Prospective evaluation of an assessment tool for technical performance of duodenoscopes.

Objective: While single-use and detachable-tip duodenoscopes have been recently developed to overcome risks of infection transmission, there are no reliable tools to objectively assess their technical performance. We evaluated the reliability and validity of a newly developed tool to assess the technical performance of reusable duodenoscopes.

Methods: An assessment tool was developed to measure duodenoscope performance based on three distinct criteria: maneuverability, mechanical/imaging characteristics and ability to perform requisite interventions.

In memoriam: Fine-needle aspiration, birth: Fine-needle biopsy: The changing trend in endoscopic ultrasound-guided tissue acquisition.

Background And Aim: Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) cytology has been the preferred technique for procuring tissue at endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) procedures for the past 25 years. To overcome some of the limitations of FNA cytology, fine-needle biopsy (FNB) has been recently developed to yield histological tissue. Main objective was to compare the diagnostic yield of FNB compared to FNA for both onsite and offsite specimen assessment.

Functionalization of alpha,beta-unsaturated esters and ketones: a facile and highly stereoselective one-pot approach to N-protected alpha,beta-dehydroamino acid derivatives.

A new, facile, and highly stereoselective protocol toward alpha,beta-dehydroamino acid derivatives has been developed. The one-pot synthesis was very convenient to perform by using the aminohalogenation reaction of alpha,beta-unsaturated esters and ketones followed by treatment with specific bases. Only two [2.

Dysrhythmia associated with fluoxetine treatment in an elderly patient with cardiac disease.

Although fluoxetine has been shown to be both efficacious and well tolerated, few data are available on the use of this drug in patients with preexisting heart disease and in the elderly. The authors report a case of an elderly patient in whom atrial fibrillation and bradycardia developed shortly after she began treatment with fluoxetine. The dysrhythmias recurred on rechallenge with the drug.