Diagnostic management of inpatients with a positive D-dimer test: developing a new clinical decision-making rule for pulmonary embolism.

Background: A positive D-dimer test has high sensitivity but relatively poor specificity for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism, causing difficulty for clinicians unskilled in pulmonary embolism diagnosis in determining whether a patient with a positive D-dimer test needs to undergo computed tomographic pulmonary angiography.

Objectives: We sought to develop a new clinical decision-making rule based on a positive D-dimer result to predict the probability of pulmonary embolism and to guide clinicians in making decisions regarding the need for computed tomographic pulmonary angiography.

Methods: We conducted a prospective, multicenter study in three hospitals in China.

Apoptosis of rat liver in cold preservation with custom-designed KYL solution.

Background: A suitable perfusate is very important in reducing various problems in liver preservation, prolonging the time of organ preservation and enhancing the quality of donor tissue. University of Wisconsin (UW) solution is the most successful solution for preserving multiple organs at present, but it has many shortcomings. We set out to develop a new liver preservation solution (KYL solution) and study its effects on apoptosis in rat liver undergoing cold preservation.