S100B in cardiac surgery brain monitoring: friend or foe?

Recent advances in perioperative management of adult and pediatric patients requiring open heart surgery (OHS) and cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) for cardiac and/or congenital heart diseases repair allowed a significant reduction in the mortality rate. Conversely morbidity rate pattern has a flat trend. Perioperative period is crucial since OHS and CPB are widely accepted as a deliberate hypoxic-ischemic reperfusion damage representing the cost to pay at a time when standard of care monitoring procedures can be silent or unavailable.

Using blood data for the differential diagnosis and prognosis of motor neuron diseases: a new dataset for machine learning applications.

Early differential diagnosis of several motor neuron diseases (MNDs) is extremely challenging due to the high number of overlapped symptoms. The routine clinical practice is based on clinical history and examination, usually accompanied by electrophysiological tests. However, although previous studies have demonstrated the involvement of altered metabolic pathways, biomarker-based monitoring tools are still far from being applied.

Diagnostic Mycology: Xtreme Challenges.

Developing any diagnostic assay that receives United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval can be a slow and difficult process. FDA-approved assays for fungal diagnosis are generally few in number and are focused mainly on diagnosing candidiasis, which is caused by several species of , in addition to a limited number of systemic mycotic agents. While all microbial diagnostic assays face challenges before they are FDA approved and reach the market, there are a number of challenges to fungal diagnostic assay development that have been difficult hurdles to overcome.

Correction: How Reliable Are Current Data for Assessing the Actual Prevalence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease?

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

How Reliable Are Current Data for Assessing the Actual Prevalence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease?

Background: Estimating COPD occurrence is perceived by the scientific community as a matter of increasing interest because of the worldwide diffusion of the disease. We aimed to estimate COPD prevalence by using administrative databases from a city in central Italy for 2002-2006, improving both the sensitivity and the reliability of the estimate.

Methods: Multiple sources were used, integrating the hospital discharge register (HDR), clinical charts, spirometry and the cause-specific mortality register (CMR) in a longitudinal algorithm, to reduce underestimation of COPD prevalence.

Repeated insulin-like growth factor 1 treatment in a patient with rett syndrome: a single case study.

Rett syndrome (RTT) is a devastating neurodevelopmental disorder that has no cure. Patients show regression of acquired skills, motor, and speech impairment, cardio-respiratory distress, microcephaly, and stereotyped hand movements. The majority of RTT patients display mutations in the gene that codes for the Methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2), which is involved in the development of the central nervous system, especially synaptic and circuit maturation.

Variant of Rett syndrome and CDKL5 gene: clinical and autonomic description of 10 cases.

Unlabelled: Rett syndrome (RTT) is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder affecting almost exclusively females. The Hanefeld variant, or early-onset seizure variant, has been associated with mutations in CDKL5 gene.

Aims: In recent years more than 60 patients with mutations in the CDKL5 gene have been described in the literature, but the cardiorespiratory phenotype has not been reported.

[Atrial fibrillation and thyroid nodules].

Our previous papers reported an association between atrial fibrillation and supracentimeter thyroid nodules. Recently we noticed that the number of patients admitted to our ward presenting this relationship, was higher than average data relating to whole world's population. In this study we tried to prove the existence of this association in a selected group of inpatients aged between 71 and 80.

Subcutaneous Mycoleptodiscus indicus infection in an immunosuppressed dog.

An 8-year-old dog presented with several dermal excoriations. Lesion cytology revealed pyogranulomatous inflammation with branching, septate hyphae. A mold identified as Mycoleptodiscus indicus by morphology and sequencing was cultured from fine-needle aspirates.

Sequence-based identification of filamentous basidiomycetous fungi from clinical specimens: a cautionary note.

The species-level identification of sterile and/or arthroconidium-forming filamentous fungi presumed to be basidiomycetes based upon morphological or physiological features alone is usually not possible due to the limited amount of hyphal differentiation. Therefore, a reliable molecular approach capable of the unambiguous identification of clinical isolates is needed. One hundred sixty-eight presumptive basidiomycetes were screened by sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and D1/D2 ribosomal DNA regions in an effort to obtain a species identification.

Beauveria keratitis and biopesticides: case histories and a random amplification of polymorphic DNA comparison.

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to describe 2 contact lens-associated Beauveria keratitis cases and to compare the isolates of 3 contact lens-associated Beauveria keratitis cases with Beauveria-based biopesticides using random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD).

Methods: A 55-year-old diabetic woman from New Mexico and a 31-year-old healthy woman from southern Wisconsin developed soft contact lens-related corneal ulcers unresponsive to topical moxifloxacin and prednisolone acetate drops. Their corneal cultures grew B.

Cerebral phaeohyphomycosis due to Rhinocladiella mackenziei (formerly Ramichloridium mackenziei): a taxonomic update and review of the literature.

Cerebral phaeohyphomycosis caused by Rhinocladiella mackenziei (formerly Ramichlo-ridium mackenziei) is extremely rare, and geographically limited to the Middle East. The fungus exclusively targets the brain and infections have a grave prognosis. Eighteen cases have been reported in the literature from 1983 to 2004 with almost 100% mortality.

Cerebral aspergillosis caused by Aspergillus granulosus.

Disseminated disease by Aspergillus granulosus has been reported only once previously in a cardiac transplant recipient. We report a fatal central nervous system infection in a lung transplant recipient. Key features of this species in the section Usti include growth at 37 degrees C and large, randomly spaced aggregates of variably shaped Hülle cells.

Fatal Actinomucor elegans var. kuwaitiensis infection following combat trauma.

We report the first case of invasive mucormycosis secondary to Actinomucor elegans infection. A severely injured soldier with a fatal A. elegans var.

Cutaneous infection caused by Macrophomina phaseolina in a child with acute myeloid leukemia.

We report a case of Macrophomina phaseolina skin infection in an immunocompromised child with acute myeloid leukemia, which was treated successfully with posaconazole without recurrence after a hematopoietic stem cell transplant. The fungus was identified by DNA sequencing using both the internal transcribed spacer and D1/D2 region of the 28S ribosomal DNA gene.

Disseminated Geosmithia argillacea infection in a German shepherd dog.

We report a systemic mycosis in a German Shepherd dog caused by Geosmithia argillacea. Although this etiologic agent microscopically resembles a Penicillium species, and is histopathologically compatible with members of the genus Aspergillus, morphologic features and molecular characterization clearly separate it from these genera. This appears to be the first report of disseminated disease by this species in humans or animals.

[Record-linkage procedures in epidemiology: an Italian multicentre study].

Objective: To compare record linkage (RL) procedures adopted in several Italian settings and a standard probabilistic RL procedure for matching data from electronic health care databases.

Design: Two health care archives are matched: the hospital discharges (HD) archive and the population registry of four Italian areas. Exact deterministic, stepwise deterministic techniques and a standard probabilistic RL procedure are applied to match HD for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and diabetes mellitus.

[Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease prevalence estimated using a standard algorithm based on electronic health data in various areas of Italy].

Aim: to estimate the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by integrating various administrative health information systems.

Methods: prevalent COPD cases were defined as those reported in the hospital discharge registry (HDR) and cause of mortality registry (CMR) with codes 490*, 491*, 492*, 494* and 496* of the International diseases classification 9th revision. Annual prevalence was estimated in 35+ year-old residents in six Italian areas ofb different sizes, in the period 2002-2004.

[Acute myocardial infarction incidence estimated using a standard algorithm based on electronic health data in different areas of Italy].

Aim: to define and implement an algorithm, based on current databases, in order to estimate acute myocardial infarction (AMI) incidence in six Italian areas.

Setting: Local Health Units of Firenze and Venezia, and the municipalities of Pisa, Roma, Taranto, and Torino.

Participants: residents in the above mentioned six areas in the period 2002-2004, for a total of about 4,447,000 subjects (30th June 2003).

[Objectives, tools and methods for an epidemiological use of electronic health archives in various areas of Italy].

The availability of Electronic Health Archives (EHA) has increased remarkably over the last twenty years. As part of a joint project of the Italian Association of Epidemiology (AIE) and the Italian Association of Medical Statistics and Clinical Epidemiology (SISMEC), a workgroup of experts was set up in 2005 with the aim of comparing various experiences and of standardizing the procedures by which electronic sources can be integrated. In particular, the workgroup's aim was to estimate the frequency of certain major diseases using standard algorithms applied to EHA.

Cystatin C as a marker of renal function immediately after liver transplantation.

To verify whether cystatin C may be of some use as a renal function marker immediately after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT), we compared serum cystatin C (S(Cyst)), serum creatinine (S(cr)), and creatinine clearance (C(cr)) levels with the glomerular filtration rate (GFR). On postoperative days 1, 3, 5, and 7, S(Cyst) and S(cr) was measured in simultaneously drawn blood samples, whereas C(cr) was calculated using a complete 24-hour urine collection. The GFR was determined on the same days by means of iohexol plasma clearance (I-GFR).

Stress-inducing factors in ICUs: what liver transplant recipients experience and what caregivers perceive.

The aim of this study was to compare a number of potentially stress-generating factors related to an intensive care unit (ICU) stay from the points of view of patients undergoing liver transplantation or elective major abdominal surgery and their caregivers in order to identify differences and similarities that may help to optimize patient care. The ICU Environmental Stressor Scale questionnaire was administered to 104 liver transplant recipients, 103 major abdominal surgery patients, 35 nurses and 21 physicians. The ICU staff were asked to complete the questionnaire on the basis of their perception of patient stressors.

Use of fenoldopam to control renal dysfunction early after liver transplantation.

With the aim of assessing whether fenoldopam can help to preserve renal function after liver transplantation, we randomized 140 consecutive recipients with comparable preoperative renal function to receive fenoldopam 0.1 microg/kg/minute (group F, 46 patients), dopamine 3 microg/kg/minute (group D, 48 patients), or placebo (group P, 46 patients) from the time of anesthesia induction to 96 hours postoperatively. There were no differences between the groups in intraoperative urinary output or furosemide administration (both P =.