Practice guidelines from the American Academy of Neurology for the determination of brain death in adults define brain death as "the irreversible loss of function of the brain, including the brainstem." Neurological determination of brain death is primarily based on clinical examination; if clinical criteria are met, a definitive confirmatory test is indicated. The apnea test remains the gold s...

Bullet Points The 2008 WHO Classification of Acute Leukemia requires the use of clinical information, morphology, immunophenotyping, cytogenetics and molecular genetics for proper diagnosis and classification Morphology remains essential as the starting point for diagnosis and for directing the ordering of appropriate ancillary studies Proper diagnosis requires evaluation of all data and may re...

When a randomized controlled trial has missing outcome data, any analysis is based on untestable assumptions, e.g. that the data are missing at random, or less commonly on other assumptions about the missing data mechanism. Given such assumptions, there is an extensive literature on suitable methods of analysis. However, little is known about what assumptions are appropriate. We use two sources...

In this brief review, the role of various ancillary techniques to detect malignancy in effusion fluid are evaluated and discussed. The data were collected from a large number of research articles published in various medical journals. The role of these techniques to increase the diagnostic accuracy in serous effusions is emphasised.

AIMS To assess the diagnostic accuracy of lymph node fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology to distinguish reactive lymphoid hyperplasia from malignant lymphoma, and to evaluate the contribution of ancillary techniques applied to cytological material. METHODS Two hundred and seventy seven consecutive lymph node FNA specimens reported to be consistent with reactive lymphoid hyperplasia (n = 213...

BACKGROUND Tremor is the most prevalent movement disorder in clinical practice. It is defined as involuntary, rhythmic, oscillatory movements. The diagnostic process of patients with tremor can be laborious and challenging, and a clear, systematic overview of available diagnostic techniques is lacking. Tremor can be a symptom of many diseases, but can also represent a distinct disease entity. ...

BACKGROUND Wide variations exist in healthcare expenditures, though most prior studies have assessed aggregate utilization. We sought to examine healthcare utilization variation in New York State by assessing hospitals in peer groups of similar capabilities. METHODS Using charge data in New York State from the 2008 Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) and cost-to-charge...

In risk analysis there is a spatial mismatch of hazard data that are commonly modelled on an explicit raster level and exposure data that are often only available for aggregated units, e.g. communities. Dasymetric mapping techniques that use ancillary information to disaggregate data within a spatial unit help to bridge this gap. This paper presents dasymetric maps showing the population densit...