Short tandem repeat (STR) typing methods are widely used today for human identity testing applications including forensic DNA analysis. Following multiplex PCR amplification, DNA samples containing the length-variant STR alleles are typically separated by capillary electrophoresis and genotyped by comparison to an allelic ladder supplied with a commercial kit. This article offers a brief perspe...

OBJECTIVES Guidelines recommend hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening for all people living with HIV (PLWH). Understanding HCV testing practices may improve compliance with guidelines and can help identify areas for future intervention. METHODS We evaluated HCV screening and unnecessary repeat HCV testing in 8,590 PLWH initiating care at 12 U.S. HIV clinics between 2006 and 2010, with follow-up t...

BACKGROUND A comparative effectiveness intervention by this team improved initial fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) rates from 3% to 53% among community clinic patients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and costs associated with a literacy-informed intervention on repeat FOBT testing. METHODS Between 2008 and 2011, a three-arm quasi-experiential comparative effectiv...

Early identification and treatment of all pregnant women with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the best way to prevent neonatal disease. Pregnant women universally should be tested for HIV infection with patient notification as part of the routine battery of prenatal blood tests unless they decline the test (ie, opt-out approach). Repeat testing in the third trimester and rapid HIV testing...

Commercially available kits (Mycobacterium avium Complex Rapid Diagnostic System and Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex Rapid Diagnostic System; Gen-Probe, Inc., San Diego, Calif.) utilizing nucleic acid hybridization for the rapid identification of members of the M. avium-M. intracellulare complex and M. tuberculosis complex were evaluated by using 339 clinical and American Type Culture Collec...

BACKGROUND Fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability (ID) worldwide, is caused by the expansion of a CGG repeat in the fragile X mental retardation gene (FMR-1) gene. OBJECTIVES; To review, retrospectively, the genetic services for FXS and other FMR-1-related disorders - including fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS) and FMR-1-related pr...

Currently, no standards exist for determining the optimal frequency of repeat antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) when an organism is recurrently isolated from the same specimen source. Although testing every 2 to 5 days is thought sufficient, we present three cases of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia where current laboratory protocol for repeating AST every ...