BACKGROUND The neuroendocrine glycoprotein chromogranin A is a useful biomarker in humans for neuroendocrine tumors and stress. Chromogranin A can be measured in both blood and saliva. The objective of this study was to investigate concentrations of and correlation between the chromogranin A epitopes catestatin and vasostatin in healthy dogs accustomed to the sample collection procedures. Blood...

BACKGROUND Preanalytical conditions encountered during collection, processing, and storage of biospecimens may influence laboratory results. The National Children's Study (NCS) is a planned prospective cohort study of 100,000 families to examine the influence of a wide variety of exposures on child health. In developing biospecimen collection, processing, and storage procedures for the NCS, we ...

Errors in clinical research can be costly, in terms of patient safety, data integrity, and data collection. Data inaccuracy in early subjects of a clinical study may be associated with problems in the design of the protocol, procedures, and data collection tools. High-fidelity patient simulation centers provide an ideal environment to apply human-centered design to clinical trial development. A...

This study aimed to assess factors associated to body temperature changes intraoperatively in patients undergoing elective surgery. A prospective study including 70 patients was carried out in a charity hospital. A data collection instrument was developed and its face and content validity was established. The variables measured were operating room temperature and humidity and patient body tempe...

BACKGROUND Hospital readmission rates are being used to evaluate performance. A survey of the present rates is needed before policies can be developed to decrease incidence of readmission. We address three questions: What is the present rate of 30-day readmission in orthopedics? How do factors such as orthopedic specialty, data source, patient insurance, and time of data collection affect the 3...

Remarkable advances in instrument technology, automation and computer science have greatly simplified many aspects of previously tedious tasks in laboratory diagnostics, creating a greater volume of routine work, and significantly improving the quality of results of laboratory testing. Following the development and successful implementation of high-quality analytical standards, analytical error...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate 2 methods of semen collection that could be used as terminal procedures in stallions with irreparable conditions, such as fractures or colic. Electroejaculation was attempted under general anesthesia. Forty-eight hours later, the ponies were castrated and 2 different epididymal sperm collection techniques were attempted by using a flushing or floating m...

OBJECTIVE to identify possible risk factors for acquisition of Enterobacterial strains with a marker for resistance to carbapenems. METHODS exploratory case-control study performed in hospital settings. The study sample consisted of patients with biological specimens that tested positive for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (cases), with the disk diffusion test and Etest, and controls ...

Microstructure reconstructions resulting from diffraction contrast tomography data of polycrystalline bulk strontium titanate were reinvestigated by means of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) characterization. Corresponding two-dimensional grain maps from the two characterization methods were aligned and compared, focusing on the spatial resolution at the internal interfaces. The compared...