Specimens were tested with quantitative PCR for presence and concentrations of male DNA presumed to derive from prior pregnancies with a male fetus.
Before receiving any new antibiotic therapy, all patients with suspected VAP underwent fiber optic bronchoscopy with a protected specimen brush and/or bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), single-sheathed blind plugged telescopic catheter specimen collection, or tracheal aspiration, with quantitative cultures of collected specimens.
In this paper, measurement accuracy and limits of flash thermography for the investigation of CFRP specimens are presented in detail together with quantitative data concerning the defects.
In addition, before starting antibiotics, diagnostic specimens were obtained using either bronchoalveolar lavage with quantitative cultures or standard endotracheal aspirates.
Assay performance for a panel of 201 specimens was compared against Sanger sequencing with resolution of discordant specimens by quantitative massively parallel pyrosequencing (MPP).
Our pilot study with 26 oral cancer patients has also recorded the significant upregulation (P<0.001) of hnRNP K mRNA compared with normal oral tissue specimens using quantitative real-time RT PCR.
Specimens with discordant results were subjected to quantitative massively parallel pyrosequencing (MPP).
Microbiological culture of BAL fluid specimens was carried out as for sputum specimens, with the exception that cultures were quantitative; plates were inoculated evenly with 10 μL of fluid, and results were reported as CFUs/mL.
Similarly, testing of BAL fluid specimens showed that quantitative PCR bacterial loads were generally higher than those obtained with quantitative culture, but BAL fluid is significantly less cellular than sputum, and would therefore be expected to be less inhibitory.
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].
