objective(s): this study aimed to compare the diagnostic values of 11c-choline and 18f-fluorodeoxyglucose (18f-fdg) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (pet/ct) in patients with cholangiocarcinoma (cca). methods: this prospective study was conducted on 10 patients (6 males and 4 females), aged 42-69 years, suspected of having cca based on ct or magnetic resonance imaging (mri) resu...

Cytotoxic CD8 T cells are key effectors in the immunotherapy of malignant and viral diseases. However, the lack of efficient methods for their in vitro priming and expansion has become a bottleneck to the development of vaccines and adoptive transfer strategies. Synthetic artificial APCs (aAPCs) are now emerging as an attractive tool for eliciting and expanding CTL responses. We show that, by c...

The development of IgG avidity assays has revolutionised serological diagnosis of Toxoplasma infections. The measurement of IgG avidity has shown its power in various clinical settings, especially in situations where timing and differentiation of primary and secondary infections is crucial. However, no laboratory test performed alone is self-sustained, whereby the diagnostic strategy of choice ...

An immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody avidity assay which uses protein-denaturing agents and a modification of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay have been investigated for their usefulness in distinguishing primary genital herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections from nonprimary infections. Forty-nine serum specimens from patients with primary, recurrent, and nonprimary first-episode genital herpe...

IgG avidity tests, which came on the scene recently with regard to most efficient use of time and early onset to the therapy, are considered in this study, and compared with Enzyme immunoassay(EIA). Serums of a total of 879 women in the first trimester of their gestations who referred to Dicle University, Faculty Hospital, Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics in between the dates of 09 Apri...

OBJECTIVE To assess the utility of cost-effective dried blood spot (DBS) field sampling for incidence and drug resistance surveillance of persons at high risk for HIV infection. METHODS We evaluated DBS collected in 2007-2010 in non-clinical settings by finger-stick from HIV-positive heterosexuals at increased risk of HIV infection (n = 124), men who have sex with men (MSM, n = 110), and pers...

Background and Objective: Paliperidone is an active metabolite of risperidone which received FDA approval very recently. Because of its unique pharmacologic delivery system and low avidity for D2 receptor lower doses of paliperidone (3 mg & 6 mg) are claimed to be much safer from EPS point of view. We aim to present a case of cervico-oromandibular dystonia in a young adult with schizophrenia te...

An outbreak of Neospora caninum-associated abortion occurred in a South Carolina dairy wherein greater than 10% of the herd aborted over a 4-month period. Of the total number of cows at mid-late gestation, nearly 40% (28/71) aborted while the remaining 60% (43/71) gave birth to normal calves. Immunohistochemical examination of brain tissue from a subset of aborted fetuses confirmed N. caninum a...

BACKGROUND Accurate and reliable laboratory-based assays are needed for estimating HIV-1 incidence from cross-sectional samples. We recently described the development of a customized, HIV-1-specific Bio-Plex assay that allows for the measurement of HIV-specific antibody levels and avidity to multiple analytes for improved HIV-1 incidence estimates. METHODS To assess intra- and inter-laborator...

Cytokine polyfunctionality has recently emerged as a correlate of effective CTL immunity to viruses and tumors. Although the determinants of polyfunctionality remain unclear, there are published instances of a link between the production of multiple effector molecules and the peptide plus MHC class I molecule avidity of T cell populations. Influenza A virus infection of C57BL/6J mice induces CT...