In comparison with the more widely used hand-digitization of wing landmarks (e.g. [ 12, 14]) the WINGMACHINE approach has the advantage of great speed, both in handling the specimens, and recovering quantitative information from them.
We used a comprehensive list of tissue specimens and highly quantitative miRNA assays to identify several groups of miRNAs that had specific expression in certain tissues, and examined the expression of their predicted target genes in the same tissue types from public microarray database.
In accordance, a comparison of breast cancer patient specimens using immunostaining and quantitative RT-PCR showed that EpCAM and CK19 mRNA levels vary considerably (> 10-fold and > 10-fold, respectively) in primary tumors, and that certain tumors cannot contain high or low levels of both markers simultaneously [ 34].
DNA was extracted from swabs or skin biopsy specimens and tested by quantitative PCRs (qPCRs) (13 ) specific for a fragment of the citrate synthase A gene, which is conserved among spotted fever group rickettsiae, or the gene coding periplasmic serine protease of O. tsutsugamushi; β-actin gene was used as a control (14 ).
To date, a diversity of PCR based methylation assays were developed and widely used to measure methylation in clinical specimens, classified as quantitative, semi-quantitative and non-quantitative techniques [ 37].
To study the correlation of bacteriology between quantitative cultures of protected specimen brush (PSB), BAL, and quantitative endotracheal aspirate (QEA) in ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) patients with treatment failure.
The data obtained were analyzed using the following statistical tests: 1) description of the demographic and clinical-pathology variables using means, medians, percentiles, ranges and standard deviations; 2) relationships between ER expression in tumor and quantitative specimen level of ESR1 methylation using Chi-square (and Fisher's exact) test.
In order to routinely detect PrPSc in specimens, reliable, quantitative and yet relatively simple protocols are necessary for its isolation.
Moreover, the availability of real-time RT-PCR technology combined with the extraction of RNA from paraffin-embedded specimens allows quantitative and accurate measurement of gene expressions [ 25, 44].
Comparative studies with 115 clinical specimens resulted in high qualitative and quantitative agreement with independent singleplex laboratory-developed tests routinely used in clinical testing.
