Short-Term Impact of the Frequency of COPD Exacerbations on Quality of Life.

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients in the Simvastatin for the Prevention of Exacerbations in Moderate-to-Severe COPD (STATCOPE) and Azithromycin for Prevention of Exacerbations of COPD (MACRO) trials provide an opportunity to prospectively study the short-term effect of acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPDs).

Research Question: We hypothesized that those patients with frequent exacerbations (≥2 AECOPDs per patient year) would experience greater short-term decline in quality of life as measured by the St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ).

Study Design And Methods: A total of 1934 COPD patients were randomized in STATCOPE or MACRO.

Differentiating Pemphigus Foliaceus From Pemphigus Vulgaris in Clinical Practice.

Pemphigus is a skin condition that causes intraepidermal separation of keratinocytes. Multiple types of pemphigus exist, including pemphigus vulgaris and pemphigus foliaceus. These can be differentiated by histopathology, clinical presentation, appearance of lesions, and antibodies, among other factors.

Glomangioma of the elbow.

We present a patient with a painful, mobile nodule on the elbow. The nodule was skin-colored and had no punctum or discharge. It was excised and histopathology showed that the lesion was a glomangioma, or glomuvenous malformation.

From Sampling to Sequencing: A Liquid Biopsy Pre-Analytic Workflow to Maximize Multi-Layer Genomic Information from a Single Tube.

Liquid biopsies hold great promise for the management of cancer. Reliable liquid biopsy data depend on stable and reproducible pre-analytical protocols that comply with quality measures, irrespective of the sampling and processing site. We established a workflow for plasma preservation, followed by processing, cell-free nucleic acid isolation, quantification, and enrichment of potentially tumor-derived cell-free DNA and RNA.