Estimations of the activities of various enzymes in clinical samples are routine tasks for clinical chemists. Most of this work is done by automatic analysis. The reference ranges against which patients' results are interpreted, however, have generally been defined in terms of manual methods and the conditions of a manual method cannot be reproduced in automated systems. This paper describes th...

BACKGROUND The indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) is considered a reference test for scrub typhus. Recently, the Scrub Typhus Infection Criteria (STIC; a combination of culture, PCR assays and IFA IgM) were proposed as a reference standard for evaluating alternative diagnostic tests. Here, we use Bayesian latent class models (LCMs) to estimate the true accuracy of each diagnostic test, and...

Laboratories participate in collaborative quality-assurance programs to maintain and improve the quality of their diagnostic assays, but little attention has been paid to diagnostic quality in these programs. We used a national quality-assurance program to assess the quality of laboratory reference intervals as exemplified by triiodothyronine, thyroxin, and thyrotropin immunoassays. The limits ...

Background and Purpose:  Due to the important role of imaging in the diagnosis and treatment plan in orthodontics, CBCT (Cone Beam Computed Tomography) images because of their three-dimensional nature, can minimize the disadvantages of two-dimensional images such as magnification, distortion, or superimposition. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of conventional cephalograms...

ADHD is traditionally described as a pediatric disorder. According to contemporary knowledge in around 60% of children suffering from ADHD symptoms of the disorder persist into adulthood. The epidemiological data show the 2-5% prevalence ofADHD in adults. The consequences of the disorder are serious and may cause other health problems and impairments in occupational and individual functioning. ...

background: yeast infections are increasing cause of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients. in order to perform a dna-based diagnostic test, availability of a rapid and easy-to-perform dna extraction protocol is essential. in the present study we evaluated colony-pcr as the easiest way to amplification of target dna. methods: instead of using templates of purified genomic dna, w...

BACKGROUND With the increase of X-ray use for medical diagnostic purposes, knowing the given doses is necessary in patients for comparison with reference levels. The concept of reference doses or diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) has been developed as a practical aid in the optimization of patient protection in diagnostic radiology. OBJECTIVES To assess the radiation doses to neonates from d...

BACKGROUND Lumbar spine radiography has limited diagnostic value but low radiation dose compared with computed tomography (CT). The average effective radiation dose from lumbar spine radiography is about 1.1 mSv. Low-dose lumbar spine CT may be an alternative to increase the diagnostic value at low radiation dose, around 1 mSv. PURPOSE To determine the optimal settings for low-dose lumbar spi...

BACKGROUND Since thromboelastography (TEG) can detect hypercoagulable states, it is a potentially useful test for predicting postoperative thromboembolic complications. Therefore, we performed a systematic review of the literature to evaluate the accuracy of TEG in predicting postoperative thromboembolic events. METHODS PUBMED and EMBASE electronic databases were searched by two independent i...