Evaluation of a novel screening method for fetal aneuploidy using cell-free DNA in maternal plasma.

Objective: To evaluate the test performance of a novel sequencing technology using molecular inversion probes applied to cell-free DNA screening for fetal aneuploidy.

Methods: Two cohorts were included in the evaluation; a risk-based cohort of women receiving diagnostic testing in the first and second trimesters was combined with stored samples from pregnancies with fetuses known to be aneuploid or euploid. All samples were blinded to testing personnel before being analyzed, and validation occurred after the study closed and results were merged.

Detection of West Nile virus RNA in mosquitoes and identification of mosquito blood meals collected at alligator farms in Louisiana.

Since 2001, alligator farms in the United States have sustained substantial economic losses because of West Nile virus (WNV) outbreaks in American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis). Once an initial infection is introduced into captive alligators, WNV can spread among animals by contaminative transmission. Some outbreaks have been linked to feeding on infected meat or the introduction of infected hatchlings, but the initial source of WNV infection has been uncertain in other outbreaks.

Host feeding patterns of Culex mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana.

Host feeding patterns were examined for four species of Culex mosquitoes collected from 18 sites in or adjacent to East Baton Rouge Parish, LA, from November 2002 to October 2004. Host DNA from 37 bloodfed Culex coronator Dyar and Knab, 67 bloodfed Cx. salinarius Coquillett, 112 bloodfed Cx.

Geographic factors contributing to a high seroprevalence of West Nile virus-specific antibodies in humans following an epidemic.

Sera of 624 blood donors were evaluated to determine seroprevalence of West Nile virus (WNV) antibodies following the 2003 WNV epidemic in Nebraska. Geographic factors contributing to differences in WNV seropositivity were evaluated. The overall prevalence of WNV in Nebraska was higher than reported previously in other U.