To validate optical coherence tomography (OCT) for the diagnosis of referable retinopathy (severe, very severe or proliferative retinopathy, and macular edema) in diabetic patients. We performed a cross-sectional observational study. A random sample was analyzed comprising 136 eyes of diabetic patients referred to the hospital in Elche (Spain) with suspected referable retinopathy between Octobe...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Family history (FH) is used as a marker for inherited risk. Using FH for this purpose requires the FH to reflect true disease in the family. The aim was to analyse the concordance between young and middle-aged ischaemic stroke patients' reported FH of cardiovascular disease (CVD) with their parents' own reports. METHODS Ischaemic stroke patients aged 15-60 years and the...

BACKGROUND Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is considered a novel method for diagnosing pancreatic cancer, but currently, there is no conclusive evidence of its accuracy. Using CEUS in discriminating between pancreatic carcinoma and other pancreatic lesions, we aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of CEUS in predicting pancreatic tumours. METHODS Relevant studies were selected from th...

STUDY OBJECTIVE We seek to determine whether cardiac risk factor burden (defined as the number of conventional cardiac risk factors present) is useful for the diagnosis of acute coronary syndromes in the emergency department (ED) setting. METHODS This was a post hoc analysis of the Internet Tracking Registry of Acute Coronary Syndromes (i*trACS) registry, which had 17,713 ED visits for suspec...

The present study investigates the impact of financial self-efficacy on personal finance behavior. To this end, the data collected from the questionnaire have been employed. Once the validity and reliability of the questionnaire are confirmed, the relation between financial self-efficacy and the likelihood of holding a specific financial product is studied using the multivariate Probit model. P...

introduction: n-methyl-d-aspartate receptor subunits antibody (nr2-ab) is a sensitive marker of ischemic brain damage in clinical circumstances, such as cerebrovascular accidents. we aimed to assess the value of serum nr2-ab in predicting the post-cardiopulmonary resuscitation (cpr) survival. methods: in this cohort study, we examined serum nr2-ab levels 1 hour after the return of spontaneous c...

BACKGROUND Our objective was to evaluate the accuracy of paramedic-performed Focused Assessment with Sonography in Trauma (PFAST) for detection of free fluid in patients admitted to the Emergency Department (ED) following trauma. METHODS After four hours of didactic and four hours of hands-on training, four paramedics prospectively evaluated trauma patients. Our gold standard was the official...

OBJECTIVE To determine the accuracy of outpatient endometrial biopsy in diagnosing endometrial cancer in women with abnormal uterine bleeding. DESIGN A systematic quantitative review of published research. METHODS Studies were selected if accuracy of outpatient endometrial biopsy was estimated compared with a reference standard. Diagnostic accuracy was determined by pooled likelihood ratios...

STUDY OBJECTIVE Multiple studies have evaluated capnography for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism; accordingly, we conduct a meta-analysis of these trials. METHODS We performed a systematic search from 1990 to 2011, using MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library, including studies evaluating capnography as a diagnostic tool alone or in conjunction with other tests. After study quality eval...

Fine-needle aspiration cytology guided by ultrasound imaging is a widely used diagnostic tool to evaluate neoplastic or inflammatory lesions of salivary glands. From February 2002 to February 2008 all the parotid lesions removed surgically in our Unit of Otolaryngology were reviewed. Study focused on sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, predictive values, likelihood ratios, and Kappa statistics ...