Advanced Cutting Effect System versus Cold Steel Scalpel: Comparative Wound Healing and Scar Formation in Targeted Surgical Applications.

Background: Use of electrosurgery for skin incisions has been controversial due to concerns of delayed healing, excessive scarring, and increased infection. Recent studies using modern electrosurgical generators that produce pure sinusoidal "CUT" waveforms have shown reductions in thermal damage along incisions made with these devices compared with their predecessors. This study compares scar formation in incisions made using a cold steel scalpel (CSS) or the ACE Blade and Mega Power Generator (ACE system, Megadyne Medical Products, Draper, Utah) from patient and blinded observer perspectives.

Measurement of sVEGF R1 and PlGF in serum: comparing prototype assays from Beckman Coulter, Inc. to R&D Systems microplate assays.

Objective: To compare the performance of prototype Access® sVEGF R1 and PlGF automated immunoassays from Beckman Coulter to the Quantikine® microplate ELISA assays by R&D Systems.

Methods: Samples obtained from pregnant women, non-pregnant women and men were assayed according to manufacturers' instructions.

Results: Compared to the Quantikine assays, the Access assays demonstrated improved precision, increased sensitivity, broader dynamic ranges, and reduced analysis time.

Automated assays for sVEGF R1 and PlGF as an aid in the diagnosis of preterm preeclampsia: a prospective clinical study.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the utility of soluble vascular endothelial growth factor 1 (sVEGF R1) and placental growth factor (PlGF) levels in the clinical diagnosis of preeclampsia.

Study Design: Plasma was collected prospectively from 457 subjects (n = 409 without preeclampsia, n = 48 with preeclampsia) at 20-36 weeks' gestation. Automated immunoassays were used to measure free sVEGF R1 and free PlGF.

Feasibility of an antiviral clinical trial requiring cross-country shipment of conjunctival adenovirus cultures and recovery of infectious virus.

Purpose: Accurate and timely laboratory diagnosis of adenovirus from conjunctival cultures is essential to ensure appropriate enrollment, and detection of residual infectious virus is essential to evaluate antiviral efficacy in any multicenter national clinical trial. As part of a feasibility study, we investigated those variables that might affect the successful recovery of infectious adenovirus from patient conjunctival cultures after cross-country shipment.

Materials And Methods: Simulated adenovirus conjunctival cultures were prepared in viral transport media to evaluate the effect of four variables (adenovirus serotype, initial concentration, initial storage temperature [-20 degrees C, 0 degrees C, 20 degrees C], and preshipment storage times [1-5 days]) on the recovery of infectious adenovirus by a central laboratory in St.

Evaluation of neuraminidase enzyme assays using different substrates to measure susceptibility of influenza virus clinical isolates to neuraminidase inhibitors: report of the neuraminidase inhibitor susceptibility network.

The increasing use of influenza virus neuraminidase (NA) inhibitors (NIs) necessitates the development of reliable methods for assessing the NI susceptibility of clinical isolates. We evaluated three NA inhibition assays against a panel of five clinical isolates each of influenza virus A/H1N1, A/H3N2, and B strains and four viruses with a defined resistance genotype (R292K, H274Y, R152K, and E119V). For fluorometric enzyme assay (FA) 1 (FA-1), 2'-(4-methylumbelliferyl)-alpha-D-N-acetylneuraminic acid (MUNANA) at 100 microM was used as the substrate, with pretitration of the virus input.