Survey of innate immune responses to Burkholderia pseudomallei in human blood identifies a central role for lipopolysaccharide.

B. pseudomallei is a gram-negative bacterium that causes the tropical infection melioidosis. In northeast Thailand, mortality from melioidosis approaches 40%.

Prophylactic botulinum type A toxin complex (Dysport®) for migraine without aura.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy, safety, and optimum dose of a highly purified Clostridium botulinum type A toxin-hemagglutinin complex (Dysport) for migraine prophylaxis.

Background: Botulinum toxin type-A has demonstrated good efficacy in several open-label studies of patients with migraine, involving either individualized or standardized protocols, although data from placebo-controlled trials have been conflicting.

Methods: A 12-week, double-blind, randomized trial of Dysport (120 or 240 units) vs placebo was conducted in 6 centers in Thailand to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and optimum dose of botulinum toxin type-A (Dysport) for migraine prophylaxis.

Defining the true sensitivity of culture for the diagnosis of melioidosis using Bayesian latent class models.

Background: Culture remains the diagnostic gold standard for many bacterial infections, and the method against which other tests are often evaluated. Specificity of culture is 100% if the pathogenic organism is not found in healthy subjects, but the sensitivity of culture is more difficult to determine and may be low. Here, we apply Bayesian latent class models (LCMs) to data from patients with a single Gram-negative bacterial infection and define the true sensitivity of culture together with the impact of misclassification by culture on the reported accuracy of alternative diagnostic tests.

Factors predicting and reducing mortality in patients with invasive Staphylococcus aureus disease in a developing country.

Background: Invasive Staphylococcus aureus infection is increasingly recognised as an important cause of serious sepsis across the developing world, with mortality rates higher than those in the developed world. The factors determining mortality in developing countries have not been identified.

Methods: A prospective, observational study of invasive S.

Initial treatment of cryptococcal meningitis in AIDS.

The comparison of initial treatment with amphotericin B (0.7 mg/kg/d) plus rifampin (600 mg/d) with amphotericin B (0.7 mg/kg/d) alone for 2 weeks, both followed by fluconazole (400 mg/ d) for 8 weeks in the acute treatment of cryptococcal meningitis in AIDS by an open- randomized, controlled, prospective clinical trial is reported.