Degenerative spine disease.
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Cervical Vertebrae↗
Biomedical subjects
Yoginder K Chitkara
Publications and source records attributed to Yoginder K Chitkara.
Limited value of routine stool cultures in patients receiving antibiotic therapy.
In the laboratory investigation of suspected community acquired diarrhea, stool cultures may be ordered on patients receiving antibiotic therapy. Because many antibiotics cause profound changes in intestinal microbial flora, the value of these cultures is not known. To determine the effect of concurrent antibiotic therapy on results of routine stool cultures in the isolation of enteropathogens, a retrospective analysis of fecal cultures submitted during a 14-month period was performed. Of 930 specimens from 856 patients, there were 236 samples (25.4%)from 223 patients (26.1%) receiving antibiotics. Of these, 198 cultures (83.9%)from 186 patients (83.4%) receiving antibiotic therapy showed no growth on all media or growth of only gram-positive organisms. None of these specimens revealed enteropathogens. The results of this study demonstrate that there is little value in culturing of stools of patients receiving antibiotics. Significant cost savings can be realized by elimination of these cultures.
Adolescent↗
Evaluation of initial and deeper sections of esophageal biopsy specimens for detection of intestinal metaplasia.
There are wide variations in the preparation of histologic sections from endoscopic esophageal biopsy specimens. We evaluated serial step sections from 261 esophageal or gastroesophageal junction biopsies at 4 levels to determine the first level at which goblet cell metaplasia (GCM) was detected. Deeper step sections of 152 paraffin blocks also were obtained to determine whether additional sections are useful in detecting GCM not seen in initial levels. GCM was identified in 95.3% of blocks in 3 levels. GCM was seen at level 4 in 12 blocks (4.7%). In the blocks that did not reveal intestinal metaplasia in the initial 4 levels, deeper sections disclosed GCM in only 1 (0.8%) of 120 blocks. However, deeper sections revealed initially undetected GCM in 4 of 32 blocks from patients with a history of documented Barrett esophagus. We conclude that 4 levels of step sections are adequate in routine processing of esophageal biopsy specimens for demonstration of GCM. Deeper sections may be obtained for patients with known Barrett esophagus to better evaluate for dysplasia or find additional foci of GCM.
Biopsy↗