Evaluation of Clinical, Gram Stain, and Microbiological Cure Outcomes in Men Receiving Azithromycin for Acute Nongonococcal Urethritis: Discordant Cures Are Associated With Mycoplasma genitalium Infection.

Background: In men with nongonococcal urethritis (NGU), clinicians and patients rely on clinical cure to guide the need for additional testing/treatment and when to resume sex, respectively; however, discordant clinical and microbiological cure outcomes do occur. How accurately clinical cure reflects microbiological cure in specific sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is unclear.

Methods: Men with NGU were tested for Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Mycoplasma genitalium (MG), Trichomonas vaginalis, urethrotropic Neisseria meningitidis ST-11 clade strains, and Ureaplasma urealyticum (UU).

Extensive evaluation of the instrumentation laboratory IL test D-Dimer immunoturbidimetric assay on the ACL 9000 determines the D-Dimer cutoff value for reliable exclusion of venous thromboembolism.

The clinical diagnosis of venous thromboembolism (VTE), which includes both deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), is often difficult and requires a number of imaging tests plus clinical assessment. It is now accepted that pretest clinical probability of disease plus a sensitive, quantitative D-Dimer assay can be used to reliably exclude VTE. In design of diagnostic strategies for VTE it is recommended that the D-Dimer assay be evaluated for sensitivity and specificity in well-designed, blinded studies using a cohort of patients for whom the assay will ultimately be used.

Ipsilateral limb variation in cats during overground locomotion.

The timing interval between the onset of knee extensor EMG (vastus lateralis) and the onset of the ipsilateral elbow flexor EMG (brachialis) was studied in adult cats during overground walking, trotting and galloping. Concurrent finding of the animals in locomotion was used to relate the electrical activity of the muscles to the physical events in a step cycle. The observed variability in the interval between the onset of knee extensor EMG and the onset of elbow flexor EMG lead to the conclusion that it is not appropriate to postulate a rigid neural coupling mechanism for the control and coordination of ipsilateral limbs in locomotion.