A latent class model to assess error rates in diagnosis of altitude decompression sickness.

Background: Prospective testing of denitrogenation protocols to reduce the risk of decompression sickness (DCS) in astronauts requires pre-defined accept and reject criteria. We assume that the end-point of a test, the presence or absence of signs and symptoms attributable to DCS, is unequivocal. However, diagnosis of DCS is not perfect, nor is there is a gold standard to assess diagnosis error rates.

Caspase-independent cell death in AML: caspase inhibition in vitro with pan-caspase inhibitors or in vivo by XIAP or Survivin does not affect cell survival or prognosis.

Survivin and XIAP, members of the protein family known as the inhibitors of apoptosis, interfere with the activation of caspases, called the "cell death executioners." We examined Survivin (n = 116) and XIAP (n = 172) expression in primary acute myeloid leukemia (AML) blasts and assessed the impact of their expression on prognosis. They were detected in all samples analyzed.