labial tipping tendency of the lower anterior teeth were observed. 4) The linear measurements in the present study were compared to the Japanese data of stage V. The anterio-posterior dimension of the chinese maxilla was larger than the Japanese. However, there are no significant differences in the position of the upper and lower jaws in females. 5) The measurements of the mandible in this study were smaller than those of the Japanese data. The gonial and mandibular plane angles, especially, were significantly smaller than those of Japanese. 6) The axes of upper and lower anterior teeth of Taiwanese showed more labial tipping than those of Japanese in this study.

Using Moiré topography, the forms of the dental arch and palate of males and females were compared. This was carried out in Fukien province, Taiwan. The materials used consisted of plaster casts of the upper dentitions of 65 males and 69 females with normal occlusion, aged from 20 to 22 years. The results are as follows: 1. The standard form of the upper dental arch represented by a pentagon is shown in Table 1 and in Fig. 3. 2. The dental arch of the male was larger than that of the female, the difference being significant for the anterior and posterior widths of the arch. 3. The correlation coefficients were generally lower in the female than in the male. This was especially true with regard to the size of the anterior portion of the female dental arch. In the posterior portion, there was no correlation between the dental arch length and dental arch width of either sex. 4. The distance from the origin (F) to the papilla incisiva was 23.47 mm in the male and 23.67 mm in the female. The number of moiré band in the bottom of the palate at the origin from the basal plane was 12.89 in the male and 12.73 in the female. There were no significant differences in these two measurements between sexes. 5. On the vertical section of the palate, the anterior portion of the palate of the female was deeper than the male. However, in the posterior portion the male was deeper and wider in the palate morphology than the female. The vertical section in the palate of the male was similar in form to that of the female at the midpoint between the anterior and posterior portions, the canine and/or first premolar. 6. The horizontal section of the palate showed that the distance from the origin to the canine and/or to the first premolar were similar in both sexes at any palate depth.