Non-Invasive prenatal testing with rolling circle amplification: Real-world clinical experience in a non-molecular laboratory.

Background: Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) using cell-free DNA (cfDNA) circulating in maternal blood provides a sensitive and specific screening technique for common fetal aneuploidies, but the high cost and workflow complexity of conventional methodologies limit its widespread implementation. A unique rolling circle amplification methodology reduces cost and complexity, providing a promising alternative for increased global accessibility as a first-tier test.

Methods: In this clinical study, 8160 pregnant women were screened on the Vanadis system for trisomies 13, 18, and 21, and positive results were compared to clinical outcomes where available.

Determination of (4-methylcyclohexyl)methanol isomers by heated purge-and-trap GC/MS in water samples from the 2014 Elk River, West Virginia, chemical spill.

A heated purge-and-trap gas chromatography/mass spectrometry method was used to determine the cis- and trans-isomers of (4-methylcyclohexyl)methanol (4-MCHM), the reported major component of the Crude MCHM/Dowanol™ PPh glycol ether material spilled into the Elk River upriver from Charleston, West Virginia, on January 9, 2014. The trans-isomer eluted first and method detection limits were 0.16-μg L(-1)trans-, 0.

Parent and child agreement on reports of problem behaviour obtained from a screening questionnaire, the SDQ.

Background And Objectives: This study examined the level of agreement between parents and children on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in a clinical sample in Sydney, Australia.

Methods: Parent and child SDQ reports were collected from 379 parents-child pairs. Children were aged between 11 and 18 years and met criteria for at least one psychiatric diagnosis.

A conceptual model and practice framework for managing chronic pain in children and adolescents.

Pain is a complex phenomenon: a sensory experience originating in traumatized tissues; an emotional (affective) experience that signals danger in the internal (body) or external environment; and a "disposition to act" that results either in "action" that prioritizes escape or in "inhibition of action" to minimize injury or facilitate healing. Recent advances in our understanding of the affective components of pain have significant implications for the treatment of chronic pain in children and adolescents. This article describes a chronic pain clinic for children and adolescents developed by the pain service of a large pediatric teaching hospital.

Conversion disorder in Australian pediatric practice.

Objectives: To describe the incidence and clinical features of children presenting to Australian child health specialists with conversion disorder.

Method: Active, national surveillance of conversion disorder in children younger than 16 years of age during 2002 and 2003.

Results: A total of 194 children were reported on.

Psychiatric emergencies in children and adolescents: an Emergency Department audit.

Objective: To describe a cohort of children presenting to a paediatric emergency department with mental health problems.

Methods: An Emergency Department (ED) computerized record system and hospital records were used to obtain data on children who presented to a paediatric ED with mental health problems.

Results: There were 291 presentations of 231 children in a 10-month period, about one per day.

Prospective incidence of first onsets and recurrences of depression in individuals at high and low cognitive risk for depression.

Do negative cognitive styles provide similar vulnerability to first onsets versus recurrences of depressive disorders, and are these associations specific to depression? The authors followed for 2.5 years prospectively college freshmen (N = 347) with no initial psychiatric disorders at high-risk (HR) versus low-risk (LR) for depression on the basis of their cognitive styles. HR participants had odds of major, minor, and hopelessness depression that were 3.

Distributing insecticide-treated bednets during measles vaccination: a low-cost means of achieving high and equitable coverage.

Objective: To achieve high and equitable coverage of insecticide-treated bednets by integrating their distribution into a measles vaccination campaign.

Methods: In December 2002 in the Lawra district in Ghana, a measles vaccination campaign lasting 1 week targeted all children aged 9 months-15 years. Families with one or more children less than five years old were targeted to receive a free insecticide-treated bednet.