ABSTRACT
The core content for a medical specialty outlines the scope of the discipline as well as the categories of knowledge considered essential to practice in the field. It provides a template for the development of curricula for medical school, graduate, and postgraduate education, as well as for creating certification standards. Venous and Lymphatic Medicine (VLM) is a specialty that has benefitted from contributions from specialists from several medical disciplines. Optimally, the societies, boards, and residency review committees representing these disciplines would uniformly recognize the scope of VLM to develop education and assessment standards to allow training and identification of qualified practitioners. In order to inform the standard setting bodies and other stakeholders of the current scope of VLM, a task force of VLM experts from cardiology, dermatology, emergency medicine, general surgery, interventional radiology, vascular medicine, and vascular surgery was formed to revise a 2014 consensus document defining the core content of the specialty of VLM.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: One of the challenges of the recent pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza outbreak was to differentiate the virus from seasonal influenza when confronting clinical cases. The determination of the virus has implications on treatment choice, and obvious epidemiologic significance. OBJECTIVES: We set out to apply a novel electrochemical device to samples derived from clinical cases of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza to examine the ability of the device to differentiate these samples from cases of seasonal influenza. PATIENTS/METHODS: An IRB approved protocol allowed for the use of original nasal wash samples from 24 confirmed human cases pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza. Clinical samples from cases of seasonal influenza (Influenza A/H1N1, A/H3N2, and B) were included as controls. Nucleic acids were extracted and samples examined by the ElectraSense Influenza A assay (CombiMatrix, Inc). Samples were also examined by RT-PCR or Luminex assays as a comparator. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The ElectraSense Influenza A assay correctly identified 23 of 24 samples of laboratory-confirmed pandemic (H1N1) 2009 Influenza. The assay correctly identified all samples of influenza A/H1N1 and A/H3N2, and differentiated these from pandemic (H1N1) 2009 Influenza in all cases. The ElectraSense Influenza A assay proved to be a useful assay to quickly and accurately differentiate pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza from seasonal influenza.
Subject(s)
Clinical Laboratory Techniques/methods , Electrochemical Techniques/methods , Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype/classification , Influenza A Virus, H3N2 Subtype/classification , Influenza, Human/diagnosis , Influenza, Human/virology , Humans , Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype/isolation & purification , Influenza A Virus, H3N2 Subtype/isolation & purification , Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction/methods , Sensitivity and SpecificityABSTRACT
Gastric syphilis in the setting of HIV is rare in the literature with only one other case reported. Herein, we present a case of a 40-year-old HIV-infected man with gastric syphilis. Evaluation revealed a rapid plasma reagin (RPR) of 1:2056, and cerebrospinal fluid with evidence of neurosyphilis. An esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) was performed revealing nodular masses, which resolved after appropriate therapy with penicillin.
