Questionnaire-based evaluation of mobile phone interference with medical-electrical equipment in Swedish hospitals.

National recommendations in Sweden recommend a safety distance of 3 meter (m) between mobile phones and medical-electrical (ME) equipment in hospitals. A questionnaire was used to investigate how often mobile phones were reported to interfere with ME products in clinical practice across Sweden. The results confirmed that ME equipment can be affected by mobile phone use but, the risk of the patient's outcome being affected were minimal; no cases were identified which led to injury or death.

First endoscopic procedure for diagnosis and staging of mediastinal lymphadenopathy.

Aim: To compare a first diagnostic procedure of transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) with selection of endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) or TBNA for mediastinal lymphadenopathy.

Methods: Sixty-eight consecutive patients with mediastinal lymphadenopathy on computed tomography (CT), who required cytopathological diagnosis, were recruited. The first 34 underwent a sequential approach in which TBNA was performed first, followed by EUS-FNA if TBNA was unrevealing.

Successful retrieval of fine-needle aspiration biopsy material from previously stained smears for immunocytochemistry: a novel technique applied to three soft tissue tumors.

Fine-needle aspiration biopsies of soft tissue tumors are often not fully diagnostic on conventional Papanicolaou or Giemsa stains. Often, more useful information can be gleaned from preparing cell blocks, which are amenable to immunocytochemistry. However, sufficiently diagnostic cell block material is not always forthcoming.

Quality indices in a cervicovaginal cytology service: before and after laboratory accreditation.

Context: Quality assurance practices contribute to the effectiveness of cervical screening and are formalized by participation in a laboratory accreditation program.

Objective: To identify changes in the quality indices of our cervicovaginal cytology service preceding and following laboratory accreditation by the College of American Pathologists in 2000.

Design: Cervicovaginal cytology quality indices for 2001 (postaccreditation) were compared with those of 1997 (preaccreditation).

Feasibility of using low-volume tissue samples for gene expression profiling of advanced non-small cell lung cancers.

Purpose: The majority of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) present at an advanced clinical stage, when surgery is not a recommended therapeutic option. In such cases, tissues for molecular research are usually limited to the low-volume samples obtained at the time of diagnosis, usually via fine-needle aspiration (FNA). We tested the feasibility of performing gene expression profiling of advanced NSCLCs using amplified RNA from lung FNAs.

Audit of transthoracic fine needle aspiration of the lung: cytological subclassification of bronchogenic carcinomas and diagnosis of tuberculosis.

Introduction: Transthoracic fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a useful tool for evaluating neoplastic and inflammatory lung nodules. In view of the relative paucity of published audit studies regionally, such a study was undertaken to assess the use of the technique in our centre.

Methods: One hundred and fourteen FNACs were performed during 1997-1999.

Highly well differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma and benign hepatocellular lesions. Can they be distinguished on fine needle aspiration biopsy?

Objective: To determine whether highly well differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma can be distinguished from benign hepatocellular lesions on fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB).

Study Design: Ninety-five FNABs from 88 patients with hepatic masses/diffuse conditions were reviewed according to new cytologic criteria established by Takenaka et al. They were classified into well-, moderately and poorly differentiated hepatocellular carcinomas (W-, M- and P-HCC) and benign aspirates and histologically verified.