January-February, 2006

Diagnostic Article:

Sauerland U, Becker H, Seidel M, Schotte H, Willeke P, Schorat A, et al. Clinical utility of the anti-CCP assay: experience with 700 patients [pdf]

Pro: What are the strengths of this article dealing with diagnostic accuracy? Con: What are the weaknesses of this article dealing with diagnostic accuracy? Question to be answered: Is the anti-CCP assay better than other assays for the diagnosis of RA?

Prognostic Article:

Handra-Luca A, Lamas G, Bertrand JC. MUC1, MUC2, MUC4, and MUC5AC expression in salivary gland mucoepidermoid carcinoma: diagnostic and prognostic significance. Am J Surg Pathol 2005;29:881-889 [pdf]

Only focus on the prognostic aspects of this article. Pro: What are the strengths of the prognostic portion of this article? Con: What are the weaknesses of the prognostic portion of this article? Question to be answered: How should MUC immunoperoxidase staining be used in pathology practice?

Systematic Review Article:

Roy PM, Colombet I, Durieux P, Chatellier G, Sors H, Meyer G. Systematic review and meta-analysis of strategies for the diagnosis of suspected pulmonary embolism. Br Med J 2005;331:259-268 [pdf]

How are different articles summarized? Pro: What are the strengths of this systematic review? Con: What are the weaknesses of this systematic review? Question to be answered: How should d-dimer be best used in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism?

Therapeutic Article:

Rock G, Anderson D, Clark W, Leblond P, Palmer D, Sternbach M, et al. Does cryosupernatant plasma improve outcome in TTP? No answer yet [pdf]

Pro: What are the strengths of this therapeutic article? Con: What are the weaknesses of this therapeutic article? Question to be answered: Should cryopoor plasma be used in the apheresis treatment of TTP?

BIOINFORMATICS:

The protein atlas [www.proteinatlas.org]

Teach the group how to use this bioinformatics resource used at times by proteomics researchers.