The Clinical Effectiveness of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccines: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae is responsible for approximately 1.6 million yearly deaths worldwide. An up-to-date evidence base on the effects of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) on infectious diseases and mortality in any population or setting regardless of age or health status is currently lacking.

Utility of procalcitonin, C-reactive protein and white blood cells alone and in combination for the prediction of clinical outcomes in community-acquired pneumonia.

Background: The added value of biomarkers, such as procalcitonin (PCT), C-reactive protein (CRP), and white blood cells (WBC), as adjuncts to clinical risk scores for predicting the outcome of patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is in question. We investigated the prognostic accuracy of initial and follow-up levels of inflammatory biomarkers in predicting death and adverse clinical outcomes in a large and well-defined cohort of CAP patients.

Methods: We measured PCT, CRP and WBC on days 1, 3, 5, and 7 and followed the patients over 30 days.

Optimizing triage and hospitalization in adult general medical emergency patients: the triage project.

Background: Patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) currently face inacceptable delays in initial treatment, and long, costly hospital stays due to suboptimal initial triage and site-of-care decisions. Accurate ED triage should focus not only on initial treatment priority, but also on prediction of medical risk and nursing needs to improve site-of-care decisions and to simplify early discharge management. Different triage scores have been proposed, such as the Manchester triage system (MTS).