One hundred years of Ecuadorian biomedical scientific output and its association with the main causes of mortality: a bibliometric study.

Introduction: Historically, low-and middle-income countries have been scarce producers of biomedical research; only 2% of the global scientific output is produced by these countries despite accounting for 92% of the global burden of disease. In addition, few low-and middle-income countries have exhaustively mapped and analyzed their scientific production in health and its association with main local burden of disease.

Objective: To evaluate the evolution of biomedical research in Ecuador over the last 100 years and its relationship with the main causes of mortality.

Performance of the cobas u 701 Analyzer in Urinary Tract Infection Screening.

Background: Negative urine cultures to rule out urinary tract infections (UTI) generate a considerable laboratory workload; thus, a rapid screening test is desirable. We evaluated the performance of a new automated microscopy analyzer, cobas u 701 (Roche Diagnostics International, Rotkreuz, Switzerland) for the screening of UTI, and developed a rule-out strategy to reduce the number of samples requiring culture. We also assessed squamous epithelial cell (SEC) count as a predictor of culture contamination.

Comparison of combined nose-throat swabs with nasopharyngeal aspirates for detection of pandemic influenza A/H1N1 2009 virus by real-time reverse transcriptase PCR.

Data assessing the diagnostic accuracies of use of different respiratory samples for the detection of the novel influenza A/H1N1 2009 virus by molecular methods are lacking. The objective of this study was to compare the sensitivity of combined nose and throat swabs (CNTS) with that of nasopharyngeal aspirates (NPA). This was a prospective study of adults and children with suspected influenza.

A comparative study of bacteremic and non-bacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia.

Background: Few attempts have been made to compare bacteremic and non-bacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia, mainly because it is difficult to gain agreement on which cases represent non-bacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia. Recently, an immunochromatographic assay for the detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae urinary antigen has been successfully evaluated for the diagnosis of pneumococcal pneumonia. The aim of our study was to examine and compare clinical and radiological features, risk factors, and outcome associated with bacteremic and non-bacteremic groups.