Objective: To establish a method for evaluating the activity of von Willebrand factor cleaving protease (vWF-cp) and evaluate its clinical application.
Methods: Purified von Willebrand factor polymer was isolated by gel filtration from human fresh-frozen plasma as the enzyme substrate. SDS-PAGE, Western blotting, and luminographic detection were used to evaluate vWF-cp activity of 60 healthy adults, 28 patients with cerebral infarction (CI) and 7 with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP).
Results: In the subjects involved, the method for evaluating vWF-cp activity had intra- and inter-batch coefficient of variation(CV) of 4.81% (n=8) and 8.63% (n=6), respectively. According to this method, the plasma vWF-cp activity in the 60 healthy adults was significantly higher than that in the CI patients [(86.53-/+17.49)% vs (77.15-/+16.72)%, P<0.05]. In TTP patients before plasma replacement, the vWF-cp activity was (9.06-/+7.17)% and increased significantly to (47.00-/+6.27)% 24 h after plasma replacement, respectively, but still significantly lower than that of healthy adults (P<0.01), whereas in the convalescent stage, the activity approached the normal level [(83.18-/+8.83)%, P>0.05].
Conclusions: According to the described method, which allows accurate vWF-cp activity measurement with good sensitivity, specificity and reproducibility, vWF-cp activity is lower in CI patients and even more so in TTP patients than that of healthy adults. Plasma replacement can effectively increase the vWF-cp activity in TTP patients.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|
Transfusion
January 2025
Infectious Disease Consultant, North Potomac, Maryland, USA.
Background: US blood donors are tested for syphilis because the bacterial agent is transfusion transmissible. Here we describe trends over an 11-year period of donations positive for recent and past syphilis infections, and donations classified as syphilis false positive (FP).
Methods: Data from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2023 (11 years) were compiled for all American Red Cross blood donations to evaluate demographics/characteristics and longitudinal trends in donors testing syphilis reactive/positive.
Ann Neurol
January 2025
Research Unit of Neurology, Neurophysiology and Neurobiology, Department of Medicine and Surgery, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Rome, Italy.
Objective: Despite diagnostic criteria refinements, Parkinson's disease (PD) clinical diagnosis still suffers from a not satisfying accuracy, with the post-mortem examination as the gold standard for diagnosis. Seminal clinicopathological series highlighted that a relevant number of patients alive-diagnosed with idiopathic PD have an alternative post-mortem diagnosis. We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of PD comparing the in-vivo clinical diagnosis with the post-mortem diagnosis performed through the pathological examination in 2 groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur J Dent Educ
January 2025
QU Health College of Dental Medicine, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar.
Aims: This study aimed to evaluate the impact of community-based dental education (CBDE) on the learning experiences of undergraduate dental students and recent dental graduates from two diverse geographical regions.
Methods: The study followed a cross-sectional design, conducted online using Google Forms, with ethical approval from Qatar University. A non-probability purposive sampling method was used to recruit dental students and recent graduates from three institutions in India and one in Qatar.
Med Phys
January 2025
Department of Oncology, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, China.
Background: Kidney tumors, common in the urinary system, have widely varying survival rates post-surgery. Current prognostic methods rely on invasive biopsies, highlighting the need for non-invasive, accurate prediction models to assist in clinical decision-making.
Purpose: This study aimed to construct a K-means clustering algorithm enhanced by Transformer-based feature transformation to predict the overall survival rate of patients after kidney tumor resection and provide an interpretability analysis of the model to assist in clinical decision-making.
Pharmazie
December 2024
Drug Safety Center, Medical Faculty, Leipzig University and Leipzig University Hospital, Germany.
: Interprofessional education of medical and pharmacy students may improve competence-based university teaching. : We developed a joint bed-side teaching to improve patient-related competencies in identifying drug-related problems in hospitalized patients at a university cardiology department. Students were randomly allocated in mixed teams of medical and pharmacy students (1:3).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!