Persistent infection with high-risk types of human papillomaviruses (HPV) is a major cause of cervical cancer, and an important factor in other malignancies, for example, head and neck cancer. Despite recent progress in screening and vaccination, the incidence and mortality are still relatively high, especially in low-income countries. The mortality and financial burden associated with the treatment could be decreased if a simple, rapid, and inexpensive technology for HPV testing becomes available, targeting individuals for further monitoring with increased risk of developing cancer. Commercial HPV tests available in the market are often relatively expensive, time-consuming, and require sophisticated instrumentation, which limits their more widespread utilization. To address these challenges, novel technologies are being implemented also for HPV diagnostics that include for example, isothermal amplification techniques, lateral flow assays, CRISPR-Cas-based systems, as well as microfluidics, paperfluidics and lab-on-a-chip devices, ideal for point-of-care testing in decentralized settings. In this review, we first evaluate current commercial HPV tests, followed by a description of advanced technologies, explanation of their principles, critical evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses, and suggestions for their possible implementation into medical diagnostics.

• MeSH
• Papillomavirus Infections * complications   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Human Papillomavirus Viruses MeSH
• Uterine Cervical Neoplasms * MeSH
• Papillomaviridae genetics   MeSH
• Technology MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Review MeSH

The development of methods for measuring blood pressure (BP) in newborns and small children has a rich history. Methods for BP measuring in adults had to be adapted to this age group. For measuring BP in direct invasive way, a suitable approach had to be found to access the arterial circulation through the umbilical and later radialis artery. Currently, results obtained from direct invasive BP measurement are considered the "gold standard". The development of non-invasive methods for BP measuring in newborns and children began with the use of von Basch's sphygmomanometer (1880). In 1899, Gustav Gärtner constructed the device, which was the basis for the flush method. After the discovery of the palpation and auscultation methods, these methods were also used for BP measurement in newborns and children, however, the BP values obtained in these ways were typically underestimated using excessively wide cuffs. From the auscultation method, methods utilizing ultrasound and infrasound to detect arterial wall movement and blood flow were later developed. The oscillometric method for BP measurement was introduced by E. J. Marey so early as in 1876. In 1912, P. Balard used the oscillometric technique to measure blood pressure in a large group of newborns. Through different types of oscillometers using various methods for detecting vascular oscillations (such as xylol method, impedance and volume plethysmography, etc.), the development has continued to assessment of vascular oscillations by modern sensor technology and software. For continuous non-invasive blood pressure measurement, the volume-clamp method, first described by Jan Peňáz in 1968, was developed. After modification for use in newborns, application of the cuff to the wrist instead of the finger, it is primarily used in clinical physiological studies to evaluate beat-to-beat BP and heart rate pressure variability, such as in the determination of the baroreflex sensitivity.

• MeSH
• Arterial Pressure * MeSH
• Arteries MeSH
• Child MeSH
• Adult MeSH
• Infant MeSH
• Blood Pressure MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Blood Pressure Determination * methods   MeSH
• Infant, Newborn MeSH
• Fingers MeSH
• Check Tag
• Child MeSH
• Adult MeSH
• Infant MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Infant, Newborn MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

An immunosensor for the assay of toxic biological warfare agents is a biosensor suitable for detecting hazardous substances such as aflatoxin, botulinum toxin, ricin, Shiga toxin, and others. The application of immunosensors is used in outdoor assays, point-of-care tests, as a spare method for more expensive devices, and even in the laboratory as a standard analytical method. Some immunosensors, such as automated flow-through analyzers or lateral flow tests, have been successfully commercialized as tools for toxins assay, but the research is ongoing. New devices are being developed, and the use of advanced materials and assay techniques make immunosensors highly competitive analytical devices in the field of toxic biological warfare agents assay. This review summarizes facts about current applications and new trends of immunosensors regarding recent papers in this area.

• MeSH
• Biological Warfare Agents MeSH
• Biosensing Techniques * MeSH
• Botulinum Toxins * MeSH
• Immunoassay methods   MeSH
• Ricin * MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Review MeSH

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly virulent infection that has caused a pandemic since 2019. Early diagnosis of the disease has been recognized as one of the important approaches to minimize the pathological impact and spread of infection. Point-of-care tests proved to be substantial analytical tools, and especially lateral flow immunoassays (lateral flow tests) serve the purpose. In the last few years, biosensors have gained popularity. These are simple but highly sensitive and accurate analytical devices composed from a selective molecule such as an antibody or antigen and a sensor platform. Biosensors would be an advanced alternative to current point-of-care tests for COVID-19 diagnosis and standard laboratory methods as well. Recent discoveries related to point-of-care diagnostic tests for COVID-19, the development of biosensors for specific antibodies and specific virus parts or their genetic information are reviewed.

• MeSH
• Biosensing Techniques * MeSH
• COVID-19 * diagnosis   MeSH
• Immunoassay MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Antibodies, Viral MeSH
• SARS-CoV-2 MeSH
• Sensitivity and Specificity MeSH
• COVID-19 Testing MeSH
• Point-of-Care Systems MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Review MeSH

C-reactive protein (CRP) is an important part of the immune system's reaction to various pathological impulses such as bacterial infections, systemic inflammation, and internal organ failures. An increased CRP level serves to diagnose the mentioned pathological states. Both standard laboratory methods and simple point-of-care devices such as lateral flow tests and immunoturbidimetric assays serve for the instrumental diagnoses based on CRP. The current method for CRP has many flaws and limitations in its use. Biosensor and bioassay analytical devices are presently researched by many teams to provide more sensitive and better-suited tools for point-of-care tests of CRP in biological samples when compared to the standard methods. This review article is focused on mapping the diagnostical relevance of CRP, the applicability of the current analytical methods, and the recent innovations in the measurement of CRP level.

• MeSH
• C-Reactive Protein * analysis   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Point-of-Care Testing * MeSH
• Sensitivity and Specificity MeSH
• Point-of-Care Systems MeSH
• Inflammation diagnosis   MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Review MeSH

The specificity of a diagnostic assay depends upon the purity of the biomolecules used as a probe. To get specific and accurate information of a disease, the use of synthetic peptides in diagnostics have increased in the last few decades, because of their high purity profile and ability to get modified chemically. The discovered peptide probes are used either in imaging diagnostics or in non-imaging diagnostics. In non-imaging diagnostics, techniques such as Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), lateral flow devices (i.e., point-of-care testing), or microarray or LC-MS/MS are used for direct analysis of biofluids. Among all, peptide-based ELISA is considered to be the most preferred technology platform. Similarly, peptides can also be used as probes for imaging techniques, such as single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET). The role of radiolabeled peptides, such as somatostatin receptors, interleukin 2 receptor, prostate specific membrane antigen, αβ3 integrin receptor, gastrin-releasing peptide, chemokine receptor 4, and urokinase-type plasminogen receptor, are well established tools for targeted molecular imaging ortumor receptor imaging. Low molecular weight peptides allow a rapid clearance from the blood and result in favorable target-to-non-target ratios. It also displays a good tissue penetration and non-immunogenicity. The only drawback of using peptides is their potential low metabolic stability. In this review article, we have discussed and evaluated the role of peptides in imaging and non-imaging diagnostics. The most popular non-imaging and imaging diagnostic platforms are discussed, categorized, and ranked, as per their scientific contribution on PUBMED. Moreover, the applicability of peptide-based diagnostics in deadly diseases, mainly COVID-19 and cancer, is also discussed in detail.

• MeSH
• COVID-19 diagnosis   virology   MeSH
• Databases, Factual MeSH
• Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay methods   MeSH
• Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon methods   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Peptides analysis   MeSH
• Positron-Emission Tomography methods   MeSH
• Receptors, Somatostatin MeSH
• SARS-CoV-2 isolation & purification   MeSH
• Tandem Mass Spectrometry methods   MeSH
• COVID-19 Testing methods   MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Review MeSH

Chlorophyll fluorescence kinetic analysis has become an important tool in basic and applied research on plant physiology and agronomy. While early systems recorded the integrated kinetics of a selected spot or plant, later systems enabled imaging of at least the slower parts of the kinetics (20-ms time resolution). For faster events, such as the rise from the basic dark-adapted fluorescence yield to the maximum (OJIP transient), or the fluorescence yield decrease during reoxidation of plastoquinone A after a saturating flash, integrative systems are used because of limiting speed of the available imaging systems. In our new macroscopic and microscopic systems, the OJIP or plastonique A reoxidation fluorescence transients are directly imaged using an ultrafast camera. The advantage of such systems compared to nonimaging measurements is the analysis of heterogeneity of measured parameters, for example between the photosynthetic tissue near the veins and the tissue further away from the veins. Further, in contrast to the pump-and-probe measurement, direct imaging allows for measuring the transition of the plant from the dark-acclimated to a light-acclimated state via a quenching analysis protocol in which every supersaturating flash is coupled to a measurement of the fast fluorescence rise. We show that pump-and-probe measurement of OJIP is prone to artifacts, which are eliminated with the direct measurement. The examples of applications shown here, zinc deficiency and cadmium toxicity, demonstrate that this novel imaging platform can be used for detection and analysis of a range of alterations of the electron flow around PSII.

• MeSH
• Arabidopsis cytology   metabolism   MeSH
• Brassicaceae cytology   drug effects   metabolism   MeSH
• Chlorophyll chemistry   metabolism   MeSH
• Equipment Design MeSH
• Fluorescence MeSH
• Microscopy, Fluorescence instrumentation   methods   MeSH
• Photosynthesis MeSH
• Glycine max cytology   drug effects   metabolism   MeSH
• Kinetics MeSH
• Plant Leaves cytology   MeSH
• Mesophyll Cells metabolism   MeSH
• Plastoquinone metabolism   MeSH
• Zinc metabolism   MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH

GOAL: To evaluate the analytical parameters of a lateral flow (LF) pepsin immunoassay (Peptest) and assess its suitability in the diagnostics of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). BACKGROUND: Peptest is a noninvasive assay to analyze pepsin in saliva, intended for use in GERD diagnostics. Although commercialized, fundamental studies on its performance are missing. The assay therefore requires basic analytical parameter evaluation to assess its suitability in clinical practice. STUDY: Assay reaction's time dependence, reader device repeatability, and individual LF devices and longitudinal pepsin concentration reproducibility in individual subjects was evaluated. Salivary pepsin was analyzed in 32 GERD patients with extraesophageal reflux symptoms and 13 healthy individuals. RESULTS: The assay's signal increase is not completed at the recommend readout time and continues to increase for another 25 minutes. The relative standard deviation of measurement was good when using the same LF device, ranging from 2.3% to 12.9%, but the reproducibility of 10 different individual LF devices was poor. The random error when analyzing the same saliva sample on 10 LF devices was as high as 36 ng/mL and this value is thus suggested as the positivity cut-off. Pepsin concentration in individual subjects during a 10-day period varied significantly. The sensitivity of the Peptest was 36.8% in the group with acid reflux and 23.1% in the group with weakly acid reflux. The specificity was 61.5%. CONCLUSIONS: The Peptest assay's sensitivity and specificity is low, the results are highly variable and it should not be used as a near-patient diagnostic method in primary care.

• MeSH
• Adult MeSH
• Gastroesophageal Reflux diagnosis   MeSH
• Immunoassay * MeSH
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Adolescent MeSH
• Young Adult MeSH
• Pepsin A metabolism   MeSH
• Reproducibility of Results MeSH
• Aged MeSH
• Sensitivity and Specificity MeSH
• Saliva metabolism   MeSH
• Check Tag
• Adult MeSH
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Adolescent MeSH
• Young Adult MeSH
• Male MeSH
• Aged MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Evaluation Study MeSH

• MeSH
• Cardiovascular Diseases MeSH
• Heart Diseases MeSH
• Publication type
• Monograph MeSH

• Conspectus
• Patologie. Klinická medicína
• NML Fields
• kardiologie

Aspergily jsou ubikvitní houby, které u vnímavých jedinců mohou způsobit závažná onemocnění. Nejčastěji infikovaným orgánem jsou plíce. Závažnost onemocnění je závislá na stupni invaze houby do plicní tkáně, ta stoupá úměrně s rozvojem imunodeficitu pacienta. Invazivitu procesu prokáže jednoznačně pouze histologické vyšetření vzorku infikované plicní tkáně. Klasické mykologické metody detekují mikroskopickými nebo kultivačními technikami přítomnost houby ve vyšetřovaných vzorcích z dýchacích cest. Dále je možné prokázat v séru nebo bronchoalveolární tekutině specifický aspergilový antigen galaktomanan a nespecifický beta-D-glukan. Detekce protilátek proti aspergilům má přínos pouze u chronických forem onemocnění. V článku se autorka zabývá přínosem jednotlivých mykologických vyšetřovacích metod v diagnostice různých forem plicní aspergilózy.

Aspergillus are ubiquitous fungi that can cause serious illnesses in susceptible individuals. The most commonly infected organ is the lungs. The severity of the disease depends on the degree of the invasion of the lung tissue by fungi, which rises proportionally with the development of immunodeficiency. The only way to clearly determine the degree to which the lungs have been invaded is to carry out a histological examination of a sample of the infected tissue. Conventional mycological methods can detect the presence of the fungus in samples from a patient's airways by using microscopy or culture techniques. Furthermore, it is possible to determine the presence of the specific Aspergillus antigen, galactomannan, and of non-specific beta-D-glucan in the serum or bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. The detection of antibodies against Aspergillus is only relevant for chronic forms of the disease. This article discusses the benefits of different mycological examination methods in the diagnosis of various forms of pulmonary aspergillosis.

• Keywords
• galaktomanan, lateral flow device,
• MeSH
• Aspergillus classification   pathogenicity   MeSH
• beta-Glucans analysis   MeSH
• Chromatography, Affinity methods   MeSH
• Culture Techniques MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Lipopolysaccharides blood   MeSH
• Mycological Typing Techniques MeSH
• Lung anatomy & histology   MeSH
• Pulmonary Aspergillosis * diagnosis   pathology   MeSH
• Sensitivity and Specificity MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Publication type
• Overall MeSH