Blood stored in EDTA tubes provides accurate peanut basophil activation test results for 48 hours.

Background: The peanut basophil activation test (BAT) has demonstrated excellent diagnostic accuracy with heparinized blood, but its clinical utility is limited by the short stability of samples stored in this anticoagulant.

Objective: Using EDTA anticoagulated blood, these investigations determined if Peanut BAT sample stability can be extended to 2 days, the minimum stability requirement for diagnostic tests currently offered through American reference laboratories.

Methods: Peanut non-allergic control (NAC), peanut IgE sensitized (PS), and peanut allergic (PA) children aged 6 months through 17 years were recruited from members of Kaiser Permanente Southern California.

Clinical utility of plasma Aβ42/40 ratio by LC-MS/MS in Alzheimer's disease assessment.

Introduction: Plasma Aβ42/40 ratio can help predict amyloid PET status, but its clinical utility in Alzheimer's disease (AD) assessment is unclear.

Methods: Aβ42/40 ratio was measured by LC-MS/MS for 250 specimens with associated amyloid PET imaging, diagnosis, and demographic data, and for 6,192 consecutive clinical specimens submitted for Aβ42/40 testing.

Results: High diagnostic sensitivity and negative predictive value (NPV) for Aβ-PET positivity were observed, consistent with the clinical performance of other plasma LC-MS/MS assays, but with greater separation between Aβ42/40 values for individuals with positive vs.

Clinical utility of plasma Aβ42/40 ratio by LC-MS/MS in Alzheimer's disease assessment.

Introduction: Plasma Aβ42/40 ratio can be used to help predict amyloid PET status, but its clinical utility in Alzheimer's disease (AD) assessment is unclear.

Methods: Aβ42/40 ratio was measured by LC-MS/MS in 250 specimens with associated amyloid PET imaging, diagnosis, and demographic data, and 6,192 consecutive clinical specimens submitted for Aβ42/40 testing.

Results: High diagnostic sensitivity and negative predictive value (NPV) for Aβ-PET positivity were observed, consistent with the clinical performance of other plasma LC-MS/MS assays, but with greater separation between Aβ42/40 values for individuals with positive vs negative Aβ-PET results.

Prevalence and significance of serum 14-3-3η in juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

Background: Prompt diagnosis of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is important to avoid long term complications. Elevated serum 14-3-3η levels improve the diagnostic sensitivity of rheumatoid factor (RF) and cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) antibody in adult rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and have been associated with more severe phenotype. We investigated the prevalence and clinical significance of serum 14-3-3η in different types of JIA.

14-3-3 Protein as a Potential Biomarker in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.

The 14-3-3 (eta) protein was evaluated as a biomarker in a cohort of patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), as well as disease- and healthy-controls, to determine its potential clinical utility. In this case-control study, levels of 14-3-3 protein were evaluated in archival specimens from patients with JIA, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), as well as healthy pediatric controls. Just over 200 patients were evaluated, using specimens banked between 1990 and 2011.

Impact of a Digital Diabetes Prevention Program on Risk Factors for Chronic Disease in a Workforce Cohort.

Objective: Evaluate the effect of a digital Diabetes Prevention Program (dDPP) on chronic disease risk factors in a workplace population.

Methods: dDPP participants were employees and spouses with BMI ≥ 24 kg/m and prediabetes or diabetes (n = 84). Annual change in risk factors before and after dDPP were assessed in the dDPP group and in a retrospectively identified matched control group drawn from those who participated in a dDPP after the conclusion of this study (n = 252).

High-Throughput Mass Spectrometry Assay for Quantifying β-Amyloid 40 and 42 in Cerebrospinal Fluid.

Background: The ratio of β-amyloid 1-42 (Aβ42) to Aβ40 in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) may be useful for evaluating Alzheimer disease (AD), but quantification is limited by factors including preanalytical analyte loss. We developed an LC-MS/MS assay that limits analyte loss. Here we describe the analytical characteristics of the assay and its performance in differentiating patients with AD from non-AD dementia and healthy controls.

Clinical validation of a blood-based classifier for diagnostic evaluation of asymptomatic individuals with pulmonary nodules.

Background: The number of pulmonary nodules detected in the US is expected to increase substantially following recent recommendations for nationwide CT-based lung cancer screening. Given the low specificity of CT screening, non-invasive adjuvant methods are needed to differentiate cancerous lesions from benign nodules to help avoid unnecessary invasive procedures in the asymptomatic population. We have constructed a serum-based multi-biomarker panel and assessed its clinical accuracy in a retrospective analysis of samples collected from participants with suspicious radiographic findings in the Prostate, Lung, Chest and Ovarian (PLCO) cancer screening trial.

Vascular associated gene variants in patients with preeclampsia: results from the Danish National Birth Cohort.

Objective: Preeclampsia has been linked to subsequent vascular disease with many shared predisposing factors. We investigated the association between severe preeclampsia, and its subtypes, and specific vascular-related polymorphisms.

Design: The study was a retrospective nested case-cohort design.

Thrombophilias and adverse pregnancy outcomes: results from the Danish National Birth Cohort.

Background: Inherited thrombophilias have inconsistently been linked to adverse pregnancy outcomes. Differences in study design, size and population could explain this heterogeneity.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate if factor (F)V Leiden G1691A, prothrombin mutation G20210A (PTM) and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase C677T (MTHFR) increased the risk of severe preeclampsia, fetal growth restriction, very preterm delivery, placental abruption and a composite of these outcomes also including stillbirth.

Predicting cirrhosis and clinical outcomes in patients with advanced chronic hepatitis C with a panel of genetic markers (CRS7).

Objectives: Genetic factors may play a role in fibrosis progression in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC). A cirrhosis risk score (CRS7) with seven single nucleotide polymorphisms was previously shown to correlate with cirrhosis in patients with CHC. This study aimed to assess the validity of CRS7 as a marker of fibrosis progression and cirrhosis and as a predictor of clinical outcomes in patients with CHC.

Role of a cirrhosis risk score for the early prediction of fibrosis progression in hepatitis C patients with minimal liver disease.

Background & Aims: Fibrosis progression in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is highly variable. A Cirrhosis Risk Score (CRS) based on seven genetic variants has been recently developed for identifying patients at risk for cirrhosis. The objective of this study was to assess the role of the CRS for the early prediction of fibrosis progression in CHC patients with mild liver fibrosis.

Neither replication nor simulation supports a role for the axon guidance pathway in the genetics of Parkinson's disease.

Susceptibility to sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD) is thought to be influenced by both genetic and environmental factors and their interaction with each other. Statistical models including multiple variants in axon guidance pathway genes have recently been purported to be capable of predicting PD risk, survival free of the disease and age at disease onset; however the specific models have not undergone independent validation. Here we tested the best proposed risk panel of 23 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in two PD sample sets, with a total of 525 cases and 518 controls.

Ochronotic arthropathy, an approach to osteoarthritis bone remodelling.

The objective is to use hip ochronotic arthropathy for an indirect approach to osteoarthritis bone remodelling in a human joint via an identified causal chondropathy. The method is via radiology connecting pathology and nosology, based on the study of seven ochronotic femur heads excised in alcaptonuric patients. Due to the brittleness of ochronotic cartilage, bone remodelling similar to that of hip osteoarthritis exists with diffuse narrowing of the interarticular space and (except in one case modified by intermediary surgery) poorly developed osteophytes.

Bone eburnation in rheumatic diseases: a guiding trace in today's radiological diagnosis and in paleopathology.

Bone eburnation is a common anatomical trace of chronic arthropathy. However, its topographical analysis in rheumatic diseases can contribute to knowledge about the latter, by explaining today's diagnosis through radiology as well as by giving an historical perspective through paleopathology. After recalling that eburnated areas can also originate in infectious arthritis, the present analysis consists in a comparison between macroscopic and radiological observations of both osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) at an advanced stage.

Magnesium whitlockite, a calcium phosphate crystal of special interest in pathology.

Whitlockite (in fact magnesium whitlockite) is a calcium orthophosphate crystal in which, in biological conditions, magnesium is partly substituted for calcium. Identified in X-ray or electron diffraction patterns, it occurs in physiological or pathological conditions at extra or intratissular sites, mainly in tissues of non-epithelial origin. In a range of pathological calcifications investigated by X-ray diffraction, we noted that whitlockite appeared to be frequently associated with apatite, particularly in "dystrophic calcifications" of tuberculous origin.

Nosology versus pathology, two approaches to rheumatic diseases illustrated by Alfred Baring Garrod and Jean-Martin Charcot.

Objectives: To show why and how, without underestimating the popular perception of the word 'rheumatism', a medical approach to rheumatic diseases needs to consider the distinction between nosology (the study of diseases) and pathology [anatomopathology (the study of lesions) and physiopathology (the study of functional disturbances)].

Methods: Selected quotations reflecting the thought processes of two famous physicians whose clinical activity (orientated towards nosology) was firmly based on pathology (mainly physiopathology in the case of A. B.

The enduring mark left by Jean-Martin Charcot on rheumatology.

Although Charcot is remembered above all as an outstanding neurologist, he also left a lasting imprint on the study of rheumatic diseases, primarily in two fields. a) He performed a pathologic-nosographic confrontation based on principles that remain relevant in today's era of imaging techniques. His vision as a pathologist allowed him to establish links between nonspecific lesions, which led him to develop a unified concept of chronic rheumatism.

Metastatic carcinoma of presumed prostatic origin in cremated bones from the first century A.D.

A cremated pelvis dating from the first century A.D. showed evidence of osteosclerotic metastasis, presumably secondary to prostate carcinoma.

Synovial cyst and degeneration of the transverse ligament: an unusual cause of high cervical myelopathy. Case report.

A case of cystic degeneration of the transverse ligament located posteriorly to the dens and causing compression to the lower medulla and upper cervical spinal cord is reported. The clinical, pathological, and radiological findings are described and compared to the literature to characterize this syndrome more fully. The advantages of a posterolateral surgical approach are stressed.