Peripheral Blood Leukocytes And Serum Nested Polymerase Chain Reaction Are Complementary Methods For Monitoring Active Cytomegalovirus Infection In Transplant Patients.

Human cytomegalovirus is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients. Qualitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has proven to be a sensitive and effective technique in defining active cytomegalovirus infection, in addition to having low cost and being a useful test for situations in which there is no need for quantification. Real-time PCR has the advantage of quantification; however, the high cost of this methodology makes it impractical for routine use. To apply a nested PCR assay to serum (sPCR) and to evaluate its efficiency to diagnose active cytomegalovirus infection compared with PCR of peripheral blood leukocytes (L-PCR). Samples of 37 patients were prospectively evaluated. An internal control was created and applied to sPCR to exclude false-negative results. In total, 21 patients (57%) developed active cytomegalovirus infection. After analyzing the two methods for the diagnosis of active infection, higher sensitivity and negative predictive value of the L-PCR versus sPCR (100% versus 62%), and higher specificity and positive predictive value of sPCR versus L-PCR (81% versus 50% and 72%, respectively) were observed. Discordant results were observed in 11 patients who were L-PCR-positive but sPCR-negative for active cytomegalovirus infection, five of whom developed clinical symptoms of cytomegalovirus. Clinical symptoms were observed in 14 patients, 12 of whom were diagnosed with active infection by nested L-PCR (P=0.007) and seven by nested sPCR (P=0.02). Higher specificity and a positive predictive value for sPCR were observed. Nested L-PCR and sPCR were considered to be complementary methods for the diagnosis and management of symptomatic cytomegalovirus infection.24e69-7

Cord blood group 2 innate lymphoid cells are associated with lung function at 6 weeks of age.

Objective: Offspring born to mothers with asthma in pregnancy are known to have lower lung function which tracks with age. Human group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2) accumulate in foetal lungs, at 10-fold higher levels compared to adult lungs. However, there are no data on foetal ILC2 numbers and the association with respiratory health outcomes such as lung function in early life. We aimed to investigate cord blood immune cell populations from babies born to mothers with asthma in pregnancy. Methods: Cord blood from babies born to asthmatic mothers was collected, and cells were stained in whole cord blood. Analyses were done using traditional gating approaches and computational methodologies (t-distributed stochastic neighbour embedding and PhenoGraph algorithms). At 6 weeks of age, the time to peak tidal expiratory flow as a percentage of total expiratory flow time (tPTEF/tE%) was determined as well as Lung Clearance Index (LCI), during quiet natural sleep. Results: Of 110 eligible infants (March 2017 to November 2019), 91 were successfully immunophenotyped (82.7%). Lung function was attempted in 61 infants (67.0%), and 43 of those infants (70.5% of attempted) had technically acceptable tPTEF/tE% measurements. Thirty-four infants (55.7% of attempted) had acceptable LCI measurements. Foetal ILC2 numbers with increased expression of chemoattractant receptor-homologous molecule (CRTh2), characterised by two distinct analysis methodologies, were associated with poorer infant lung function at 6 weeks of age." Conclusion: Foetal immune responses may be a surrogate variable for or directly influence lung function outcomes in early life

Screening for hotspot mutations in PI3K, JAK2, FLT3 and NPM1 in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes

INTRODUCTION: Myelodysplastic syndromes encompass a heterogeneous group of clonal hematopoietic stem cell disorders characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis, refractory cytopenia and a tendency to progress toward acute myeloid leukemia. The accumulation of genetic alterations is closely associated with the progression of myelodysplastic syndromes toward acute myeloid leukemia. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the presence of mutations in the points most frequent for mutations (hotspot mutations) in phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K), Janus kinase 2 (JAK2), FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) and nucleophosmin (NPM1), which are involved in leukemia and other cancers, in a population of Brazilian MDS patients. METHODS: Fifty-one myelodysplastic syndromes patients were included in the study. According to French-American-British classification, the patients were distributed as follows: 31 with refractory anemia, 8 with refractory anemia with ringed sideroblasts, 7 with refractory anemia with excess blasts, 3 with refractory anemia with excess blasts in transformation and 2 with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. Bone marrow samples were obtained and screened for the presence of hotspot mutations using analysis based on amplification with the polymerase chain reaction, sequencing, fragment size polymorphisms or restriction enzyme digestion. All patients were screened for mutations at the time of diagnosis, and 5 patients were also screened at the time of disease progression. RESULTS: In the genes studied, no mutations were detected in the patients at the time of diagnosis. One patient with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia was heterozygous for a Janus kinase 2 mutation after disease progression. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that hotspot mutations in the PI3K, JAK2, FLT3 and NPM1 genes are not common in MDS patients; nevertheless, JAK2 mutations may be present in myelodysplasia during disease progression

A MIQE-Compliant Real-Time PCR Assay for Aspergillus Detection

PMCID: PMC3393739This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

The Precursors and Products of Justice Climates: Group Leader Antecedents and Employee Attitudinal Consequences

Drawing on the organizational justice, organizational climate, leadership and personality, and social comparison theory literatures, we develop hypotheses about the effects of leader personality on the development of three types of justice climates (e.g., procedural, interpersonal, and informational), and the moderating effects of these climates on individual level justice- attitude relationships. Largely consistent with the theoretically-derived hypotheses, the results showed that leader (a) agreeableness was positively related to procedural, interpersonal and informational justice climates, (b) conscientiousness was positively related to a procedural justice climate, and (c) neuroticism was negatively related to all three types of justice climates. Further, consistent with social comparison theory, multilevel data analyses revealed that the relationship between individual justice perceptions and job attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction, commitment) was moderated by justice climate such that the relationships were stronger when justice climate was high

Adenosine-guided pulmonary vein isolation versus conventional pulmonary vein isolation in patients undergoing atrial fibrillation ablation: An updated meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Recurrent atrial fibrillation episodes following pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) are frequently due to reconnection of PVs. Adenosine can unmask dormant conduction, leading to additional ablation to improve AF-free survival. We performed a meta-analysis of the literature to assess the role of adenosine testing in patients undergoing atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation. METHODS: PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases were searched through until December 2015 for studies reporting on the role of adenosine guided-PVI versus conventional PVI in AF ablation. RESULTS: Eleven studies including 4099 patients undergoing AF ablation were identified to assess the impact of adenosine testing. Mean age of the population was 61 ± 3 years: 25% female, 70% with paroxysmal AF. Follow up period of 12.5 ± 5.1 months. A significant benefit was observed in the studies published before 2013 (OR = 1.75; 95%CI 1.32–2.33, p < 0.001, I2 = 11%), retrospective (OR = 2.05; 95%CI 1.47–2.86, p < 0.001, I2 = 0%) and single-centre studies (OR = 1.58; 95%CI 1.19–2.10, p = 0.002, I2 = 30%). However, analysis of studies published since 2013 (OR = 1.41; 95% CI 0.87–2.29, p = 0.17, I2 = 75%) does not support any benefit from an adenosine-guided strategy. Similar findings were observed by pooling prospective case-control (OR = 1.39; 95%CI 0.93–2.07, p = 0.11, I2 = 75%), and prospective randomized controlled studies (OR = 1.62; 95%CI 0.81–3.24, p = 0.17, I2 = 86%). Part of the observed high heterogeneity can be explained by parameters such as dormant PVs percentage, use of new technology, improvement of center/operator experience, patients' characteristics including gender, age, and AF type. CONCLUSIONS: Pooling of contemporary data from high quality prospective case–control & prospective randomized controlled studies fails to show the benefit of adenosine-guided strategy to improve AF ablation outcomes

A novel knowledge repository to support industrial symbiosis

The development of tools and methods supporting the identification of Industrial Symbiosis opportunities is of utmost importance to unlock its full potential. Knowledge repositories have proven to be powerful tools in this sense, but often fail mainly due to poor contextualization of information and lack of general applicability (out of the boundaries of specific areas or projects). In this work, a novel approach to the design of knowledge repositories for Industrial Symbiosis is presented, based on the inclusion and categorization of tacit knowledge as well as on the combination of mimicking and input-output matching approaches. The results of a first usability test of the proposed tool are also illustrated

Complete mitochondrial genomes and nuclear ribosomal RNA operons of two species of Diplostomum (Platyhelminthes: Trematoda): a molecular resource for taxonomy and molecular epidemiology of important fish pathogens

© 2015 Brabec et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. The attached file is the published version of the article

Protocol for a multicentre, parallel-arm, 12-month, randomised, controlled trial of arthroscopic surgery versus conservative care for femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FASHIoN)

Introduction Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) syndrome is a recognised cause of young adult hip pain. There has been a large increase in the number of patients undergoing arthroscopic surgery for FAI; however, a recent Cochrane review highlighted that there are no randomised controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating treatment effectiveness. We aim to compare the clinical and cost-effectiveness of arthroscopic surgery versus best conservative care for patients with FAI syndrome. Methods We will conduct a multicentre, pragmatic, assessor-blinded, two parallel arm, RCT comparing arthroscopic surgery to physiotherapy-led best conservative care. 24 hospitals treating NHS patients will recruit 344 patients over a 26-month recruitment period. Symptomatic adults with radiographic signs of FAI morphology who are considered suitable for arthroscopic surgery by their surgeon will be eligible. Patients will be excluded if they have radiographic evidence of osteoarthritis, previous significant hip pathology or previous shape changing surgery. Participants will be allocated in a ratio of 1:1 to receive arthroscopic surgery or conservative care. Recruitment will be monitored and supported by qualitative intervention to optimise informed consent and recruitment. The primary outcome will be pain and function assessed by the international hip outcome tool 33 (iHOT-33) measured 1-year following randomisation. Secondary outcomes include general health (short form 12), quality of life (EQ5D-5L) and patient satisfaction. The primary analysis will compare change in pain and function (iHOT-33) at 12 months between the treatment groups, on an intention-to-treat basis, presented as the mean difference between the trial groups with 95% CIs. The study is funded by the Health Technology Assessment Programme (13/103/02). Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval is granted by the Edgbaston Research Ethics committee (14/WM/0124). The results will be disseminated through open access peer-reviewed publications, including Health Technology Assessment, and presented at relevant conferences. Trial registration number ISRCTN64081839; Pre-results