The diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is still a major problem in Brazil and several other countries where the disease is endemic. The use of an easy-to-use and interpret, sensitive, and specific method that requires no complex infrastructure or specialized professionals, such as direct agglutination test (DAT) and the rK39-based rapid immunochromatographic test may enhance the diagnosis of disease. This study evaluated the performance of a rapid test (DiaMed- IT-LEISH®) and the DAT for the diagnosis of VL in 213 parasitologically confirmed cases and 119 controls with clinical suspicion of VL and confirmation of another etiology. The sensitivities and specificities of the rapid test were 93% and 97%, respectively and those of the DAT were 90% and 96%, respectively. The positive predictive values of the rapid test and the DAT were 98% and 97%, respectively and the negative predictive values were 89% and 84%, respectively. The Kappa index showed agreement between both methods classified as substantial (0.77). This study showed that the DAT and the rapid test can be used to diagnose VL in Brazil, following a pilot study for implementation of the rapid test in the health services.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trstmh.2010.09.004 | DOI Listing |
Sci Rep
December 2024
Department of Optometry, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia.
Globally, the prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD) is increasing, accounting for a third of all deaths worldwide including myocardial infarctions (MIs) which represent the most severe clinical manifestation of CAD and are among the most dangerous coronary events. Therefore, this study aims to assess the knowledge of symptoms and risk factors of MIs, as well as attitudes and beliefs regarding MIs and confidence in recognizing CAD symptoms in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study was conducted among individuals living in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between November 2023 and April 2024 to assess their knowledge and beliefs about CAD and MIs.
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December 2024
College of Energy Engineering, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an, 710054, China.
Affected by weakening effect of water in the goaf, the bearing capacity of coal pillar reduced, and coal pillar rock burst is prone to occur, which is a serious threat to mine safety in production. In order to study the equivalent width and stability of coal pillar in water-rich coal seam, taking the section coal pillar of a working face as the research object, combined with laboratory test, theoretical analysis, simulation and engineering practice, the stress, elastic core area width, damage degree and energy accumulation of 36 m water-immersed coal pillar and 26 m, 28 m, 30 m, 32 m, 36 m unimmersed coal pillars are analyzed. The research results show that: (1) The reasonable width of coal pillar under flooded and unflooded conditions is 36.
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December 2024
Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics, Gdansk University of Technology, Gdansk, 80-233, Poland.
Recent years have witnessed a tremendous popularity growth of optimization methods in high-frequency electronics, including microwave design. With the increasing complexity of passive microwave components, meticulous tuning of their geometry parameters has become imperative to fulfill demands imposed by the diverse application areas. More and more often, achieving the best possible performance requires global optimization.
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December 2024
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
Background: Vancomycin, an antibiotic with activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), is frequently included in empiric treatment for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) despite the fact that MRSA is rarely implicated in CAP. Conducting polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing on nasal swabs to identify the presence of MRSA colonization has been proposed as an antimicrobial stewardship intervention to reduce the use of vancomycin. Observational studies have shown reductions in vancomycin use after implementation of MRSA colonization testing, and this approach has been adopted by CAP guidelines.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Pregnancy Childbirth
December 2024
Reproductive Medical Center, Henan Province Key Laboratory of Reproduction and Genetics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, No. 1 East Jianshe Road, Erqi District, Zhengzhou, China.
Research Question: Is it possible to predict blastocyst quality, embryo chromosomal ploidy, and clinical pregnancy outcome after single embryo transfer from embryo developmental morphokinetic parameters?
Design: The morphokinetic parameters of 1011 blastocysts from 227 patients undergoing preimplantation genetic testing were examined. Correlations between the morphokinetic parameters and the quality of blastocysts, chromosomal ploidy, and clinical pregnancy outcomes following the transfer of single blastocysts were retrospectively analyzed.
Results: The morphokinetic parameters of embryos in the high-quality blastocyst group were significantly shorter than those in the low-quality blastocyst group (p < 0.
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