The concept of "brain death" was introduced to medicine in the second half of the 20th century, when technological advancements began to allow sustaining cardiorespiratory functioning of the body in the absence of brain function. Although physicians generally agree that a patient can be declared brain dead when the loss of brain function is total and irreversible, different approaches have been...

Methods. Various laboratory tests were implemented in our lab, as screening or confirmatory tests, some in studies some as a routine diagnostic test, such are: Agglutinations tests: Rose Bengal test (RBT), Slide Agglutinations test, Standard tube test (SAT), Wright test, Antihuman globulin test (Coombs); 2-Mercaptoethanol test (2 ME); Complement fixation test (CFT); Indirect enzyme immunoassay ...

We review theoretical studies on the synthesis of the neutron from the hydrogen atom in the core of stars; we outline tests conducted in the 1960s on the laboratory synthesis of the neutron by C. Borghi and his collaborators; we outline the confirmatory tests conducted in the 1990s by R.M. Santilli; and we present new tests apparently confirming that neutrons can be synthesized in laboratory fr...

The effectiveness of confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) and item response theory (IRT) methods of assessing measurement invariance were investigated using simulated data with a known lack of invariance. Across all study conditions, IRT likelihood ratio (LR) tests consistently outperformed both CFA and IRT differential functioning of items and tests (DFIT) analyses in terms of detecting a lack o...

Multiparametric confirmatory tests for documentation of brain death were studied from a 24-year-old subject with clinically defined brain death after severe head injury. The importance of transorbital ultrasound Doppler sonographic measurements is discussed.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE The cost-effectiveness of clinical interventions is often assessed using current care as the comparator, with national guidelines as a proxy. However, this comparison is inadequate when clinical practice differs from guidelines, or when clinical practice differs between hospitals. We examined the degree of variation in the way patients with a recent transient ischemic a...

The screening Rose Bengal test (RBT), the buffered plate agglutination test (BPAT), and the confirmatory complement fixation test (CFT) are currently approved by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) for diagnosis of goat brucellosis. However, RBT (at 3% or 8% cell concentration) is known to be affected by vaccinal antibodies. In the present study, Mexican and Canadian OIE tests were c...

Currently, the second- and third-generation enzyme immunoassays (EIA-2 and EIA-3) for hepatitis C virus antibody (anti-HCV) are the most practical screening tests for the diagnosis of HCV infection. The need for and the choice of supplementary or confirmatory tests depend on the clinical setting and the likelihood of a true-positive EIA result. Detection of HCV RNA in serum by polymerase chain ...

BACKGROUND Diagnosis of primary aldosteronism (PA) begins with aldosterone-to-renin ratio (ARR) measurement followed by confirmative tests. However, the ARR has high false positive rates which led to unnecessary confirmatory tests. Captopril challenge test (CCT) has been used as one of confirmatory tests, but the accuracy of it in the diagnosis of PA is still controversial. We aimed to examine ...

BACKGROUND Prenatal human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing is essential for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission. However, false-positive results of screening testing are a concern as they may cause unnecessary emotional stress to pregnant women waiting for confirmatory test results. In regions with an extremely low prevalence, the positive predictive values of screening are unacc...