INTRODUCTION In Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL), bone marrow histology is the gold standard against which ancillary investigations such as immunophenotyping and gene rearrangement studies are interpreted. There is currently no data on the reproducibility of histological findings. This study was conducted to determine the rates of inter- and intra-observer agreement in histological detection of bone ...

PURPOSE To develop a cross-cultural Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) for the Brazilian population and analyze its validity and effectiveness. METHODS Based on the guidelines of Guillemin et al., four English teachers, an ophthalmologist, a rheumatologist, two ophthalmology residents and a native American who does not speak Portuguese were invited. The procedure followed the steps: translat...

BACKGROUND Accurate prediction of Helicobacter pylori infection status on endoscopic images can contribute to early detection of gastric cancer, especially in Asia. We identified the diagnostic yield of endoscopy for H. pylori infection at various endoscopist career levels and the effect of two years of training on diagnostic yield. METHODS A total of 77 consecutive patients who underwent end...

Objective: The exquisite bone detail offered by computed tomography makes it the ideal modality for evaluation of bone healing. However, few studies have investigated the normal computed tomographic appearance of the sternum after median sternotomy and, to the best of our knowledge, no computed tomographic classification of sternal healing has been proposed. Given the potential benefit of objec...

OBJECTIVES Nailfold videocapillaroscopy is being increasingly used as a marker of SSc-related microvascular disease, including in response to treatment. However, it requires further validation. Our aim was to assess the inter-observer, intra-observer and test-retest variability of semi-automated measurement of capillary features as well as of a manual density measurement. METHODS All capillar...

BACKGROUND The authors analyzed inter- and intra-observer agreement with respect to interpretation of simple magnetic resonance T1- and T2-weighted axial and sagittal images for the diagnosis of lumbar lateral disc herniation, including foraminal and extraforaminal disc herniations. METHODS Forty-two patients in whom lumbar lateral disc herniation was suspected or confirmed by simple magnetic...

BACKGROUND Food challenge tests are the gold standard in diagnosing food allergy. Guidelines provide scoring systems to classify symptoms during challenge and typically recommend that challenges are considered positive when objective symptoms occur. However, currently no standard criteria for the definition of a positive challenge outcome exists and interpretation of food challenges mainly depe...