S100B blood level measurement to exclude cerebral lesions after minor head injury: the multicenter STIC-S100 French study.

Background: S100B protein measurement in blood is proposed to exclude the presence of computed tomography (CT) lesions after minor head injury (MHI). We aimed to validate S100B as an accurate and valuable screening tool for MHI diagnosis in a large multicenter study, as well as: 1) to evaluate whether a second S100B blood level determination 3 h after the first one would be informative; 2) to compare the bioclinical performances of the two commercially available automated methods of measurement of S100B for the screening of patients.

Methods: Four thousand and thirty MHI subjects were enrolled in a prospective observational multicenter study; results for serum S100B measurement determined within 3 h after the clinical event (H0) then at H3 were compared to that of cranial CT scans performed with 6 h following the presentation to emergency department.

[Two adult cases of influenza A/H1N1v virus pneumonia hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit of the Reims University Medical Centre].

During the 2009-2010 winter season, the new pandemic influenza A/H1N1 virus (S-OIV) was responsible for 1,334 hospitalized severe infection cases including 312 (23.4%) deaths in metropolitan France. In the Champagne-Ardenne area (north eastern) this new epidemic strain was detected in the respiratory samples of 14 severe S-OIV infection cases resulting in 5 deaths.

Epidemiological investigation and typing of Candida glabrata clinical isolates by FTIR spectroscopy.

Candida glabrata has emerged as one of the leading agents of fungal infections and strain typing is essential for epidemiological investigation that is generally achieved by molecular techniques. In this work, we studied twenty-nine C. glabrata strains isolated from different patients, using a phenotypic approach based on Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, which has been in a previous study successfully applied as a rapid typing method for Candida albicans.

Surgery for mesenteric infarction: prognostic factors associated with early death within 72 hours.

Objective: The aim of this study was to look for preoperative and postoperative prognostic factors for early mortality, likely to be of use to clinicians in decision making.

Design: Prospective multicenter study.

Setting: This study was conducted in 4 university hospitals in Northeast France.