ChatGPT vs Medical Professional: Analyzing Responses to Laboratory Medicine Questions on Social Media.

BACKGROUND: The integration of ChatGPT, a large language model (LLM) developed by OpenAI, into healthcare has sparked significant interest due to its potential to enhance patient care and medical education. With the increasing trend of patients accessing laboratory results online, there is a pressing need to evaluate the effectiveness of ChatGPT in providing accurate laboratory medicine information. Our study evaluates ChatGPT's effectiveness in addressing patient questions in this area, comparing its performance with that of medical professionals on social media. METHODS: This study sourced patient questions and medical professional responses from Reddit and Quora, comparing them with responses generated by ChatGPT versions 3.5 and 4.0. Experienced laboratory medicine professionals evaluated the responses for quality and preference. Evaluation results were further analyzed using R software. RESULTS: The study analyzed 49 questions, with evaluators reviewing responses from both medical professionals and ChatGPT. ChatGPT's responses were preferred by 75.9% of evaluators and generally received higher ratings for quality. They were noted for their comprehensive and accurate information, whereas responses from medical professionals were valued for their conciseness. The interrater agreement was fair, indicating some subjectivity but a consistent preference for ChatGPT's detailed responses. CONCLUSIONS: ChatGPT demonstrates potential as an effective tool for addressing queries in laboratory medicine, often surpassing medical professionals in response quality. These results support the need for further research to confirm ChatGPT's utility and explore its integration into healthcare settings.

Maturational changes in the regulation of pulmonary vascular tone by nitric oxide in neonatal rats.

Nitric oxide (NO) is an important regulator of vasomotor tone in the pulmonary circulation. We tested the hypothesis that the role NO plays in regulating vascular tone changes during early postnatal development. Isolated, perfused lungs from 7- and 14-day-old Sprague-Dawley rats were studied. Baseline total pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) was not different between age groups. The addition of KCl to the perfusate caused a concentration-dependent increase in PVR that did not differ between age groups. However, the nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor N(omega)-nitro-L-arginine augmented the K(+)-induced increase in PVR in both groups, and the effect was greater in lungs from 14-day-old rats vs. 7-day-old rats. Lung levels of total endothelial, inducible, and neuronal NOS proteins were not different between groups; however, the production rate of exhaled NO was greater in lungs from 14-day-old rats compared with those of 7-day-old rats. Vasodilation to 0.1 microM of the NO donor spermine NONOate was greater in 14-day lungs than in 7-day lungs, and lung levels of both soluble guanylyl cyclase and cGMP were greater at 14 days than at 7 days. Vasodilation to 100 microM of the cGMP analog 8-(4-chlorophenylthio)guanosine-3',5'-cyclic monophosphate was greater in 7-day lungs than in 14-day lungs. Our results demonstrate that the pulmonary vascular bed depends more on NO production to modulate vascular tone at 14 days than at 7 days of age. The observed differences in NO sensitivity may be due to maturational increases in soluble guanylyl cyclase protein levels.