Objectives Diagnostic tests are traditionally compared for accuracy against a gold standard, but there is growing interest in tests (or biomarkers) used to guide treatment choices rather than specifically to diagnose. The question of whether health outcomes are better using one test or another in the same population can be answered with a randomised trial. It has been suggested that an efficien...

background: tuberculosis (tb) is an increasing public health concern worldwide. on a global scale it has a devastating impact in developing nations. genital tb, an extrapulmonary form, is not uncommon particularly in areas where pulmonary tb is prevalent. genital tb may be asymptomatic or may even masquerade as other gynaecological conditions; hence, diagnosis requires a high degree of suspicio...

Diagnosis of tuberculosis is mainly based on clinical features, histopathology, demonstration of acid fast bacilli (AFB) and isolation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from the clinical specimens. These techniques have limitations of speed, sensitivity and specificity. During the last two decades several rapid techniques for detection of early growth (5-14 days as compared to 2-8 wk with conventio...

PURPOSE To assess patient acceptance of diagnostic conventional laparoscopy and minilaparoscopy under sedoanalgesia. MATERIALS AND METHODS 120 consecutive patients undergoing diagnostic laparoscopy were enrolled prospectively in this study. Within the first week after diagnostic laparoscopy the patients were asked to answer a total of eight questions with regard to the acceptance of the proce...

The National Research Council Canada (NRC) has recently completed a project to assist the City of Montreal in determining the condition of its water and sewer system. NRC staff members reviewed available and developing diagnostic techniques for both systems, conducted experiments on non-destructive evaluation methods and provided general scientific advice during the course of the project. This ...