Erythrocyte lysing solutions have a detrimental effect in flow cytometric dendritic cell detection.

Flow cytometry (FCM) enumeration of peripheral blood dendritic cells (PBDCs) is a minimally invasive procedure extremely useful for immunological studies. Numbers of PBDCs vary depending on age, lifestyle, or in pathologies like cancer, leukemia or immunodeficiencies. Conventional methods for PBDC identification by FCM involve red blood cell lysis using either formaldehyde or ammonium chloride-based solutions.

Accurate identification of cell doublet profiles: Comparison of light scattering with fluorescence measurement techniques.

Doublet discrimination is usually based on pulse analysis of light scatter parameters. A combination of two pulse parameters (Area, A; Height, H; or Width, W) can be used to discriminate a pulse originated in a single cell from a pulse originated from cells stuck together. Fluorescence signals can be also used to discriminate aggregates, being essential to identify cells in the G2/M phase from doublets in the G0/G1 phase in cell cycle/DNA applications.

Impact of red blood cell lysing on rare event analysis.

The challenges associated with analyzing rare cells are dependent on a series of factors, which usually require large numbers of cells per sample for successful resolution. Among these is determining the minimum number of total events needed to be acquired as defined by the expected frequency of the target cell population. The choice of markers that identify the target population, as well as the event rate and the number of aborted events/second, will also determine the statistically significant detection of rare cell events.

The revised Approved Instructional Resources score: An improved quality evaluation tool for online educational resources.

Background: Free Open-Access Medical education (FOAM) use among residents continues to rise. However, it often lacks quality assurance processes and residents receive little guidance on quality assessment. The Academic Life in Emergency Medicine Approved Instructional Resources tool (AAT) was created for FOAM appraisal by and for expert educators and has demonstrated validity in this context.

Impact of COVID-19 on nuclear medicine in the UK.

Purpose: COVID-19 brought about unprecedented challenges to healthcare, with nuclear medicine (NM) being no exception. The British Nuclear Medicine Society (BNMS) COVID-19 survey assessed the impact of the first wave of pandemic on NM services in the UK. With COVID-19 resurge compounded by seasonal winter pressures, we reflect and share lessons learnt from the first wave of pandemic to guide future strategy.

The World Health Organization Global Benchmarking Tool an Instrument to Strengthen Medical Products Regulation and Promote Universal Health Coverage.

National regulatory authorities (NRAs) are the gatekeepers of the supply chain of medical products, and they have a mandate to ensure the quality, safety and efficacy of medicines, vaccines, blood, and blood products, medical devices, including diagnostics and traditional, or herbal medicines. However, the majority of the world's regulators are still struggling to reach a level of maturity, whereby they have a stable, well-functioning and integrated regulatory system. The World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a Global Benchmarking Tool (GBT) as part of its five-step capacity building program to assist NRAs, using the tool, they can benchmark their own strengths and areas of weakness, and then engage in a formal benchmarking process together with WHO and international experts in order to formulate an effective and workable institutional development plan.

Collaborative working in health and social care: Lessons learned from post-hoc preliminary findings of a young families' pregnancy to age 2 project in South Wales, United Kingdom.

Children of young and socially disadvantaged parents are more likely to experience adverse outcomes. In response to this, a unique young families' project in Swansea, UK, was created, which drew together a team of multi-agency professionals, to support people aged 16-24 from 17 weeks of pregnancy throughout 1,001 days of the child's life. The aim of the JIGSO (the Welsh word for Jigsaw) project is for young people to reach their potential as parents and to break the cycle of health and social inequality.

Optimizing the East African Community's Medicines Regulatory Harmonization initiative in 2020-2022: A Roadmap for the Future.

Margareth Ndomondo-Sigonda outlines future challenges for the East African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization initiative.

Eight years of the East African Community Medicines Regulatory Harmonization initiative: Implementation, progress, and lessons learned.

Jane H. Mashingia and colleagues reveal the progress made to date for the East African Community Medicines Regulatory Harmonization initiative.

Correction: Is alkaline phosphatase the smoking gun for highly refractory primitive leukemic cells?

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.12497.

Expanding global access to essential medicines: investment priorities for sustainably strengthening medical product regulatory systems.

Access to quality-assured medical products improves health and save lives. However, one third of the world's population lacks timely access to quality-assured medicines while estimates indicate that at least 10% of medicine in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are substandard or falsified (SF), costing approximately US$ 31 billion annually. National regulatory authorities are the key government institutions that promote access to quality-assured medicines and combat SF medical products but despite progress, regulatory capacity in LMICs is still insufficient.

Acoustophoretic Orientation of Red Blood Cells for Diagnosis of Red Cell Health and Pathology.

Distortions of the normal bi-concave disc shape for red blood cells (RBCs) appear in a number of pathologies resulting from defects in cell membrane skeletal architecture, erythrocyte ageing, and mechanical damage. We present here the potential of acoustic cytometry for developing new approaches to light-scattering based evaluation of red blood cell disorders and of the effects of storage and ageing on changes or damage to RBCs membranes. These approaches could be used to immediately evaluate the quality of erythrocytes prior to blood donation and following transfusion.

Reflections on integrated care from those working in and leading integrated respiratory teams.

The concept of integrated care has been advocated for many years to address some of the challenges faced by the NHS. This report examines the experiences of respiratory healthcare specialists working in an integrated role. Twelve qualitative telephone interviews were undertaken with a range of integrated respiratory specialists and their teams working in both hospitals and the community.

Nano-analyses of wear particles from metal-on-metal and non-metal-on-metal dual modular neck hip arthroplasty.

Increased failure rates due to metallic wear particle-associated adverse local tissue reactions (ALTR) is a significant clinical problem in resurfacing and total hip arthroplasty. Retrieved periprosthetic tissue of 53 cases with corrosion/conventional metallic wear particles from 285 revision operations for ALTR was selected for nano-analyses. Three major classes of hip implants associated with ALTR, metal-on-metal hip resurfacing arthroplasty (MoM HRA) and large head total hip replacement (MoM LHTHA) and non-metal-on-metal dual modular neck total hip replacement (Non-MoM DMNTHA) were included.

Is alkaline phosphatase the smoking gun for highly refractory primitive leukemic cells?

With the aim to detect candidate malignant primitive progenitor populations, we modified an original alkaline phosphatase (ALP) stem cell detection method based on the identification of alkaline phosphatase fluorescent cells in combination with flow cytometry immunophenotyping. Over a period of one year, we have been using this technique to study its activity in patients with leukemia and lymphoma, showing that changes in the alkaline phosphatase levels can be used to detect rare populations of highly refractory malignant cells. By screening different blood cancers, we have observed that this activity is not always restricted to CD34+ leukemic cells, and can be overexpressed in CD34 negative leukemia.

Vybrant DyeCycle Violet Stain Discriminates Two Different Subsets of CD34+ Cells.

Introduction: Studies are needed to understand the role of CD34 expressing cells with regard to efficient engraftment, especially in the adjuvant treatment of cancer.

Materials And Methods: In this study we have used a modified method in our laboratory for routinely counting CD34+ cells. Unlysed whole blood samples were stained with the DNA-selective and cell membrane-permeant Vibrant DyeCycle Violet stain.

Characterizing Good Review Practices: A Survey Report Among Agencies of APEC Member Economies.

As a first step in the implementation of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Best Regulatory Practice Project, the Centre for Innovation in Regulatory Science conducted a gap analysis survey among regulatory agencies of 14 APEC member economies to assess the current use of good review practices (GRevP) to support transparent, consistent, predictable, and good-quality regulatory decision making. Although the majority of responding agencies have established some form of GRevP, most practices are currently evolving and are applied on an informal basis. Most agencies have developed standard operating procedures and guidelines and use a variety of training methods.

West Nile virus infection rates and avian serology in east-central Illinois.

Understanding the geographic role of different species of mosquito vectors and vertebrate hosts in West Nile virus (WNV) transmission cycles can facilitate the development and implementation of targeted surveillance and control measures. This study examined the relationship between WNV-antibody rates in birds and mosquito infection rates and bloodfeeding patterns in east-central Illinois. The earliest detection of WNV-RNA by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction TaqMan was from Culex restuans; however, amplification typically coincided with an increase in abundance of Cx.

A case of cocaine-induced basilar artery thrombosis.

Background: A 40-year-old man presented to an emergency department with slurred speech, diplopia and agitation several hours after cocaine use. His level of consciousness rapidly dropped in the hours following presentation.

Investigations: Physical examination, CT scan of the head, cerebral angiography.

Application of mass spectrometry to the discovery of biomarkers for detection of prostate cancer.

There has been an impressive emergence of mass spectrometry based technologies applied toward the study of proteins. Equally notable is the rapid adaptation of these technologies to biomedical approaches in the realm of clinical proteomics. Concerted efforts toward the elucidation of the proteomes of organ sites or specific disease state are proliferating and from these efforts come the promise of better diagnostics/prognostics and therapeutic intervention.