HPV testing for cervical cancer screening: technical improvement of laboratory logistics and good clinical performance of the cobas 6800 in comparison to the 4800 system.

Background: European guidelines for cervical cancer screening now recommend the use of clinically validated assays for high-risk HPV-DNA sequences as primary test in women older than 30 years, performed in centralized laboratories, and run on systems providing automated solutions for all steps.

Methods: We conducted a comparison study, according to the international guidelines, nested within the organized population-based cervical screening program, between the cobas 4800 and 6800 systems (Roche Diagnostics), to evaluate accuracy and reproducibility of HPV test results and laboratory workflow. In Italy implementation of HPV cervical screening is under way on a regional basis; in Veneto it started in June 2015, following a piloting phase; the assay in use in the three centralized laboratories is the cobas 4800 HPV test, run on the cobas 4800 system.

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound in the evaluation of splenic injury healing time and grade.

Aims: To assess mean healing time of blunt spleen injuries managed nonoperatively using CEUS (contrast-enhanced ultrasound); to analyze whether spleen injury grade, subcapsular hematoma (SCH) presence, SCH grade and spleen infarct after spleen artery angioembolization could be related to healing time; and to evaluate CEUS sensitivity in diagnosing spleen injury and to assess CEUS performance in classifying spleen injury grade compared to CT.

Materials And Methods: After CT evaluation in the Emergency Department, 101 hemodynamic stable blunt spleen trauma patients (73 males; 28 females; mean age 46.4 years, range 18-92) underwent serial CEUS follow-up examinations at pre-established intervals (1, 3, 8, 15, 30, 60, 90 and 180 days after trauma), until spleen injury became no more identifiable.

Serum symmetric dimethylarginine and creatinine in Birman cats compared with cats of other breeds.

Objectives The aim of this study was to assess whether, in contrast to serum creatinine, which is higher in Birman cats than in other breeds, the serum concentration of symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA) is comparable in clinically healthy Birmans and in the general feline population. This could allow, in this breed, to better evaluate chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods Serum creatinine and SDMA were measured in clinically healthy Birmans (n = 50) and in cats of other breeds (n = 46), and the results were statistically compared.

Serum levels of erythropoietin and soluble transferrin receptor in the course of pregnancy in non beta thalassemic and beta thalassemic women.

Background And Objectives: In non-thalassaemic women serum erythropoietin (Epo) level increases during pregnancy, whereas that of soluble transferrin receptor (STFR) drops slightly in the first two trimesters to attain the original values in the third trimester. In this study the time-course of these two parameters was explored in b-thalassemic and non-b-thalassemic women, both pregnant and not.

Design And Methods: Two hundred and fifty-seven women were studied: 64 non-b-thalassemic, non-pregnant women made up the reference group, 89 were non-b-thalassemic pregnant women, and 104 were b-thalassemic pregnant or non-pregnant women.

Phenotypes of individuals with a beta thal classical allele associated either with a beta thal silent allele or with alpha globin gene triplication.

Background And Objective: beta thalassemia intermedia has its origins in compound heterozygosity for many different beta thal defects or in an interaction of a beta thal defect with altered alpha cluster. Two specific genetic associations (beta thal/beta(+) -101 C-->T and beta thal + alpha alpha alpha or alpha alpha alpha alpha) have been described in recent years as being determining a phenotype similar to that of simple beta thal heterozygote or, alternatively, a clinical picture of thalassemia intermedia.

Methods: A detailed study on this subject was carried out on 55 patients divided into 2 groups.