Swab Culture is Inaccurate Test for Determining Tonsillitis

A fascinating study came out in June 2017 that compared the bacteria found on the tonsil surface by swab versus bacteria found within a core needle biopsy versus bacteria found within the dissected tonsil's core. The take home finding is that a swab culture poorly identifies the bacteria causing recurrent tonsillitis . Based on 54 children who underwent tonsillectomy , researchers performed a swab, needle biopsy, and core dissection of all tonsils removed. Culture results obtained from…

6/28/2017 0

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How Accurate is Food Allergy Testing by Blood vs Skin Prick?

A great new allergy research paper came out in Jan 2014 comparing the accuracy of skin prick versus blood testing for food allergies. In summary, skin prick edges out blood testing in terms of accuracy, however mainly in terms of specificity. Sensitivity of both methods of testing is pretty comparable. However, blood testing tends to give more false-positives (test says you are allergic when you really aren't) compared to skin prick. Blood testing may be more convenient and may prov…

1/20/2015 0

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Hearing Test Administered Over the Phone

I was just made aware of this service in a Washington Post article published May 16, 2014. This screening hearing test is taken over the telephone and accomplished by listening to three-digit sequences presented in a background of white noise. The test-taker has to then enter the digits using the telephone keypad. Based on accuracy of the response, the test than adjusts the next query. Normally, the cost to take this telephone hearing test is $8, but at least for the month of May 2014, it …

5/18/2014 0

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Accurate Hearing Testing Using an iPhone

There is an iPhone app called " EarTrumpet " that apparently can provide accurate hearing testing... almost as good as a professionally administered test ( conventional audiometry ) and certainly as good (if not better) than medical-quality automated testing machines (ie Otogram ). Created with the assistance of the ENT department at the University of California, Irvine... According to one study , this iPhone application provided results as good as one administered by an audiol…

9/22/2013 0

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At Home Allergy Testing

Recently, a new at-home allergy test can be found on store shelves throughout the United States as well as Amazon.com . It is called " MyAllergyTest " produced by ImmuneTech Corporation and it is FDA approved. The way it works is that you place a few drops of blood into the collection kit which is than mailed to a lab in a pre-paid, pre-addressed envelope. Results are than obtained via internet or by certified mail in about one week. What's tested? Only ten things (IgE only…

6/08/2013 0

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Needle Biopsy of Thyroid Masses Misidentifies 50% of Thyroid Cancers!

Surgeons at the University of Wisconsin found that fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) in 26 of 52 FNAB reported as benign (50.0%) turned out to be either neoplastic (22) or malignant (4) on final pathologic analysis after thyroidectomy . Among patients with nondiagnostic FNAB results, the risk of malignant neoplasms was 27.3%. Even for smaller thyroid masses , FNAB is still not 100% accurate with a falsely negative rate of around 10% . Why is that? Well, one must keep in mind that the…

7/26/2009 0

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