BACKGROUND Despite extensive literature, the diagnostic role of d-dimer for deep venous thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE) remains unclear, reflecting multiple d-dimer assays and concerns about differing sensitivities and variability. PURPOSE To systematically review trials that assessed sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, and variability among d-dimer assays. DATA SOURCES...

Demonstration of autoimmune antiphospholipid antibodies (aPA) to negatively charged phospholipids (PL) in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) requires the presence of certain phospholipid-binding plasma proteins, eg, beta 2-glycoprotein I. We found a requirement for plasma against the electrically neutral or zwitterionic phospholipid, phosphatidylethanolamine (PE). Two of these PE-bind...

Mycobacteria use the dedicated type VII protein secretion systems ESX-1 and ESX-5 to secrete virulence factors across their highly hydrophobic cell envelope. The substrates of these systems include the large mycobacterial PE and PPE protein families, which are named after their characteristic Pro-Glu and Pro-Pro-Glu motifs. Pathogenic mycobacteria secrete large numbers of PE/PPE proteins via th...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Cerebral vein thrombosis (CVT) is a type of venous thromboembolism. Whether the risk of pulmonary embolism (PE) after CVT is similar to the risk after deep venous thrombosis (DVT) is unknown. METHODS We performed a retrospective cohort study using administrative data from all emergency department visits and hospitalizations in California, New York, and Florida from 2005...

OBJECTIVE Angiogenic factors are strongly associated with adverse maternal and fetal outcomes among women with preterm preeclampsia (PE) in developed countries. We evaluated the role of angiogenic factors and their relationship to adverse outcomes among Haitian women with PE. MATERIAL AND METHODS We measured plasma antiangiogenic soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (sFlt1) and proangiogenic pl...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not patients with pectus excavatum (PE) exhibit costal cartilage overgrowth compared to normal subjects. MATERIALS AND METHODS The computed tomography acquisitions of 32 patients with PE and 35 normal controls were analyzed. On axial images the length of the 4th-7th costal cartilages was measured to calculate the Haller index. Th...

BACKGROUND The presence of pericardial effusion (PE) is considered to be suggestive of inflammation in suspected myocarditis. However, the incremental value of assessing for PE in addition to comprehensive cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging remains unclear. METHODS In total, 132 patients with suspected acute (AMC) or chronic myocarditis (CMC) were included. All patients underwent endomy...

BACKGROUND vAcute pulmonary embolism (PE) is a life threatening disease. The treatment options depend on the severity of the disease and the mortality varies widely depending on the severity of the condition. It is important to identify patients who are at high risk of mortality. The aim of the present study was to explore the prognostic alues of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platele...

STUDY OBJECTIVES Indications for thrombolysis in normotensive patients with pulmonary embolism (PE), based on the presence of right ventricular (RV) overload during transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), are controversial. We checked whether the monitoring of cardiac troponin T (cTnT) might help in risk stratification by detecting patients with RV myocardial injury. PATIENTS AND DESIGN We stud...

High-sensitivity troponin (hs-cTn) assays enable the troponin cutoff value to be lowered, resulting in an increase of sensitivity at the cost of specificity. In the present study, the risk of a short-term adverse outcome was assessed in patients with acute pulmonary embolism (PE) using high-sensitivity troponin I (hs-cTnI). We used a cutoff value of 0.1 ng/ml in accordance with current guidelin...