1,803,426 research outputs found
Reducing Malaria Misdiagnosis: The Importance of Correctly Interpreting Paracheck Pf® "Faint Test Bands" in a Low Transmission Area of Tanzania.
Full text linkAlthough malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) have been extensively evaluated since their introduction in the early 1990's, sensitivity and specificity vary widely limiting successful integration into clinical practice. This paper reviews specific issues surrounding RDT use in field settings and presents results of research investigating how to interpret "faint test bands" on ParaCheck Pf® in areas of low transmission in order to reduce malaria misdiagnosis.\ud
A multi-phase cross-sectional study was conducted at a remote hospital in the northern Tanzanian highlands. Capillary blood samples were taken from consenting participants (n = 319) for blood smear and ParaCheck Pf® testing. Primary outcome variables were sensitivity, specificity and proportion misdiagnosed by ParaCheck Pf® and local microscopy. ParaCheck Pf® "faint bands" were classified as both true positives or true negatives during evaluation to determine appropriate clinical interpretation. Multivariate logistic regression adjusted for age and gender was conducted to determine odds of misdiagnosis for local microscopy and ParaCheck Pf®. Overall, 23.71% of all ParaCheck Pf® tests resulted in a "faint band" and 94.20% corresponded with true negatives. When ParaCheck Pf® "faint bands" were classified as positive, specificity was 75.5% (95% CI = 70.3%-80.6%) as compared to 98.9% (95% CI = 97.0%-99.8%) when classified as negative. The odds of misdiagnosis by local microscopy for those > 5 years as compared to those ≤ 5 years are 0.370 (95% CI = 0.1733-0.7915, p = 0.010). In contrast, even when ParaCheck Pf® faint bands are considered positive, the odds of misdiagnosis by ParaCheck Pf® for those > 5 years as compared to those ≤ 5 years are 0.837 (95% CI = 0.459-1.547, p = 0.5383). We provide compelling evidence that in areas of low transmission, "faint bands" should be considered a negative test when used to inform clinical decision-making. Correct interpretation of RDT test bands in a clinical setting plays a central role in successful malaria surveillance, appropriate patient management and most importantly reducing misdiagnosis
bioinfo-pf-curie/QUARTIC: version-1.0
No full textThis release includes version-1.0 from both mpiBWA and mpiSORT:
https://github.com/bioinfo-pf-curie/mpiBWA
https://github.com/bioinfo-pf-curie/mpiSOR
PF-06651600, a Dual JAK3/TEC Family Kinase Inhibitor
No full textPF-06651600 was developed
as an irreversible inhibitor of JAK3
with selectivity over the other three JAK isoforms. A high level of
selectivity toward JAK3 is achieved by the covalent interaction of
PF-06651600 with a unique cysteine residue (Cys-909) in the catalytic
domain of JAK3, which is replaced by a serine residue in the other
JAK isoforms. Importantly, 10 other kinases in the kinome have a cysteine
at the equivalent position of Cys-909 in JAK3. Five of those kinases
belong to the TEC kinase family including BTK, BMX, ITK, RLK, and
TEC and are also inhibited by PF-06651600. Preclinical data demonstrate
that inhibition of the cytolytic function of CD8+ T cells
and NK cells by PF-06651600 is driven by the inhibition of TEC kinases.
On the basis of the underlying pathophysiology of inflammatory diseases
such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, alopecia
areata, and vitiligo, the dual activity of PF-06651600 toward JAK3
and the TEC kinase family may provide a beneficial inhibitory profile
for therapeutic intervention
- …
