BACKGROUND Appendicitis is the most common surgical emergency in children; yet, diagnosis of equivocal presentations continues to challenge clinicians. AIM The objective of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that the use of a modified clinical practice and harmonic ultrasonographic grading scores (MCPGS) may improve the accuracy in diagnosing acute appendicitis in the pediatric popu...

Within the context of screening tests, it is important to avoid misconceptions about sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values. In this article, therefore, foundations are first established concerning these metrics along with the first of several aspects of pliability that should be recognized in relation to those metrics. Clarification is then provided about the definitions of sensitivit...

conclusions the analytical sensitivity of lamp and pcr methods, using the designed primers, was 8 times more than any other reported methods. the designed methods are specific and sensitive for detection of h. pylori in different clinical and environmental samples. results the detection limits of the lamp and pcr assay were similar and were 10 fg of pure dna of h. pylori, which is equal to 6 co...

conclusions using tzpsad as an adjunct to psa may improve the specificity of psa in the diagnosis of pca and decrease the number of unnecessary prostatic biopsies in iranian men with serum psa level < 20 ng/ml. results among 1120 men who were eligible for enrolment, prostate cancer was detected in 265 patients. mean serum psa levels were 9.7 ± 4.3 ng/ml and 8.5 ± 3.7 ng/ml in patients with and ...

Methods A randomly selected and representative sample of 234 Portuguese GPs completed the Work Package 4 questionnaire of the ODHIN Project. GPs’ attitudes were measured with the Shortened Alcohol and Alcohol Problems Perception Questionnaire (SAAPPQ). Principal component and hierarchical cluster analysis were conducted to define the optimal group number. Final GP classification was achieved wi...