A comparison of volume-equated knee extensions to failure, or not to failure, upon rating of perceived exertion and strength adaptations.

The present study aimed to compare the effects of repetition duration-, volume-, and load-matched resistance training to muscular failure (MMF) or not to muscular failure (NMF) on maximal voluntary isometric knee extensor strength. This design also allowed testing of the efficacy of "5×5" training. Nine recreationally active males (age, 21.

Development of circulating tumor cell-endocrine therapy index in patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer.

Background: Endocrine therapy (ET) fails to induce a response in one half of patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive metastatic breast cancer (MBC), and almost all will eventually become refractory to ET. Circulating tumor cells (CTC) are associated with worse prognosis in patients with MBC, but enumeration alone is insufficient to predict the absolute odds of benefit from any therapy, including ET. We developed a multiparameter CTC-Endocrine Therapy Index (CTC-ETI), which we hypothesize may predict resistance to ET in patients with HR-positive MBC.

A cluster of mucormycosis infections in hematology patients: challenges in investigation and control of invasive mold infections in high-risk patient populations.

Mucormycosis has been reported to be occurring more frequently in hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients in recent years. We investigated a hospital cluster of mucormycosis cases among patients with hematologic disorders. Case-patients were identified through hospital microbiology and pathology database searches and compared to randomly selected controls matched on underlying disease and hospital discharge date using conditional logistic regression.

Comparison of risk factors for recovery of Acinetobacter baumannii during outbreaks at two Kentucky hospitals, 2006.

Objectives: Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) is a well-described cause of nosocomial outbreaks and can be highly resistant to antimicrobials. We investigated A.

Multistate outbreak of Serratia marcescens bloodstream infections caused by contamination of prefilled heparin and isotonic sodium chloride solution syringes.

Background: To investigate clusters of Serratia marcescens (SM) bloodstream infections (BSIs) at health care facilities in several states and determine whether contaminated prefilled heparin and isotonic sodium chloride solution (hereinafter, saline) syringes from a single manufacturer (company X) were the likely cause, we performed an outbreak investigation of inpatient and outpatient health care facilities from October 2007 through February 2008.

Methods: Active case finding for clusters of SM BSIs. Information on SM BSIs was obtained, and SM blood isolates were sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Epidemiologic investigation of a 2007 outbreak of Serratia marcescens bloodstream infection in Texas caused by contamination of syringes prefilled with heparin and saline.

This retrospective cohort study found that syringes prefilled with heparin flush solution caused an outbreak of Serratia marcescens bloodstream infection at an outpatient treatment center in Texas in 2007. The epidemiologic study supported this conclusion, despite the lack of microbiologic evidence of contamination from environmental and product testing. This report underscores the crucial contributions that epidemiologic studies can make to investigations of outbreaks that are possibly product related.

Self-limited febrile syndromes temporally associated with the use of propofol for sedation in gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures.

Purpose: To investigate cases of febrile illnesses in patients who received propofol for sedation during gastrointestinal endoscopy.

Methods: Active case finding for patients who underwent endoscopy between 1 April and 30 May 2007 and suffered unexplained fever, chills, or myalgia within 48 hour after the procedure. We reviewed medications and clinical practices to find factors associated with the reactions.

Outbreak of adverse reactions associated with contaminated heparin.

Background: In January 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began a nationwide investigation of severe adverse reactions that were first detected in a single hemodialysis facility. Preliminary findings suggested that heparin was a possible cause of the reactions.

Methods: Information on clinical manifestations and on exposure was collected for patients who had signs and symptoms that were consistent with an allergic-type reaction after November 1, 2007.

Outbreak of cystoscopy related infections with Pseudomonas aeruginosa: New Mexico, 2007.

Purpose: Personnel at the New Mexico Department of Health investigated a Pseudomonas aeruginosa outbreak potentially associated with outpatient cystoscopy performed by a urologist during January 1 to April 22, 2007.

Materials And Methods: We compared infection rates with baseline rates, reviewed infection control procedures and performed environmental sampling at the urologist office. We also performed a case-control study.

Pseudo-outbreak of Mycobacterium abscessus Infection Caused by laboratory contamination .

Objective: To investigate the cause(s) of an increased incidence of clinical cultures growing Mycobacterium abscessus at a hospital in Florida.

Design: Outbreak investigation.

Setting: University-affiliated, tertiary-care hospital.

The changing spectrum of clostridium difficile associated disease: implications for dentistry.

Background: Clostridium difficile is an anaerobic, spore-forming bacterium that causes a wide range of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. It is best known for its association with uncomplicated antimicrobial-agent-associated diarrhea.

Case Description: The authors describe two previously published cases of Clostridium difficile-associated disease (CDAD) to highlight its varied clinical manifestations.

A case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease associated with a dura mater graft in the United States.

We describe a case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease associated with a dura mater graft (Lyodura brand) in a 26-year-old man who underwent several neurosurgical procedures as a child. Clinicians and infection control personnel should be aware that recipients of Lyodura brand dura mater grafts processed before May 1987 may remain at increased risk for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease throughout their lives.

Toxic shock associated with Clostridium sordellii and Clostridium perfringens after medical and spontaneous abortion.

Objective: To better understand the risk of fatal toxic shock caused by Clostridium sordellii in women who had a recent medical abortion with mifepristone and misoprostol.

Methods: We performed active and passive surveillance for cases of toxic shock associated with medical or spontaneous abortion. To identify the cause of toxic shock, immunohistochemical assays for multiple bacteria were performed on formalin-fixed surgical and autopsy tissues.

The challenges posed by reemerging Clostridium difficile infection.

There have been recent, marked increases in the incidence and severity of Clostridium difficile-associated disease (CDAD). These may be attributable to the emergence of a hypervirulent strain of C. difficile that produces increased levels of toxins A and B, as well as an extra toxin known as "binary toxin.

Characterization of penicillin intermediate serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae carried by human immunodeficiency virus-infected adults and healthy children in Uganda.

There are little data on the genetic relatedness between antibiotic-resistant pneumococcal isolates colonizing the Ugandan population. Penicillin-intermediate pneumococci of serogroups or serotypes rarely or not previously reported as being penicillin nonsusceptible were selected out of 166 isolates representing 26 capsular serogroups or serotypes isolated from Ugandan children in 1995 and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected Ugandan adults in 2004-2005. Pairs of penicillin-intermediate pneumococci of the same serogroup or serotype present in both patient populations were characterized further by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multilocus sequence typing (MLST).

Human papillomavirus genotypes associated with cervical cytologic abnormalities and HIV infection in Ugandan women.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is associated with almost all cases of cervical cancer, and cervical cancer is a common malignancy in women living in developing countries. A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of HPV infection, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, and cervical cytologic abnormalities in women presenting to a sexually transmitted infections clinic in Kampala, Uganda. In June and July, 2002, 135 women underwent complete physical exams including Papanicolaou (Pap) smears.

Oropharyngeal colonization by Streptococcus pneumoniae among HIV-infected adults in Uganda: assessing prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility.

Objectives: To evaluate characteristics of Streptococcus pneumoniae associated with oropharyngeal colonization in the Ugandan adult HIV population.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study at the outpatient HIV clinic at the Joint Clinical Research Centre in Kampala, Uganda between July 2004 and February 2005. Six hundred HIV-infected individuals were interviewed and had oropharyngeal specimens collected.

Occult Plasmodium vivax infection diagnosed by a polymerase chain reaction-based detection system: a case report.

After a trip to Zambia, a previously healthy adult traveler presented with a prolonged illness characterized by low-grade fevers and fatigue. Although malaria smears and antibody tests results for Plasmodium species were negative, a diagnosis of malaria was ultimately determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and species-specific nucleic acid hybridization techniques. The patient was successfully treated and cured.

Identification of two single base substitutions in the UGT1 gene locus which abolish bilirubin uridine diphosphate glucuronosyltransferase activity in vitro.

Accumulating evidence indicates that mutations in the human UGT1 gene locus abolish hepatic bilirubin UDP-glucuronosyltransferase activity and cause the subsequent accumulation of bilirubin to toxic levels in patients with Crigler-Najjar type 1 (CN-I). Genetic and biochemical criteria are required to link CN-I with mutations in UGT1. Here we present analysis of mutations at the UGT1 locus in three individuals that were clinically diagnosed with CN-I (two related and one unrelated).