Validation of Saliva as the Clinical Specimen Type for a University-Wide COVID-19 Surveillance Program.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Georgia Institute of Technology made the decision to keep the university doors open for on-campus attendance. To manage COVID-19 infection rates, internal resources were applied to develop and implement a mass asymptomatic surveillance program. The objective was to identify infections early for proper follow-on verification testing, contact tracing, and quarantine/isolation as needed.

NR2 antibodies: risk assessment of transient ischemic attack (TIA)/stroke in patients with history of isolated and multiple cerebrovascular events.

Background And Purpose: Predicting stroke using biomarkers would enable clinicians to help prevent stroke or mitigate damage. Several stroke biomarkers have been investigated but none has shown near term predictive value.

Methods: We studied patients presenting with a history of stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) to determine whether serum levels of autoantibodies to the NMDA receptor NR2 peptide (NR2Ab) reflected the presence of recent stroke compared with controls.

[Significance of the level of auto-antibodies for the NMDA type glutamate receptors in diagnosis of chronic cerebral circulation disorders].

For studying diagnostic possibilities of a new laboratory test for cerebral ischemia (CIS-test), thirty patients have been examined. The level of autoantibodies to NMDA type glutamate receptors is shown to increase significantly (3-5 times) in patients with stage 2 dyscirculatory encephalopathy. Parallel measurements of free glutamate and homocysteine levels in the patients blood plasma did not reveal any substantial changes of the given parameters, comparing to indices of autoantibodies to NR2a glutamate receptor.