Clin Lab
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Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) are a serious problem all over the world. The present study was conducted to investigate antimicrobial resistance patterns, genotypes, clonal relationship, and virulence fac- tors of VRE species isolated from rectal swab samples of hospitalized patients, patient's relatives, and medical staff at Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical School hospital. ⋯ The identification of VRE strains to the species level and detection of virulence genes will assist in infection control practices.
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Intraosseous (IO) access is a valuable tool in prehospital locations and in emergency departments when other forms of vascular access are unavailable. Creatinine is often used for dose adjustment of drugs that may be administered through intraosseous cannulae. We aimed to study the possibility of analysing creatinine in intraosseous samples and study the accuracy and precision of such measurements. ⋯ Based on our findings intraosseous samples can be used for creatinine determination in emergency settings.
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In patients undergoing cardiac surgery, perioperative coagulopathy and the use of allogenic blood products are independently associated with increased mortality and major perioperative cardiac and non-cardiac adverse events. Hemotherapy should be based on specific hemotherapy algorithms rather than "clinical judgments". However, whether hemotherapy should be based on "classical" conventional laboratory coagulation analyses or Point-of-Care (POC) measures is discussed controversially. ⋯ Unfortunately, the studied hemotherapy--algorithms are very complex and thus hard to integrate into daily practice. In close cooperation of three German University Hospitals, the authors developed and implemented two more comprehensive and practical hemotherapy algorithms that are based on either POC measures or conventional coagulation testing. Here we present and discuss the structure and limitations of these algorithms.
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Observational Study
Aggregometric assessment of clonidine's impact on the efficacy of dual platelet inhibition.
Clonidine is commonly used as a calmative and antihypertensive agent in perioperative care. Due to the drug's alpha-2-agonistic effects, it has recently been hypothesised that clonidine may affect platelet aggregability. The present investigation aimed to study the potential impact of clonidine on the efficacy of dual antiplatelet therapy. ⋯ The results of this study indicate that clonidine does not affect platelet aggregability in patients treated with dual antiplatelet therapy. The findings of the study also indicate that ex vivo induced platelet aggregation in the ASPItest and ADPtest increases with the duration between blood drawing and MEA analyses.
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The type and frequency of E-cadherin (CDH1) germline variants in China for the early-onset diffuse gastric cancer (EODGC) has not been well established. Our study tend to screen and characterize germline variants for CDH1 gene in EODGC patients and in general population in China. ⋯ No deletions or insertions were found in the CDH1 exon boundaries. All of the variants resulted com- mon polymorphisms. CDH1 germline variants are present in EODGC patients in Chinese population, but they are mainly missense variants with unknown function which are likely associated with lymph node metastasis and OS.