Performance of Four Fosfomycin Susceptibility Testing Methods against an International Collection of Clinical Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolates.

Fosfomycin has been shown to have a wide spectrum of activity against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria; however, breakpoints have been established only for or per the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) and the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST), respectively. A lack of additional organism breakpoints limits clinical use of this agent and has prompted extrapolation of these interpretive categories to other organisms like without supporting evidence. Further complicating the utility of fosfomycin is the specified method for MIC determination, namely, agar dilution, which is not widely available and is both labor and time intensive.

Bitter taste sensitivity, food intake, and risk of malignant cancer in the UK Women's Cohort Study.

Purpose: There is variability in sensitivity to bitter tastes. Taste 2 Receptor (TAS2R)38 binds to bitter tastants including phenylthiocarbamide (PTC). Many foods with putative cancer preventive activity have bitter tastes.

Fractures in a nationwide population-based cohort of users of breast cancer hormonal therapy.

Purpose: Although users of aromatase inhibitors have higher total fracture risk in some randomized trials, little is known about their risk outside of clinical trials or in older higher-risk cohorts.

Methods: In a population-based retrospective cohort study, we identified all older US Medicare D prescription drug insurance plan-enrolled women who had initial breast cancer surgery in 2006-2008 and began hormonal therapy (an aromatase inhibitor (AI) or tamoxifen) within the subsequent year. Total nonvertebral and hip fractures through 2012 were identified using a validated algorithm.

Nutritional risk factors predict severe acute graft-versus-host disease and early mortality in pediatric allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Background: Malnutrition is a pro-inflammatory state, yet data on nutritional risk factors and development of acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) are extremely limited.

Procedure: We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis of pediatric patients up to age 21 years who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia from January 2011 to September 2014 to determine whether malnutrition was associated with development of aGVHD and early mortality. We identified body mass index (BMI) percentile and serum albumin levels as potential markers of malnutrition and defined two composite nutritional risk variables as any of the following: albumin < 2.

Medicare D Subsidies and Racial Disparities in Persistence and Adherence With Hormonal Therapy.

Purpose To investigate the role of out-of-pocket cost supports through the Medicare Part D Low-Income Subsidy on disparities in breast cancer hormonal therapy persistence and adherence by race or ethnicity. Methods A nationwide cohort of women age ≥ 65 years with a breast cancer operation between 2006 and 2007 and at least one prescription filled for oral breast cancer hormonal therapy was identified from all Medicare D enrollees. The association of race or ethnicity with nonpersistence (90 consecutive days with no claims for a hormonal therapy prescription) and nonadherence (medication possession rate < 80%) was examined.

Bone Mineral Density Testing Disparities Among Patients With Breast Cancer Prescribed Aromatase Inhibitors.

Objectives: Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) are standard adjuvant therapy for postmenopausal women with early-stage, estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. We designed our study to determine whether women initiating adjuvant therapy with an AI underwent baseline bone mineral density testing, as well as what factors predicted adherence with testing guidelines.

Methods: Medicare Parts A, B, and D claims were used to identify a cohort of women aged 67 years and older with incident breast cancer in 2006 and 2007 who started AI therapy.

The introduction of generic aromatase inhibitors and treatment adherence among Medicare D enrollees.

Background: Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) substantially reduce breast cancer mortality in clinical trials, but high rates of nonadherence to these long-term oral therapies have reduced their impact outside of trials. We examined the association of generic AI availability with AI adherence among a large national breast cancer cohort.

Methods: Using a quasi-experimental prepost design, we examined the effect of generic AI introductions (7/2010 and 4/2011) on adherence among a national cohort of women with incident breast cancer in 2006 and 2007 who were enrolled in the Medicare D pharmaceutical coverage program.

Combining systemic retinoids with biologic agents for moderate to severe psoriasis.

Background: Moderate to severe psoriasis, which is defined as psoriasis affecting more than 20% of the body surface area, often requires a combination of therapies to achieve remission. Although numerous data exist regarding the use of acitretin and biologic agent therapy alone for psoriasis, little is known about the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of acitretin combined with biologic agents.

Methods: Fifteen patients with psoriasis treated with concomitant acitretin and a biologic agent were identified, and their charts were reviewed for response to therapy, additional therapy necessary for disease management, side-effects, and laboratory abnormalities whilst on combination therapy.

The mutagenicity of urban particulate matter in an enzyme free system is associated with the generation of reactive oxygen species.

Urban particulate matter (UPM) contributes to lung cancer incidence. UPM has been shown to be genotoxic to mammalian cells and to induce mutations in the Ames assay. Here, we have studied the induction of mutations generated by direct acting mutagenic components of UPM, using the supF forward mutation assay.

Benzo[a]pyrene and its metabolites combined with ultraviolet A synergistically induce 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine via reactive oxygen species.

We previously reported that benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) and UVA radiation synergistically induced oxidative DNA damage via 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) formation in vitro. The present study shows that microsomal BaP metabolites and UVA radiation potently enhance 8-OHdG formation in calf thymus DNA about 3-fold over the parent compound BaP. Utilization of various reactive oxygen species scavengers revealed that singlet oxygen and superoxide radical anion were involved in the 8-OHdG formation induced by microsomal BaP metabolites and UVA.

Parasite-specific immunoglobulin isotypes during lethal and non-lethal murine malaria infections.

Production of parasite-specific antibodies is an important component of immunity to blood stage malaria infection, as shown by several previous studies in rodent models. However, no study has addressed the induction of humoral immunity by different parasites in a genetically homogeneous host population. Here, levels of parasite-specific immunoglobulin isotypes were measured during primary infections of Plasmodium chabaudi and of Plasmodium yoelii in inbred NIH mice inoculated with cloned lines of either avirulent or virulent erythrocytic parasites.

Intraspecific variation in photosynthetic responses of trebouxioid lichens with reference to the activity of a carbon-concentrating mechanism.

The photosynthetic responses of a range of trebouxioid lichens were investigated to determine whether variations in net assimilation rates shown by populations of the same species collected from different habitats could be correlated with adjustments in carbon-concentrating mechanism (CCM) activity. The activity of a CCM was inferred from the high affinity for CO [i.e.

Potential effects of rising tropospheric concentrations of CO and O on green-algal lichens.

Pormelia sulcata Taylor was used as a model to examine the effects of elevated CO and/or O on green algal lichens. Thalli were exposed for 30 d in duplicate controlled-environment chambers to two atmospheric concentrations of CO ('ambient' [350μmol mol ] and 'elevated' [700μmol mol ] 24 h d ) and two O regimes ('non-polluted' air [CF, < 5 nmol mol ] and 'polluted' air [15 nmol mol overnight rising to a midday maximum of 75 nmol mol ]), in a factorial design. Elevated CO , or elevated O depressed the light saturated rate of CO , assimilation A ) measured at ambient CO , by 30% and 18%, respectively.