Critical review of sham surgery clinical trials: Confounding factors analysis.

Objective: Sham surgery (placebo surgery) is an intervention that omits the step thought to be therapeutically necessary. In surgical clinical trials, sham surgery serves an analogous purpose to placebo drugs, neutralizing biases such as the placebo effect. A critical review was performed to study the statistical relevance of the clinical trials about sham surgery in the light of potential confounding factors.

A Proposed Road Map for the Ethical Evaluation of Sham (Placebo) Surgery.

Objective: The study proposes a possible roadmap for the ethical assessment of sham surgery clinical trials (CTs), focusing on methodological aspects, as a result of the lack of this type of practical tool in the literature/practice.

Background: Surgical procedures are frequently conducted without closely controlled studies. For this reason, these procedures are less rigorous than those for drug/device clinical trials.

MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and blakpc gene phylogenetic analysis of an outbreak of carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae strains.

Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates are an important cause of nosocomial infections. This study evaluated a rapid cost-saving method based on MALDI-TOF technology, was and compared it with phenotypic, genotypic and epidemiological data for characterization of KPC-Kp strains consecutively isolated during a supposed outbreak. Twenty-five consecutive KPC Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates were identified and clustered by the MALDI Biotyper (Bruker, Daltonics).

Laboratory Automation and Intra-Laboratory Turnaround Time: Experience at the University Hospital Campus Bio-Medico of Rome.

Intra-laboratory turnaround time (TAT) is a key indicator of laboratory performance. Improving TAT is a complex task requiring staff education, equipment acquisition, and adequate TAT monitoring. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the intra-laboratory TAT after laboratory automation implementation (June 2013-June 2014) and to compare it to that in the preautomation period (July 2012-May 2013).

Real-time polymerase chain reaction with melting analysis of positive blood culture specimens in bloodstream infections: diagnostic value and turnaround time.

A Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with melting analysis was devised to target bacterial and fungal genes together with the most prevalent antimicrobial resistance genes in 250 positive blood culture broths. This method allowed the blood culture cultivated pathogens to be classified into clinically relevant groups such as Enterobacteriaceae, oxidase-positive bacilli, oxidase-positive coccobacilli, S. aureus and yeast.