Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a heritable, genetically heterogeneous disorder characterized by progressive heart failure. DCM typically remains clinically silent until adulthood, yet symptomatic disease can develop in childhood. We sought to identify the genetic basis of pediatric DCM in 15 sporadic and three affected-siblings cases, comprised of 21 affected children (mean age, five years) wh...

Reliable methods are needed to diagnose hypersensitivity pneumonitis. The aim of the study was to establish the diagnostic yield of specific inhalation challenge (SIC) in patients with hypersensitivity pneumonitis. All patients with suspected hypersensitivity pneumonitis in whom SIC was performed (n=113) were included. SIC was considered positive when patients showed a decrease of >15% in force...

AIM To determine the frequency of bleeding source detection in patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB) who underwent double balloon enteroscopy (DBE) after pre-procedure imaging [multiphase computed tomography enterography (MPCTE), video capsule endoscopy (VCE), or both] and assess the impact of imaging on DBE diagnostic yield. METHODS Retrospective cohort study using a prospec...

INTRODUCTION Transbronchial lung cryobiopsy (TBLC) is increasingly used in the diagnosis of diffuse lung disease (DLD), but no data have yet been published on the learning curve associated with this technique. AIM To evaluate diagnostic yield, lung tissue sample length and area, and procedure-related complications in a cohort of TBLC procedures to define the learning curve and threshold for p...

OBJECTIVE To determine diagnostic yield of Closed Pleural Biopsy (CPB) and Cytology in Exudative Pleural Effusion (PE). METHODS This prospective comparative study was conducted at Chest Unit-II & Medical Unit-IV of Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi Pakistan from January 2011 till December 2014. RESULTS Ninety-four patients with exudative PE were finally included. The mean age (SD) ...

BACKGROUND Previous studies have examined the spectrum of diseases identified with a kidney biopsy and the complications of the procedure. However, few studies have examined the utility of the test to clarify the diagnosis and guide treatment of pediatric patients. This retrospective, single-center chart review was performed to test the hypothesis that at least 80% of native kidney biopsies pro...

Autopsy reports of 231 adult autopsies were examined for clinically unexpected diagnoses. Analysis of data showed that 97 of 188 autopsy diagnoses were clinically unexpected. The diagnosis of pulmonary embolism was clinically the most frequently missed diagnosis relative to its actual occurrence. Also noted was that the proportion of cases with unexpected diagnoses increased from 1983 to 1987.

OBJECTIVE Closed pleural biopsy is known to be diagnostic in approximately 75% of pleural effusion undiagnosed by thoracocentesis or pleural fluid evaluation. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of closed pleural biopsy in a Saudi tertiary care teaching hospital. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the diagnostic utility of all closed pleural biopsies performed from Januar...

RATIONALE In the setting of open access endoscopy, the recognition of suggestive endoscopic features in the duodenum can select patients with probability of celiac disease (CD). This could add to the current efforts to increase the diagnostic rate of this disease. AIM The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of these markers for CD in an adult population undergoing endosc...