These doctors were asked what choice they believe they would make for their own affected infant. Comparison of responses from 1999 and 2007 showed no difference in the responses of cardiologists: 1999 (44 % surgery, 17 % palliative treatment, 40 % uncertain) versus 2007 (45 % surgery, 20 % palliative
treatment, 35 % uncertain). Among surgeons, there was a non-statistically significant trend away from choosing surgery: 1999 (77 % surgery, 5 % palliative PD-L1 inhibitor treatment, 18 % uncertain) versus 2007 (56 % surgery, 8 % palliative treatment, 36 % uncertain). In conclusion, these analyses suggest that despite improving surgical outcomes, doctors are no more likely to predict that they would choose surgery for their own hypothetical infant with HLHS. Further research is needed
to determine what factors influence choice making in the care of infants with HLHS.”
“SETTING: Although considerable effort has been put into the development and evaluation NVP-HSP990 order of new diagnostics for tuberculosis (TB) and multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), little attention has thus far been paid to the technical aspects of initiating quality-assured routine service use. For implementation of the microscopic-observation drug susceptibility (MODS) methodology in the Peruvian reference laboratory network, a laboratory accreditation process was devised; MODS results from an expert reference laboratory (Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia [UPCH]) were used as the standard against which implementing laboratory MODS results were judged to ensure that, prior to use for patient care, implementing laboratories achieved the same high performance with MODS as previously demonstrated in the research laboratory.
OBJECTIVE:
To evaluate the validity of MODS-based accreditation and the concordance of MODS drug susceptibility testing (DST) with molecular testing.
DESIGN: Head-to-head comparison of MODS DST results from implementing Peruvian regional reference laboratories and the accrediting expert MODS laboratory (UPCH) with GenoType (R) MTBDRplus DST.
RESULTS: The concordance of phenotypic MODS rifampicin (RMP) DST with GenoType MTBDRplus was respectively 97.4%, 97.9% and 97.1% for the two implementing regional laboratories and UPCH, and MDV3100 respectively 94.7%, 95.7% and 94.6% for isoniazid (INH) DST. CONCLUSION: High and consistent levels of MODS/MTBDRplus concordance for INH and RMP DST confirm the validity of the use of rapid methods as reference standards for accreditation.”
“The objective of this study was to compare histopathological changes in hypoplastic left heart syndrome right ventricles (RV) of patients undergoing Sano and modified Blalock-Taussig (MBT) shunt and correlate them with echocardiographic findings. Myocardial tissue samples were obtained from hearts with Sano or MBT shunts after transplantation or at autopsy. Histologic sections were reviewed manually and by automated digital image analysis.