Laboratory utilization

OBJECTIVE: Somatic complaints, often associated with concurrent and future internalizing symptoms and disorders in adult samples, were examined longitudinally from preschool to school age in a sample of children at an increased familial risk for psychopathology. The behavioral correlates and sex differences of somatic complaints and the persistence of these complaints across early childhood were examined. METHOD: A longitudinal sample of 185 mothers completed a laboratory visit when children were preschool aged and an online follow-up when children were school aged...

SASI (selective arterial secretin injection) is a form of ASVS (arterial stimulation and venous sampling) used to localize pancreatic gastrinomas. This report aims to review the protocol for SASI and demonstrate its utility in localizing functional and nonfunctional gastrinomas. Even if a patient has a pancreatic mass and a laboratory profile fitting a specific endocrine syndrome, these may or may not be associated as has been previously demonstrated with adrenal vein sampling. We present a case where a patient underwent simultaneous SASI and bland embolization of a hepatic metastasis to facilitate partial pancreatectomy for Zollinger-Ellison syndrome...

Rhinoceros (rhinos) have suffered a dramatic increase in poaching over the past decade due to the growing demand for rhino horn products in Asia. One way to reverse this trend is to enhance enforcement and intelligence gathering tools used for species identification of horns, in particular making them fast, inexpensive and accurate. Traditionally, species identification tests are based on DNA sequence data, which, depending on laboratory resources, can be either time or cost prohibitive. This study presents a rapid rhino species identification test, utilizing species-specific primers within the cytochrome b gene multiplexed in a single reaction, with a presumptive species identification based on the length of the resultant amplicon...

Previous work in our laboratories has identified a series of peptidomimetic 2-pyridone molecules as modulators of alpha synuclein (α-syn) fibrillization in vitro. As a first step towards developing molecules from this scaffold as PET imaging agents, we were interested in evaluating their BBB permeability in non-human primates (NHP) in vivo. For this purpose, 2-pyridone 12 was prepared and found to accelerate -syn fibrillization in vitro. Acid 12, and its acetoxymethyl ester analog 14, were then radiolabeled with 11C (t1/2=20...

Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the utility of facebow transfer in the fabrication of occlusal splints, complete dentures and full arch fixed dental prosthesis. Materials and Methods: A systematic review protocol was registered at PROSPERO registry, University of York, UK (CRD42016041919). Following databases were explored: PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane, and Web of knowledge. The PICO model included participants who received occlusal splint or complete denture or full arch fixed dental prosthesis at the centric relation position...

Background: Derotational osteotomy of the distal femur allows the anatomic treatment of patellofemoral maltracking due to increased femoral antetorsion. However, such rotational osteotomy procedures have a high potential of intended/unintended changes of frontal alignment. Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to perform derotational osteotomy of the distal femur and to demonstrate the utility of a novel trigonometric approach to address 3-dimensional (3D) changes on 2-dimensional imaging (axial computed tomography [CT] and frontal-plane radiography)...

Immunocompromised mice are used frequently in biomedical research, in part because they accommodate the engraftmentandstudy of primary human cells within a mouse model; however, these animals are susceptible to opportunistic infectionsand require special husbandry considerations. In 2015, an outbreak marked by high morbidity but low mortality swept througha colony of immunocompromised mice; this outbreak rapidly affected 75% of the colony and ultimately required completedepopulation of the barrier suite. Conventional microbiologic and molecular diagnostics were unsuccessful in determiningthe cause; therefore, we explored culture-independent methods to broadly profile the microbial community in the feces of affected animals...

Diagnostic metagenomics and its associated trail of publications are spreading across the world. Multiple clinical labs in the United States, Europe, and Asia have gone to considerable lengths to optimize and validate a range of protocols for agnostically detecting viral, bacterial, fungal, and eukaryotic parasite nucleic acid across a range of patient specimens to aid in diagnosis for particularly recalcitrant cases. Others see a role for diagnostic metagenomics as a front-line diagnostic to replace other microbiological testing...

Current chemistry analyzers measure ion concentration using ion- selective electrodes; however, may differ in the specific technology at the bedside versus the central laboratory. Instruments utilized for point-of-care testing (POCT) at the bedside use direct ion-selective electrodes, whereas central-laboratory analyzers use indirect ion-selective electrodes. Under most circumstances, these instruments will deliver the same result; however, various substances can cause interferences in one or the other. An 18-year-old Hispanic woman with a history of immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) presented at Children's National Medical Center (CNMC) with a severe headache and required intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) therapy...

Background: Intraoperative periarticular injection (PAI) with local anesthetic is an important component of multimodal pain control in total joint arthroplasty (TJA). A potential risk of this practice is serum anesthetic toxicity resulting from the autotransfusion of blood collected from a reinfusion drain. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the levels of bupivacaine in blood collected in an autotransfusion system after use of a PAI in TJA. Methods: In this prospective study, each TJA patient had an identical PAI consisting of 20 cc of liposomal bupivacaine, 30 cc of 0...

Introduction: Since the identification of ZIKV in Brazil in May 2015, the virus has spread extensively throughout the Americas. Cases of ZIKV infection have been reported in Suriname since October 2, 2015. Methods: A laboratory-based surveillance system was quickly implemented according to previous experience with the emergence of chikungunya. General practitioners and public health centers located in different districts of Suriname were asked to send blood samples from suspicious cases to Academic Hospital for molecular diagnosis of Zika virus infection...

Preventive, predictive, and personalized medicine (PPPM) has created a wealth of new opportunities but added also new complexities and challenges. The European Cancer Prevention Organization already embraced unanimously molecular biology for primary and secondary prevention. The rapidly exploding genomic language and complexity of methods face oncologists with exponentially growing knowledge they need to assess and apply. Tissue specimen quality becomes one major concern. Some new innovative medicines cost beyond any reasonable threshold of financial support from patients, health care providers, and governments and risk sustainability for the health care system...

BACKGROUND: The diagnosis of neonatal sepsis still considered to be a challenge for both clinicians and the laboratory due to the non-specific clinical presentations. The present study aimed to compare and assess the diagnostic & prognostic values of C-reactive protein (CRP), high sensitivity CRP (hsCRP), presepsin, interleukin-6 (IL-6) and procalcitonin (PCT) in neonatal sepsis separately and in combination. METHODS: This hospital-based cross-sectional study has been conducted on 168 neonates recruited from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of Qena University Hospitals, Upper Egypt...

Nitrogen stable isotope analysis (δ15N) of ammonia (NH3) has shown potential to be a useful tool for characterizing emission sources and sink processes. However, to properly evaluate NH3 emission sources and sink processes under ambient conditions it is necessary to collect and characterize the chemical speciation between NH3 and particulate ammonium (p-NH4+), together referred to as NHx. Current NH3 collection methods have not been verified for their ability to accurately characterize δ15N-NH3 and/or provide necessary chemical speciation (i...

BACKGROUND: Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) has been widely accepted to be a safe, accurate, prompt and inexpensive procedure for diagnosis of both neoplastic and infectious diseases in adult and pediatric populations. Despite its value for diagnosis, FNAC is underutilized in resource limited countries. We reviewed the utilization of FNAC after it was introduced at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH). METHODS: A retrospective review of all FNAC performed at KCH laboratory during the period of January 2012 to July 2014 was conducted using an electronic database from KCH laboratory...

We investigated associative learning of food odors by the European paper wasp Polistes dominula Christ (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) because of consistent low rates of attraction to food materials in laboratory assays. We hypothesized that wasps in nature exhibit nonspecific food-finding behavior until locating a suitable food, and then respond more strongly and specifically to odors associated with that food reward. Female P. dominula workers exhibited higher rates of attraction in a flight tunnel to piped odors of fermented fruit purees following previous experience with that puree, compared to wasps with no prior experience with the fermented fruits...

Stormwater retention ponds can play a critical role in mitigating the detrimental effects of urbanization on receiving waters that result from increases in polluted runoff. However, the benthic oxygen demand of stormwater facilities may cause significant hypoxia and trigger the production of hydrogen sulfide (H2 S). This process is not well-documented and further research is needed to characterize benthic processes in stormwater retention ponds in order to improve their design and operation. In this study, sediment oxygen demand (SOD), sediment ammonia release (SAR) and sediment sulfide production (SSP) kinetics were characterized in situ and in the laboratory...

Over the last few decades, medical-assisted robots have been considered by many researchers, within the research domain of robotics. In this article, a 5-degrees-of-freedom spatial medical manipulator is analyzed for path planning, based on inverse kinematic solutions. Analytical methods have generally employed for finding the inverse kinematic solutions in earlier studies. However, this method is only appreciable in case of closed-form solutions. The unusual joint configurations of considered manipulator result in more complexity to attain the closed-form solutions, analytically...

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) can enter cells as a variety of biologically active conjugates and have various biomedical applications. To offset the cost and effort of designing novel CPPs in laboratories, computational methods need to be developed to identify candidate CPPs before in vitro experimental studies. In this study, we developed a two-layer prediction framework for machine-learning-based prediction of cell-penetrating peptides (MLCPP). The first layer predicts whether a given peptide is a CPP or non-CPP, whereas the second layer predicts the uptake efficiency of the predicted CPPs...

Background: Multiple measures are utilized to assess alcohol craving, often interchangeably. Little is known about the relationship between tonic and phasic craving. This study fills this gap in the literature by examining the association between tonic levels of alcohol craving and phasic craving for alcohol that is provoked by alcohol administration. Methods: Forty-three non-treatment seeking problem drinkers underwent an initial interview and two laboratory testing sessions, where either alcohol or a saline placebo was administered intravenously...