BACKGROUND IFN-gamma Release Assays (IGRAs) have been licensed for the diagnosis of latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection (LTBI). Their performance may depend on assay format and may vary across populations and settings. We compared the diagnostic performance of an in-house T -cell and commercial whole blood-based IGRAs for the diagnosis of LTBI and TB disease in The Gambia. METHODS New...

OBJECTIVE This study evaluated the use of the American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) by community radiologists by determining the concordance of assessment categories and recommendations assigned to screening mammograms. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study comprised the interpretations of 82,620 consecutive screening mammograms by 18 radiologists between ...

BACKGROUND Current status of external quality assessment (EQA) of laboratory tests for syphilis in Korea was analyzed to find out the problems that should be improved in the future. METHODS Based on the data from the external quality assessment program performed twice a year by the Immunoserology Subcommittee of the Korean Association of Quality Assurance for Clinical Laboratory from the year...

INTRODUCTION In sub-Saharan Africa where HIV/AIDS epidemic is predominantly generalized, majority of HIV infections occur among heterosexual couples. The majority of people do not know their sero-status. Thus, utilisation of Couples' HIV Counselling and Testing (CHCT) services remain to be critical in preventing new infections. The objective was to establish prevalence and predictors of HIV ser...

Background: Adjuvant therapy after breast cancer surgery decreases recurrence and increases survival, yet not all women receive and complete it. Previous research has suggested that distrust in medical institutions plays a role in who initiates adjuvant treatment, but has not assessed treatment completion, nor the potential mediating role of physician distrust.Methods: Women listed in Pennsylva...

BACKGROUND Discordance of birth weight has been observed in twin pairs, though little is known about prenatal and early neonatal discordance of head and brain size, and the role that zygosity and chorionicity play in discordances of early brain development in twins. AIMS To compare prenatal and neonatal discordances of head size in monozygotic-monochorionic (MZ-MC), monozygotic-dichorionic (M...

Aim: Frozen section is a highly accurate and useful procedure wherein knowledge of the clinical presentation, good rapport with the operating surgeon, pathologist’s experience and in depth knowledge of the subject, awareness of the limitations of the procedure, ability to provide a rapid and reliable diagnosis under pressure are of great importance. The correlation between intra operative froze...

Both gene-tree discordance and unrecognized diversity are sources of error for accurate estimation of species trees, and can affect downstream diversification analyses by obscuring the correct number of nodes, their density, and the lengths of the branches subtending them. Although the theoretical impact of gene-tree discordance on evolutionary analyses has been examined previously, the effect ...

BACKGROUND Tumor phenotype may change during breast cancer progression. This study evaluates the prognostic impact of receptor discordance between paired primaries and recurrences. PATIENTS AND METHODS One hundred and thirty-nine patients underwent histological sampling of suspected breast cancer recurrence. All the pathology assessments [ER, PgR and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (...

BACKGROUND Birthweight differences in twin pairs influence their perinatal outcome as well as growth and development. Growth-discordant twins have not been well characterized in our local environment. OBJECTIVE To determine the frequency of birthweight discordance in live-born twin pairs and document some factors that may influence it. METHODS In this cross-sectional study, 104 live-born tw...