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Biomedical subjects

D Ferguson

Publications and source records attributed to D Ferguson.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Costs and outcomes of PAPNET secondary screening technology for cervical cytologic evaluation. A community hospital's experience.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effectiveness of and costs associated with semiautomated rescreening of Papanicolaou smears with negative findings at a community hospital. DESIGN: A prospective study of 1200 Papanicolaou smear slides with negative findings using the PAPNET screening system (Neuromedical Systems, Incorporated, Suffern, NY). SETTING: Community hospital laboratory. PATIENTS: Patients with negative findings on Papanicolaou smears who agreed to have their smears reviewed using PAPNET. INTERVENTIONS: None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Results of rescreening and resources involved in processing the PAPNET review. RESULTS: Screening with PAPNET identified 8 patients with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) that were not diagnosed on initial screening, yielding a false-negative rate in our laboratory of 0.7% for ASCUS. No low- or high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions were identified. Based on our laboratory processing 6000 Papanicolaou smears a year, at $19 per slide, it would cost our laboratory $102,600 for PAPNET review of all smears with negative findings. In contrast, the estimated cost to have another cytotechnologist review all such smears manually would cost $11,977. The rate of changed diagnoses in the PAPNET group was similar to the rate in our standard rescreening of 10% of all smears with negative findings. Mean turnaround time for a PAPNET screen was 13.9 days, compared with 3.9 days for manual review. CONCLUSIONS: For a laboratory with a low percentage of smears with abnormal findings, a quality cytotechnologist and pathologist, and required quality assurance standards in place, PAPNET may not improve appreciably the pick-up rate for missed cervical lesions, and may add significantly to the cost and turnaround time of cytologic evaluation of cervical smears.

Carcinoma, Squamous Cell↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Inhibitors of HIV protease: unique non-peptide active site templates.

New templates were designed and prepared which straddle the active site of HIV-1 protease. These templates were designed to be "flexible scaffolds' upon which substituents could be appended to fill the pockets of HIV protease. The new templates prepared and analysed were 4-hydroxy-5H-furan-2-ones, 4-hydroxy-5,6-dihydropyrones, 3-hydroxy-cyclohex-2-enones, and 4-hydroxy-2(1H)-pyridinones, of which the 4-hydroxy-5,6-dihydropyrones were found to be the most potent inhibitors of HIV-1 protease.

Binding Sites↗