Publications by authors named "Andre Becker"

The acute respiratory failure as well as ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) have challenged clinicians since the initial description over 50 years ago. Various causes can lead to ARDS and therapeutic approaches for ARDS/ARF are limited to the support or replacement of organ functions and the prevention of therapy-induced consequences. In recent years, triggered by the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen, numerous cases of acute lung failure (C-ARDS) have emerged.

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Introduction Acute otitis media (AOM) is a common condition of children encountered in general practice. A proportion of children develop otitis media with effusion (OME), which may require tympanostomy and ventilation tube insertion. Aim The aim of the study was to compare the incidence of AOM in Māori and New Zealand (NZ) European children in general practice and the referral practices to secondary care for tympanostomy and ventilation tube insertion.

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Interhospital transport of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) patients bears transport-associated risks. It is unknown how interhospital extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) transfer of COVID-19 patients by mobile ECMO units affects ARDS mortality. We compared the outcome of 94 COVID-19 patients cannulated in primary care hospitals and retrieved by mobile ECMO-teams to that of 84 patients cannulated at five German ECMO centers.

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There is ongoing debate whether lung physiology of COVID-19-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) differs from ARDS of other origin. : The aim of this study was to analyze and compare how critically ill patients with COVID-19 and Influenza A or B were ventilated in our tertiary care center with or without extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). We ask if acute lung failure due to COVID-19 requires different intensive care management compared to conventional ARDS.

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Campylobacteriosis is still the most commonly reported zoonosis in the European Union causing gastrointestinal disease in humans. One of the most common sources for these food-borne infections is broiler meat. Interactions between (.

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Background: Early prognostication of COVID-19 severity will potentially improve patient care. Biomarkers, such as TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), interferon gamma-induced protein 10 (IP-10), and C-reactive protein (CRP), might represent possible tools for point-of-care testing and severity prediction.

Methods: In this prospective cohort study, we analyzed serum levels of TRAIL, IP-10, and CRP in patients with COVID-19, compared them with control subjects, and investigated the association with disease severity.

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has drastically increased the number of patients requiring extracorporeal life support. We investigate the efficacy and safety of low-dose recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (rtPA) injection into exhausted oxygenators to delay exchange in critically ill COVID-19 patients on veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (V-V ECMO). Small doses of rtPA were injected directly into the draining section of a V-V ECMO circuit.

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Statements that naturally cured meat products may contain lower residual nitrite levels compared to classical variants led to a closer examination of emulsion-type sausage products in this study, where the input of nitrate from plant extracts (red beet and Swiss chard) was adjusted to typical input levels of nitrite from nitrite curing salt (0.5% NaNO). The investigations showed that an incubation period of 150 min at 38 °C was necessary to complete the microbial reduction process of nitrate to nitrite and that residual nitrite contents of naturally cured sausages were comparable to the conventionally cured variant, regardless of the nitrate source.

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represents a high risk in food and can trigger potentially fatal listeriosis. The objective of this study was to detect in food using the LAMP method in a fast, specific, sensitive manner and thus to preventively test food for the presence of the target species. The reaction was performed and established using the portable real-time fluorometer Genie II (OptiGene Ltd.

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The generation of memory is a cardinal feature of the adaptive immune response, involving different factors in a complex process of cellular differentiation. This process is essential for protecting the second encounter with pathogens and is the mechanism by which vaccines work. Epigenetic changes play important roles in the regulation of cell differentiation events.

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Background: Despite numerous advances in the identification of risk factors for the development of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), factors that promote recovery from COVID-19 remain unknown. Natural killer (NK) cells provide innate immune defense against viral infections and are known to be activated during moderate and severe COVID-19. Killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) mediate NK cell cytotoxicity through recognition of an altered MHC-I expression on infected target cells.

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A loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay system was established, allowing gene-based simultaneous detection of and in enriched meat products. Additionally, one-step differentiation of target species on agar plates was enabled by gene- and gene-based duplex LAMP. Both the and - LAMP assays amplified the target sequences in all 62 and 27 strains used for determining inclusivity and revealed 100% exclusivity toward 85 tested non-target species.

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Background: In 2020, a novel coronavirus caused a global pandemic with a clinical picture termed COVID-19, accounting for numerous cases of ARDS. However, there are still other infectious causes of ARDS that should be considered, especially as the majority of these pathogens are specifically treatable. .

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Background: It has been suggested that COVID-19-associated severe respiratory failure (CARDS) might differ from usual acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) due to failing autoregulation of pulmonary vessels and higher shunt. We sought to investigate pulmonary hemodynamics and ventilation properties in patients with CARDS compared to patients with ARDS of pulmonary origin.

Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data from consecutive adults with laboratory-confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 patients treated in our ICU in 04/2020 and a comparison of the data to matched controls with ARDS due to respiratory infections treated in our ICU from 01/2014 to 08/2019 for whom pulmonary artery catheter data were available.

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Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) is a means to support patients with acute respiratory failure. Initially, recommendations to treat severe cases of pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with ECLS have been restrained. In the meantime, ECLS has been shown to produce similar outcomes in patients with severe COVID-19 compared to existing data on ARDS mortality.

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Background: Effective antimicrobial treatment is key to reduce mortality associated with bacterial sepsis in patients on intensive care units (ICUs). Dose adjustments are often necessary to account for pathophysiological changes or renal replacement therapy. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is increasingly being used for the treatment of respiratory and/or cardiac failure.

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The aim of this cross-sectional study was to characterise the usage of antibiotic and non-antibiotic drugs with a withdrawal period in German veal calves in more detail. In Germany, the documentation of the usage of veterinary medicinal products in food producing animals is mandatory. In the German monitoring system antibiotic use in calves under the age of eight months is recorded irrespective of the production type and only some basic measures (50 % and 75 % percentiles of the entire distributions of the treatment frequencies) are published regularly.

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This study investigated the effects of sous vide cooking at temperatures between 50 °C and 60 °C on the inactivation kinetics of Listeria (L.) monocytogenes. Nutrient broth and minced game meat (Capreolus capreolus and Sus scrofa) were inoculated with three strains of L.

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Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common cause of childhood lower respiratory tract infections. The recent failure of a vaccine candidate based on recombinant F protein underlines the urgent need to better understand the protective human memory immune response against RSV. Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) protein is a transcription factor that promotes the maturation of the memory CD8 T cell response in cooperation with IL-10 and IL-21.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to assess the safety of the probiotic strain Bacillus toyonensis BCT-7112T, focusing on its potential to produce harmful enterotoxins (Hbl and Nhe) typically associated with foodborne illness.
  • Expression levels of enterotoxin genes in B. toyonensis were found to be significantly lower than in reference strains of B. cereus, indicating reduced risk.
  • The findings suggest that B. toyonensis BCT-7112T is likely safer for consumption than B. cereus due to its lower potential to produce harmful enterotoxins, providing insights for evaluating the health safety of probiotics.
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Background: Sarcoidosis is a systemic disease of unknown etiology. The disease mechanisms are largely speculative and may include the role microbial patterns that initiate and drive an underlying immune process. The aim of this study was to characterize the microbiota of the lung of patients with sarcoidosis and compare its composition and diversity with the results from patients with other interstitial lung disease (ILD) and historic healthy controls.

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In the present study 12 Arcanobacterium phocae strains isolated from fur animals in Finland, including foxes, minks and Finnraccoons, could successfully be identified phenotypically, by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) and genotypically by sequencing 16S rDNA and phocaelysin (PHL) encoding gene phl. The PHL of all 12 A. phocae strains in the present study and reference strains A.

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Carcasses of wild animals are often visited by different scavengers. However, determining which scavenger caused certain types of bite marks is particularly difficult and knowledge thereof is lacking. Therefore, a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay (target sequence cytochrome b) was developed to detect red fox DNA in carcasses of harbour porpoises.

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Background: Trueperella pyogenes is a worldwide known bacterium causing mastitis, abortion and various other pyogenic infections in domestic animals like ruminants and pigs. In this study we represent the first case report of three unusual fatal infections of Grey Slender Lorises caused by Trueperella pyogenes. Meanwhile, this study represents the first in-depth description of the multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) on T.

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