OBJECTIVES Urinalysis is one of the most commonly performed tests in the clinical laboratory. However, manual microscopic sediment examination is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and lacks standardization in high-volume laboratories. In this study, the concordance of analyses between manual microscopic examination and two different automatic urine sediment analyzers has been evaluated. DESIGN...

Measurements of urinary lysozyme were used to evaluate renal tubular integrity in 34 patients with cirrhosis or fulminant hepatic failure who had developed renal impairment. In 18 of the patients the lysozyme values were normal but in the remaining 16 were increased, supporting previous concepts that renal failure complicating hepatocellular disease may occur both without and with tubular necro...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The outcome of renal transplantation after an episode of acute rejection is difficult to predict, even with an allograft biopsy. We examined whether urinary expression of specific biomarker mRNA could be used as a noninvasive prognostic marker in kidney transplant recipients. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS We studied 63 kidney transplant recipients who...

The mitochondrial A3243G mutation is most commonly related to the MELAS syndrome, but can cause many different clinical manifestations at various ages. Here, we present a family with maternally inherited diabetes and deafness (MIDD), the proband of which exhibits hearing loss, diabetes mellitus, cardiomyopathy and short stature. Four easily accessible samples (whole blood, hair roots, buccal sc...

Concentrated seabed deposits of polymetallic nodules, which are rich in economically valuable metals (e.g., copper, nickel, cobalt, manganese), occur over vast areas of the abyssal Pacific Ocean floor. Little is currently known about the diversity of microorganisms inhabiting abyssal habitats. In this study, sediment, nodule, and water column samples were collected from the Clarion-Clipperton Z...