Background Mycophenolic acid (MPA) treatment requires therapeutic drug monitoring to improve the outcome after organ transplantation. The aim of this study was to compare two methods, a particle enhanced turbidimetric inhibition immunoassay (PETINIA) and a reference liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for determining plasma MPA concentrations from Japanese lung transplant ...

natriuretic peptide. J Clin Invest 1991;87:1402–12. 15. The Task Force on Heart Failure of the European Society of Cardiology. Guidelines for the diagnosis of heart failure. Eur Heart J 1995;16:741–51. 16. Jensen-Urstad K, Bouvier F, Hojer J, Ruiz H, Hulting J, Samad B, et al. Comparison of different echocardiographic methods with radionuclide imaging for measuring left ventricular ejection fra...

BACKGROUND Point-of-care testing (POCT) coagulometers are increasingly being used in the hospital setting. We investigated whether the prothrombin time international normalized ratio (INR) results by CoaguChek XS Plus (Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Mannheim, Germany) can be used reliably without being confirmed with the INR results by STA-R system (Diagnostica Stago S.A.S, Asnières sur Seine, France)...

Accurate measurement of testosterone is important for reproductive endocrinology research, but the validity of direct (nonextraction) testosterone immunoassays, developed and validated for human serum, has not been appraised for application to mouse serum or steroidogenic tissue extracts. Testosterone was measured in serum and extracts of testis or ovary from male and female wild-type mice by 2...

Phlebotomy is often addressed as a crucial process in the pre-analytical phase, in which a large part of laboratory errors take place, but to date there is not yet a consolidated methodological paradigm. Seeking literature, we found 36 suitable investigations issued between 1996 and 2016 (April) dealing with the investigation of pre-analytical factors related to phlebotomy. We found that the la...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), an established cardiovascular risk factor, can be generally determined by calculation from total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglyceride concentrations. The aim of this study was to compare LDL-C estimations using various formulas with directly measured LDL-C in a community-based group and hospita...

The magic sets method is used for eecient bottom up evaluation of logic programs. Since its origin, it suuers from the fact that innuence of information passing among predicates has not been suuciently studied. We have recognized the way of information passing as crucial for the eeciency of the method. In this article the ways of information passing are analyzed and a method of choosing an actu...

The magic sets method is used for eecient bottom up evaluation of logic programs. Since its origin, it suuers from the fact that innuence of information passing among predicates has not been suuciently studied. We have recognized the way of information passing as crucial for the eeciency of the method. In this article the ways of information passing are analyzed and a method of choosing an actu...

BACKGROUND The Angoff method is one of the preferred methods for setting a passing level in an exam. Normally, group meetings are required, which may be a problem for busy medical educators. Here, we compared a modified Angoff individual method to the conventional group method. METHODS SIX CLINICAL INSTRUCTORS WERE DIVIDED INTO TWO GROUPS MATCHED BY TEACHING EXPERIENCE: modified Angoff indivi...