Characteristics of infective endocarditis in a cancer population.

Background: Infective endocarditis (IE) is more common in patients with cancer as compared with the general population. Due to an immunocompromised state, the need for invasive procedures, hypercoagulability and the presence of indwelling catheters, patients with cancer are particularly predisposed to the development of IE.

Objectives: Limited information exists about IE in patients with cancer.

Geographical Differences in Cardiovascular Comorbidities and Outcomes of COVID-19 Hospitalized Patients in the USA.

Introduction: Cardiovascular comorbidities may predispose to adverse outcomes in hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, across the USA, the burden of cardiovascular comorbidities varies significantly. Whether clinical outcomes of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 differ between regions has not yet been studied systematically.

Surfactant protein A reduces TLR4 and inflammatory cytokine mRNA levels in neonatal mouse ileum.

Levels of intestinal toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) impact inflammation in the neonatal gastrointestinal tract. While surfactant protein A (SP-A) is known to regulate TLR4 in the lung, it also reduces intestinal damage, TLR4 and inflammation in an experimental model of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in neonatal rats. We hypothesized that SP-A-deficient (SP-A) mice have increased ileal TLR4 and inflammatory cytokine levels compared to wild type mice, impacting intestinal physiology.