Feasibility and impact of near-point-of-care integrated tuberculosis/HIV testing in Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Objectives: Near-point-of-care (POC) testing for early infant diagnosis (EID) and viral load expedites clinical action and improves outcomes but requires capital investment. We assessed whether excess capacity on existing near-POC devices used for TB diagnosis could be leveraged to increase near-POC HIV molecular testing, termed integrated testing, without compromising TB services.

Design: Preimplementation/postimplementation studies in 10 health facilities in Malawi and 8 in Zimbabwe.

Point-of-care testing can achieve same-day diagnosis for infants and rapid ART initiation: results from government programmes across six African countries.

Introduction: Point-of-care (POC) early infant diagnosis (EID) testing has been shown to dramatically decrease turnaround times from sample collection to caregiver result receipt and time to ART initiation for HIV-positive infants compared to centralized laboratory testing. As governments in sub-Saharan Africa implement POC EID technologies, we report on the feasibility and effectiveness of POC EID testing and the impact of same-day result delivery on rapid ART initiation within national programmes across six countries.

Methods: This pre-/post-evaluation compared centralized laboratory-based (pre) with POC (post) EID testing in 52 facilities across Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal and Zimbabwe between April 2017 and October 2019 (country-dependent).

Cygnus X-1 contains a 21-solar mass black hole-Implications for massive star winds.

The evolution of massive stars is influenced by the mass lost to stellar winds over their lifetimes. These winds limit the masses of the stellar remnants (such as black holes) that the stars ultimately produce. We used radio astrometry to refine the distance to the black hole x-ray binary Cygnus X-1, which we found to be [Formula: see text] kiloparsecs.

Evaluation of near point-of-care viral load implementation in public health facilities across seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Introduction: In many low- and middle-income countries, HIV viral load (VL) testing occurs at centralized laboratories and time-to-result-delivery is lengthy, preventing timely monitoring of HIV treatment adherence. Near point-of-care (POC) devices, which are placed within health facility laboratories rather than clinics themselves (i.e.

Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in Breast Cancer with Tc-Tilmanocept: A Multicenter Study on Real-Life Use of a Novel Tracer.

Tc-tilmanocept is a novel radiopharmaceutical for sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy in breast cancer. Our aim was to describe results with Tc-tilmanocept in a heterogeneous group of breast cancer patients scheduled for SLN biopsy. Radiotracer preparation followed the manufacturer's indications.

Selective Neck Dissection Guided by a Radioactive I125 Seed for Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Recurrence.

Lymph nodes are the most common place of recurrence of papillary thyroid cancer, and surgery can be considered a therapeutic option. The risks of surgery increase with every intervention. We present 3 cases of cervical non palpable thyroid cancer recurrence managed with I125 seed radioguided cervical dissection from 2017 to 2019.

Astrometrically registered maps of HO and SiO masers toward VX Sagittarii.

The supergiant VX Sagittarii is a strong emitter of both HO and SiO masers. However, previous VLBI observations have been performed separately, which makes it difficult to spatially trace the outward transfer of the material consecutively. Here we present the astrometrically registered, simultaneous maps of 22.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy in selected cases of ductal carcinoma in situ.

Introduction: Axillary lymphadenectomy is nowadays not recommended to treat ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), but there is controversy surrounding the indication for sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB).

Materials And Methods: A prospective study of a selected group of patients diagnosed preoperatively with DCIS was performed between 2004 and 2009. Indications for SLNB were histologically determined high-grade tumours, tumour size >2 cm and patients scheduled to undergo a mastectomy.