A specimen transport audit was performed at a routine and reference laboratory. Over the survey period (1986-89) the percentage of specimens received and assessed as hazardous (inadequately packed, misidentified, or contaminated by leakage) fell significantly from 12.0 to 2.8%. Specimen transport audit identified technical and logistical faults associated with sample transmission. It is conclud...

he increasing trend toward ambulatory care, home healthcare, nursing home care, and other alternate sites, has created variations in laboratory services and increased probability of medical errors. As an example, in order to increase laboratory volume, laboratory administrators have had to redirect blood collection services to outlying home and clinic settings via contracts with various physici...

HYPOTHESIS Specimen mammography is not beneficial in the management or outcome of patients undergoing image-guided needle-localized breast biopsies. DESIGN A retrospective study of consecutive patients who underwent needle/dye-localized breast biopsies between January 1, 1993, and December 31, 1995. SETTING National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, Md)-designated comprehensive cancer center. P...

man, set. 32, an old soldier, who had suddenly dropped down dead. No history of previous illness could be obtained. The heart was very much enlarged as seen in situ at the post-mortem, the enlargement being chiefly confined to the base. On opening the heart it was seen that this enlargement was not due to hypertrophy, but to a tumour of the septum. This tumour on examination was found to be an ...

Muscle biopsy has been used for a long time for diagnosis of muscular, nerurogenic and systemic disorders with muscle involvement, because only very few of these disorders show sufficient specific clinical features for definite diagnosis. Since the presence of difficulties in the screening of numerous genes, muscle biopsy could be a time and cost effective procedure for solving the diagnostic p...

abstractintroduction: hyperplastic polyps of the esophago-gastric junction are seen during endoscopic evaluation of upper gastrointestinal tract. they are usually asymptomatic and discovered accidentally during endoscopic evaluation for other problems. these protrusions are mucosal regenerative response to surrounding mucosal injury. case: here we present a 9-year-old boy presenting with abdomi...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of urine culture by bag specimen for the detection of neonatal urinary tract infection in full-term newborn infants. Retrospective study (1997) including full-term newborn infants having a positive urine culture (> 100,000 CFU/ml) by bag specimen collection. The urinary tract infection diagnosis was confirmed by positive urine culture (suprapubic bladder aspir...

A cold-temperature enrichment procedure was used to isolate Yersinia enterocolitica serotype 6 from a clinical stool specimen. The use of conventional laboratory media and enrichment procedures failed to isolate this organism.

BACKGROUND Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) are the most frequent causes of bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Management strategies that reduce losses in the clinical pathway from infection to cure might improve STI control and reduce complications resulting from lack of, or inadequate, treatment. OBJECTIVES To assess the effectiveness and safety of ho...