Sputum smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis: Is sputum smear examination required to discontinue airborne precautions?
Nearly half of patients for whom a sputum smear examination was performed had a negative sputum direct examination but a positive culture. According to the literature, those patients are still likely to be contagious. This questions the safety of discontinuing airborne precautions in this situation. We also observed a great disparity in physicians' behaviors. Only half of them waited to get a negative sputum direct examination before discontinuing airborne precautions.
The Notch signaling pathway is important in maintaining the pancreatic CSC population and is a potential therapeutic target in pancreatic cancer.