A Pre-Protocol/Post-Protocol Quality Improvement Initiative Specific to One Hospital for Security of Pathologic Specimen

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to reduce errors in a pathologic specimen with the help of a protocol systematizing the pathology specimen management process in the operating room.Materials and methodThis quasi-experimental study was carried out in the operating room unit of a research and training hospital. A protocol systematizing the process of specimen management in secure surgical pathology and prepared in light of the current literature was used as an intervention, and the effectiveness of the protocol was tested.ResultsIt was determined that the rate of adverse events decreased from .3226% (68 of 21,078) to .032% (6 of 18,706) after the protocol systematizing the surgical pathology specimen management process prepared by the researchers, and the protocol was found to be effective by 90% (P = .03).ConclusionBased on the data obtained in this study, we recommend the use of a pathologic specimen management protocol in the operating room.     

Correcting forensic DNA errors

DNA mixture interpretation can produce opposing conclusions by qualified forensic analysts, even within the same laboratory. The long-delayed publication of the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) study of 109 North American crime laboratories in this journal demonstrates this most clearly. This latest study supports earlier work that shows common methods such as the Combined Probability of Inclusion (CPI) have wrongly included innocent people as contributors to DNA mixtures. The 2016 President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology report concluded, “In summary, the interpretation of complex DNA mixtures with the CPI statistic has been an inadequately specified—and thus inappropriately subjective—method. As such, the method is clearly not foundationally valid” [7]. The adoption of probabilistic genotyping by many laboratories will certainly prevent some of these errors from occurring in the future, but the same laboratories that produced past errors can also now review old cases with their new software—without additional bench work. It is critical that laboratories adopt procedures and policies to do this.     

Rotavirus,vaccine failure or diagnostic error?

Immunochromatography (ICG) is highly used in clinical settings for rotavirus (RV) diagnosis. The specificity of the tests differs by brand type and is not 100%, therefore its use when the prevalence of the disease is low (i.e. in vaccinated children) may result in a proportion of false positive diagnoses.In some areas, vaccine effectiveness studies or surveillance is done using ICG. Our objective was to estimate the validity of ICG test in vaccinated children, and estimate the number of false positive results in the Valencian Region of Spain, where all RV infections are diagnosed using ICG and are not confirmed by PCR.Population based registries were used to identify all results from the RV antigen tests performed between January 2008 and June 2012 in children under 37 months. Hospitalization and vaccination status of the patients were obtained by linking different databases through a unique identification number. The Positive Predictive Value of the ICG test depending on the vaccination status of the child, hospitalization and the rotavirus season was estimated by a Bayesian model of latent classes.Of the 48,833 tests with valid results, 9429 were done in vaccinated children, and of those 3963 (42%) during the rotavirus season. The prevalence of positive results in vaccinated varied from 2.9 to 21.4% of the tests depending on the hospitalization and seasonality. The estimated PPV also varied from 27.1 to 84.6% when stratified by these two parameters. Globally it is calculated that approximately 267 out of the 520 (51.3%) positives in vaccinated children were false positive tests.The large percentage of false positives, due to an excessive number of tests in vaccinated and out of the RV season, if interpreted as vaccine failures, can cause a loss of confidence in the vaccine and lower the estimates of vaccine effectiveness.     

Timing deficits in apraxia of speech

Summary This paper deals with a particular aspect of speech motor control in patients suffering from apraxia of speech. Three experiments are reported concerning the phase relations between individual speech gestures. These include the timing of laryngeal, velar and labial movements relative to lingual gestures.A total of 8 patients and 12 normal controls were examined using speech material which was designed according to appropriate phonetic paradigms. Evaluation was performed on the basis of speech signal parameters referring to the kinematics of inter-articulatory phasing. Deviations of the patient group were found in all three experiments. This suggests that disturbed phase relations of individual speech movements are a general feature of apraxic speech. It is further hypothesized that the described motor symptoms are the origin of a variety of phonemic errors. Support for this view is provided by appropriate examples which refer to the examined paradigms. By this argument, much of the disturbed phonemic structure of apraxic speech may be accounted for by timing deficits.     

99Tcm-DMSA肾皮质显像诊断小儿肾发育不良

目的 探讨^99Tc^m—二巯基丁二酸(DMSA)肾皮质显像诊断小儿肾发育不良的价值。方法 疑为肾发育不良患儿29例，行常规^99Tc^m—DMSA肾皮质显像和腹部B超检查。图像分析：将发育不良肾分为0～4级。结果 ^99Tc^m—DMSA肾皮质显像示29例患儿中24例为单侧肾发育不良，其中11例1级，7例2级，6例3级，余5例患肾未显影为0级，结合其他：检查诊断为肾发育不良。患肾分肾功能为0～24．9％(平均6．3％)。29例患儿中24例患肾肾皮质显像诊断为肾发育不良，5例患肾未显影，由其他影像学方法确诊，诊断灵敏度为82．76％。29例中19例经手术治疗，病理检查证实为肾发育不良。结论 ^99Tc^m—DMSA肾皮质显像诊断肾发育不良灵敏度高、可靠，可确定发育不良肾部位和判断肾功能。     

不典型性脑膜瘤52例CT诊断分析

回顾性分析了22例少见部位的脑膜瘤，22例CT表现不典型及8例CT误诊脑膜瘤的CT表现，以确定脑膜瘤不典型表现与CT误诊的关系。结果显示脑膜瘤的CT误诊多数缘于经验不足与疏忽，少数为极不典型表现所致。若检查全面、阅片仔细．术前CT定性率可由90％提高至96．25％。