Diagnostic Efficacy of Aspergillus Galactomannan Lateral Flow Assay in Patients with Hematological Malignancies: A Prospective Multicenter Study.

Background: A rapid and reliable diagnostic test is needed to reduce mortality through early diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis (IA) in patients with hematological malignancies.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of serum and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) Aspergillus galactomannan lateral flow assay (GM-LFA) in IA diagnosis and determine the correlation of GM-LFA with GM enzyme immunoassay (GM-EIA) in patients with hematological malignancies.

Methods: In this prospective multicenter study, we used serum and BAL fluid samples from patients with hematological malignancies and suspected IA and performed GM-LFA and GM-EIA.

Safety Assessment and Power Analyses in Published Anti-Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Randomized Controlled Trials.

Purpose: To investigate a certain set of methodological limitations in published anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Design: Descriptive methodological study.

Methods: We did a PubMed search with the terms "bevacizumab OR ranibizumab OR pegaptanib OR aflibercept" and the limitations "humans" and "randomized controlled trials" in 15 of the highest-impact-factor general medicine and ophthalmology journals.