Performance comparison of immunodiffusion, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, immunochromatography and hemagglutination for serodiagnosis of human pythiosis.

Pythiosis is a life-threatening infectious disease caused by the fungus-like organism Pythium insidiosum. Morbidity and mortality rates of pythiosis are high. The treatment of choice for pythiosis is surgical debridement of infected tissue.

Raising rheumatoid factor cutoff helps distinguish rheumatoid arthritis.

The presence of rheumatoid factor (RF) is one of the clinical criteria for the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The cutoff point of RF assays is usually based on a reference level obtained from normal subjects in the same population as the patients. We evaluated 63 rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 25 other arthritis patients and 110 blood donors.

Predictive values of serial C-reactive protein in neonatal sepsis.

Background: Infection is one of the major problems in neonates. The diagnosis of neonatal septicemia is difficult to establish based on the clinical criteria alone. However, empirical treatment should not be delayed because of the high mortality.