The Use of Fluorescence Technology versus Visual and Tactile Examination in the Detection of Oral Lesions: A Pilot Study.

Purpose: This study compared the effectiveness of the VELscope® Vx versus visual and tactile intraoral examination in detecting oral lesions in an adult, high risk population.

Methods: The pilot study compared the intra oral findings between 2 examination types. The sample was comprised of 30 participants who were addicted to either cigarettes or a dual addiction (cigarettes plus hookah).

Clinical experience in 52 patients with tigecycline-containing regimens for salvage treatment of Mycobacterium abscessus and Mycobacterium chelonae infections.

Objectives: We report the largest clinical experience using tigecycline-containing regimens for salvage treatment of patients with Mycobacterium abscessus and Mycobacterium chelonae.

Patients And Methods: Data were collected from 52 patients on emergency/compassionate use (n = 38) or two open-label studies (n = 7 patients each). Based on information that was available, 46 (88.

Honeybees and tetracycline resistance.

Like animals and people, insects can serve as both collectors and disseminators of antibiotic resistance genes, as exquisitely demonstrated by a recent study (B. Tian, N. H.

The frequency of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in homes differing in their use of surface antibacterial agents.

Antibacterial agents are common in household cleaning and personal care products, but their long-range impacts on commensal and pathogenic household bacteria are largely unknown. In a one-time survey of 38 households from Boston, MA [19] and Cincinnati, OH [18], 13 kitchen and bathroom sites were sampled for total aerobic bacteria and screened for gram phenotype and susceptibility to six antibiotic drug families. The overall bacterial titers of both user (2 or more antibacterial cleaning or personal care products) and non-user (0 or 1 product) rooms were similar with sponges and sink drains consistently showing the highest overall titers and relatively high titers of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Topical ophthalmic moxifloxacin elicits minimal or no selection of fluoroquinolone resistance among bacteria isolated from the skin, nose, and throat.

Purpose: To investigate whether moxifloxacin therapy of bacterial conjunctivitis in children changes the moxifloxacin susceptibility of bacterial isolates in eyes, cheeks below eyes, nares, and throat.

Methods: Patients (age: 1 to 12 years, n = 105) with bacterial conjunctivitis were treated topically with moxifloxacin three times a day for 7 days. Gender- and age-matched subjects with normal eyes (age: 1 to 12 years, n = 57) served as the control group.

Food animals and antimicrobials: impacts on human health.

Antimicrobials are valuable therapeutics whose efficacy is seriously compromised by the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance. The provision of antibiotics to food animals encompasses a wide variety of nontherapeutic purposes that include growth promotion. The concern over resistance emergence and spread to people by nontherapeutic use of antimicrobials has led to conflicted practices and opinions.

Microbial contamination of musical wind instruments.

Retrospective and prospective studies were used to assess the numbers, types and persistence of microbes that contaminate wind instruments. All previously played instruments (n = 20) harbored viable bacteria as well as mold and/or yeast. Reedinstruments consistently carried higher microbial loads than did flutes or trumpets.

A sensitive human bone assay for quantitation of tigecycline using LC/MS/MS.

Tigecycline (Tygacil,Wyeth) is a first-in-class, broad spectrum antibiotic with activity against multiple-resistant organisms. In order to address the unexpectedly low tigecycline concentrations in human bone samples analyzed using a LC/MS/MS method developed elsewhere, we have developed and validated a new and sensitive human bone assay for the quantitation of tigecycline using LC/MS/MS. The new method utilizes the addition of a stabilizing agent to the human bone sample, homogenization of human bone in a strong acidic-methanol extraction solvent, centrifugation of the bone suspension, separation by liquid chromatography, and detection of tigecycline by mass spectrometry.

A phase I and pharmacokinetic study of temsirolimus (CCI-779) administered intravenously daily for 5 days every 2 weeks to patients with advanced cancer.

Purpose: Patients with advanced cancer received temsirolimus (Torisel, CCI-779), a novel inhibitor of mammalian target of rapamycin, i.v. once daily for 5 days every 2 weeks to determine the maximum tolerated dose, toxicity profile, pharmacokinetics, and preliminary antitumor efficacy.

Antibacterial cleaning products and drug resistance.

We examined whether household use of antibacterial cleaning and hygiene products is an emerging risk factor for carriage of antimicrobial drug-resistant bacteria on hands of household members. Households (N = 224) were randomized to use of antibacterial or nonantibacterial cleaning and hygiene products for 1 year. Logistic regression was used to assess the influence of antibacterial product use in homes.

Transcriptional profiles in peripheral blood mononuclear cells prognostic of clinical outcomes in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

Purpose: Given their accessibility, surrogate tissues, such as peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), may provide potential predictive biomarkers in clinical pharmacogenomic studies. In leukemias and lymphomas, the prognostic value of peripheral blast expression profiles is clear; however, it is unclear whether circulating mononuclear cells of patients with solid tumors might yield profiles with similar prognostic associations.

Experimental Design: In this study, we evaluated the association of expression profiles in PBMCs with clinical outcomes in patients with advanced renal cell cancer.

Antibacterial resistance worldwide: causes, challenges and responses.

The optimism of the early period of antimicrobial discovery has been tempered by the emergence of bacterial strains with resistance to these therapeutics. Today, clinically important bacteria are characterized not only by single drug resistance but also by multiple antibiotic resistance--the legacy of past decades of antimicrobial use and misuse. Drug resistance presents an ever-increasing global public health threat that involves all major microbial pathogens and antimicrobial drugs.

Relationship between triclosan and susceptibilities of bacteria isolated from hands in the community.

The possible association between triclosan and bacterial susceptibility to antibiotic was examined among staphylococci and several species of gram-negative bacteria (GNB) isolated from the hands of individuals in a community setting. Hand cultures from individuals randomized to using either antibacterial cleaning and hygiene products (including a hand soap containing 0.2% triclosan) or nonantibacterial cleaning and hygiene products for a 1-year period were taken at baseline and at the end of the year.

Randomized phase II study of multiple dose levels of CCI-779, a novel mammalian target of rapamycin kinase inhibitor, in patients with advanced refractory renal cell carcinoma.

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy, safety, and pharmacokinetics of multiple doses of CCI-779, a novel mammalian target of rapamycin kinase inhibitor, in patients with advanced refractory renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Patients And Methods: Patients (n = 111) were randomly assigned to receive 25, 75, or 250 mg CCI-779 weekly as a 30-minute intravenous infusion. Patients were evaluated for tumor response, time to tumor progression, survival, and adverse events.

Disease-associated expression profiles in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

Expression profiling has demonstrated that transcriptomes of primary malignancies differ from those in normal tissue. It is unknown, however, whether there exist "surrogate" transcriptional markers in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with solid tumors. We identified transcripts expressed differentially between PBMCs from renal cell carcinoma patients and normal subjects, some of which appear to reflect specific immune responses of circulating cells.