Viability of Plasmodium falciparum parasites in human plasma under different storage conditions.

Background And Objectives: Malaria risk deferral policies are important for mitigating the risk of transfusion-transmitted malaria and apply to all transfusable components, including plasma. While donors of plasma components are deferred for malaria risk in the United States, the viability of intraerythrocytic Plasmodium falciparum parasites present in human plasma components stored under different temperatures and durations has not been previously reported.

Materials And Methods: We spiked human plasma with a low level of ring-stage P.

Diabetic Macular Oedema - Patient Characteristics and the Reality of Treatment in a German University Hospital.

Background: Diabetic macular oedema (DME) is associated with significant loss of visual acuity. Intravitreal VEGF inhibitor injection is the gold standard in treating this disease; second-line treatment consists of intravitreal steroid injections. This treatment has already undergone extensive investigation in large randomised controlled trials.

A social information processing perspective on social connectedness.

Social connectedness (SC) is one of the most important predictors for physical and mental health. Consequently, SC is addressed in an increasing number of studies, providing evidence for the multidimensionality of the construct, and revealing several factors that contribute to individual differences in SC. However, a unified model that can address SC subcomponents is yet missing.

2-[18F]F-p-aminobenzoic acid specifically detects infective endocarditis in positron emission tomography.

Background: To the present day infective endocarditis (IE) represents a life-threatening disease with high mortality rate especially when caused by Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), the most common causative pathogen in this disease. Diagnosis of IE is based on clinical manifestations, pathogen detection by blood cultures and echocardiographic or other imaging findings.

Real-world data on tolerability of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with rheumatoid arthritis based on patient-reported outcomes.

Objectives: To assess tolerability of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with RA and controls based on patient-reported outcomes (PROs).

Methods: In total, 266 study participants were included at 6 ± 1 weeks after their second vaccination (BioNTech/Pfizer (72.2%), AstraZeneca (18.