Medscape Pathology & Lab Medicine Headlines

RT-PCR Sentinel Lymph Node Assay Comparable to Cytology for Detection of Breast Cancer

Fri, 6 Nov 2009 14:48:12 EST

Real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing of sentinel lymph nodes during surgery compares well with intraoperative cytology in detecting breast cancer metastases.
Medscape Medical News

Pathologists Should Be Wary of Contracts for Interpretation Services

Fri, 6 Nov 2009 10:43:01 EST

Pathologists who contract with small nonpathology practices for their services in interpreting pathology reports should be aware that some of these contracts might be illegal.
Medscape Medical News

Adequate Cervical Tissue Sample Required to Assess p16 Positivity

Fri, 6 Nov 2009 08:31:35 EST

Cervical tissue samples that are too small are not appropriate to assess for p16 positivity; the use of the p16 assay on limited samples could lead to the overdiagnosis of endocervical cancer.
Medscape Medical News

MRI-Detected Suspicious Breast Lesions: Predictive Values of Kinetic Features Measured by Computer-Aided Evaluation

Fri, 6 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST

Computer-aided evaluation programs developed for breast MRI provide automated image processing and kinetic analysis and are increasingly used in clinical practice. But how useful are they?
American Journal of Roentgenology

Status of State Electronic Disease Surveillance Systems -- United States, 2007

Fri, 6 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST

This study, a first look at the status of implementation of state electronic disease surveillance systems, hints there is considerable room for improvement.
Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report

Analysis of the Efficacy of Treatment With Peginterferon Alpha-2a and Ribavirin in Patients Coinfected With Hepatitis B Virus And Hepatitis C Virus

Fri, 6 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST

Investigators examined the virologic features of patients coinfected with HBV and HCV and the efficacy of combination therapy with peginterferon alpha-2a and ribavirin in these patients.
Liver International

Meningococcal Vaccines: A Neglected Topic in Travel Medicine?

Fri, 6 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST

Awareness of the risk for meningococcal disease among travelers is generally poor, even though case fatality rates are high and the disease can be fatal within 24 hours.
Expert Review of Vaccines

U.S. States, Counties Struggle to Deliver H1N1 Shots

Fri, 6 Nov 2009 11:58:01 EST

States and counties will be struggling to vaccinate people against the swine flu pandemic well into December and January -- long after the first peak of the virus in the United States, officials said on Wednesday.
Reuters Health Information

New Highly Virulent Strain of Vancomycin-Resistant MRSA Carries High Mortality Rate

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 11:42:19 EST

Patients with USA600 strain-positive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia were at 5 times the risk of dying as those with other strains, and were vancomycin-resistant.
Medscape Medical News

Repeat FISH Testing of Breast Tissue Not Cost-Effective for Her-2/neu Determination

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 11:12:36 EST

Universal fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) testing of breast tissue does not identify breast cancers better than immunohistochemistry testing, but does increase costs.
Medscape Medical News

Exploring Genetic Susceptibility to Autism: An Expert Interview With Hakon Hakonarson, MD, PhD

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 10:55:18 EST

Dr. Hakon Hakonarson reviews the latest findings on genetic susceptibility to autism spectrum disorders and discusses what impact they might have on clinical practice in the future.
Medscape Genomic Medicine

Low Factor V Levels Signal Poor Prognosis With Hepatitis B-Induced Acute Liver Failure

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 10:33:15 EST

Factor V level on day 3 of hospitalization was strongly associated with survival in HBV-associated acute liver failure, with levels of 0% to 10% among those who died and 7% to 25% for survivors.
Medscape Medical News

Lymphoma Vaccine Trial: One Step Forward in Long Trek

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST

This article discusses the results from the trial for BiovaxID, a vaccine for follicular lymphoma, which were presented at this year's ASCO annual meeting.
Journal of the National Cancer Institute

Predicting Clinically Unrecognized Coronary Artery Disease: Use of Two-Dimensional Echocardiography

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST

Is two-dimensional echocardiography useful in predicting clinically unrecognized coronary artery disease? This article provides an answer.
Cardiovascular Ultrasound

Pegylated Interferon Alpha-2b (Peg-IFN alpha-2b) Affects Early Virologic Response Dose-Dependently in Patients With Chronic Hepatitis C Genotype 1 During Treatment With Peg-IFN Alpha-2b Plus Ribavirin

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 08:32:46 EST

This study sought to evaluate how reducing drug doses affects complete early virologic response (c-EVR), defined as hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA negativity at week 12.
Journal of Viral Hepatitis

Serum BLyS/BAFF Predicts the Outcome of Acute Hepatitis C Virus Infection

Fri, 6 Nov 2009 13:04:30 EST

This study examined serum levels of BLyS/BAFF in patients with acute hepatitis C (AHC) and sought to correlate them with disease outcome.
Journal of Viral Hepatitis

Very Early Bone Marrow Transplant Best for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 11:52:58 EST

Most infants with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) do well with related donor marrow transplants, researchers report. However, those transplanted in the first few months of life tend to have even better survival rates, fewer clinical problems, less need for booster transplants, and better nutritional status.
Reuters Health Information

Physicians Are Talking About: A Death Foretold

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 11:14:29 EST

Would you operate on a patient who experienced a premonition of death? Is this a contraindication surgery? Medscape Physician Connect members discuss whether to ignore or heed premonitions.
Medscape Family Medicine

Many Common Loci Associated With Early- and Adult-Onset Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 10:42:12 EST

Colonic expression of interleukin-27 is lower in patients with Crohn's disease than in normal control subjects.
Medscape Medical News

In Mycosis Fungoides, Immunophenotypes May Vary Between Skin and Blood

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 08:35:05 EST

T-cell immunophenotype of mycosis fungoides involving the skin varies from that involving the blood in more than half the cases of this cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.
Medscape Medical News