Current utilization of cardiac computed tomography in mainland China: A national survey.

Background: Surveys that describe the utilization of cardiac CT are available for the United States, Germany, and Taiwan, but not mainland China.

Objectives: To analyze the clinical utilization of cardiac CT in mainland China.

Methods: A 25-item questionnaire was created and 240 tertiary hospitals were randomly selected to participate.

Microfluidic chip for molecular amplification of influenza A RNA in human respiratory specimens.

A rapid, low cost, accurate point-of-care (POC) device to detect influenza virus is needed for effective treatment and control of both seasonal and pandemic strains. We developed a single-use microfluidic chip that integrates solid phase extraction (SPE) and molecular amplification via a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to amplify influenza virus type A RNA. We demonstrated the ability of the chip to amplify influenza A RNA in human nasopharyngeal aspirate (NPA) and nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) specimens collected at two clinical sites from 2008-2010.