Voriconazole shows promise as an effective alternative to conventional antifungals in the treatment of ScA keratitis. It is available both as oral and intravenous preparations, which is a great advantage in these lengthy infections.

We evaluated the analytical performance of the Immulite 2000 immunoassay analyzer (Diagnostic Products Corporation, Los Angeles, USA) based on a new detection technology, electrochemical luminescence. The evaluated analytes were thyrotropin, triiodothyronine, free thyroxine, follitropin, lutropin, prolactin, cortisol, estradiol and progesterone. We tested the assay precision, linearity, recovery, and correlation with comparison methods for these analytes. For most assays, within-run and between-day imprecisions were less than 8% and 10%, respectively. The linearity and recovery were acceptable for all assays. The correlation between the Immulite 2000 assays and comparison methods showed satisfactory results.

We recommend obtaining baseline liver function tests before starting risperidone and regular monitoring to screen patients for liver damage during therapy whenever a patient is also receiving fluoxetine.

We evaluated the analytical performance and diagnostic utility of complexed prostate-specific antigen (CPSA) and their ratios, complexed-to-total PSA (C/T PSA) and free-to-complexed PSA (F/C PSA), in comparison with the total PSA (TPSA) and free-to-total PSA ratio (F/T PSA) as means of diagnosing prostate cancer (PC). Samples (n=101) were drawn from men with no evidence of malignancy (n=80) and from men with PC (n=21) at biopsy. For determination of the F/T PSA ratio, the DPC Immulite-2000 method was used; and the Bayer Immuno-1 CPSA and TPSA assays were used to determine the C/T PSA ratio. The Bayer Immuno-1 CPSA assay provides accurate and precise CPSA values in human serum. The performance of the different forms and ratios was compared using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. CPSA had the greatest area under the curve (AUC, 0.689) although it was not statistically different from the other parameters. A cut-off value of 4.66 ng/ml for CPSA provided a specificity of 38% and a sensitivity of 93%. The F/C PSA ratio maintained a sensitivity of 93% and had an increased specificity of 41%. The measurement of CPSA provides a slight increase in specificity compared with the use of the TPSA in the early detection of prostate cancer.

No abstract