The aim of this study was to assess costs and safety of immediate femoral sheath removal and closure with a suture-mediated closure device (Perclose, Menlo Park, CA) in patients undergoing elective (PCI). A total of 193 patients was prospectively randomized to immediate arterial sheath removal and access site closure with a suture-mediated closure device (SMC; n = 96) or sheath removal 4 hr aft...

We report a case of severe hemolytic anemia following Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection in a 29-year-old male patient who was treated with azithromycin. Direct Coombs' test was strongly positive and the cold agglutinin titer was high, with anti-I specificity. Antimycoplasma antibody titer by complement fixation was high 1:10,240. The patient was discharged after 12 days of hospitalization in good...

The. inbred NZB/BL mouse has been shown by Bielschowsky, Helyer, and Howie (1959) to develop auto-immune haemolytic anaemia spontaneously, and this disorder has been considered to be genetically determined (Holmes and Burnet, 1966). Burnet and Holmes (1962) described a characteristic thymic change in this 'auto-immune' strain of mice; and certain renal lesions have been noted (Holmes and Burnet...

BACKGROUND Psoriasis is associated with high treatment costs due to the increasing use of biologic drugs. Phototherapy has been demonstrated to be safe and cost effective for the treatment of psoriasis, although it is limited by the requirement for patients to visit a hospital various times a week. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the efficiency of home-based phototherapy with narrow-band UV-B radiatio...

The discovery of several new blood-group systems within recent years and the development of new techniques for the detection of antibodies have shown that the time-honoured methods for the direct matching of blood preparatory to transfusion are inadequate and may be dangerously fallacious. Tests in an albumin medium and the use of the indirect Coombs test are the most reliable methods so far de...

Eighty clinical specimens of BACTEC 9240 blood culture vials, culture positive for staphylococci (38 Staphylococcus aureus and 42 coagulase negative staphylococci), were tested directly for the presence of clumping factor/protein A and free coagulase. Seven commercial slide agglutination kits were compared with a direct-tube coagulase (DTC) method. All tests were performed on blood culture pell...

The present study aimed to determine the cost of childhood pneumococcal infections under 5 years of age and to provide further data for future health economy studies. Electronic medical records of children diagnosed with meningitis caused by S. pneumoniae and all-cause pneumonia, and acute otitis media (AOM) between January 2013-April 2014 were retrospectively evaluated. Direct costs for the tr...

Determination of serum immunoglobulin levels in NZB and normal mice has indicated that an elevation of the gammaM-globulin level occurs in NZB mice. This can be demonstrated in young NZB mice well before other autoimmune manifestations are observed. A slight elevation of gammaM-globulin was also observed in NZB hybrid mice. Erythrocyte autoantibodies were analyzed by the direct Coombs' test wit...

BACKGROUND North American Chinese women have lower levels of Papanicolaou (Pap) testing than other population subgroups. We conducted a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of two alternative cervical cancer screening interventions for Chinese women living in North America. METHODS Four hundred and eighty-two Pap testing underutilizers were identified from community-based...