[An analysis of 182 enterococcal bloodstream infections: epidemiology, microbiology, and outcome].

Introduction: Enterococcal bloodstream infections have acquired considerable importance in recent years, mainly because of the increasing number of cases that occur during hospital admission.

Methods: Retrospective study of the clinical records of patients diagnosed with enterococcal bacteremia and hospitalized over a 12-year period (January 1994-April 2006), analyzing epidemiological, clinical and microbiological characteristics, outcome and prognostic factors.

Results: A total of 182 episodes of bacteremia were recorded; 68% of them were nosocomial infections, accounting for 5% of the in-hospital bacteremia episodes in this period.

Cardiac tamponade as the first manifestation of systemic lupus erythematosus in the elderly.

Although pericardial involvement is very frequent in systemic lupus erythematosus, cardiac tamponade is extremely rare as the first manifestation of the disease. On the other hand, systemic lupus erythematosus is a disease that predominantly affects young women, and it is a very uncommon condition in the elderly. We report a 91-year-old woman diagnosed with cardiac tamponade, which was the presenting clinical feature of a previously undiagnosed case of systemic lupus erythematosus.

Tuberculous peritonitis in a patient with rheumatoid arthritis treated with adalimumab.

We present a case of tuberculous peritonitis in a 71-year-old woman with long-standing rheumatoid arthritis treated with adalimumab, and we review the association between antitumor necrosis factor therapy and tuberculosis. Our case illustrates that the index of suspicion of tuberculosis in these patients, even with atypical clinical features, must be very high, and underscores the need of tuberculosis screening before therapy is started.

[Predictive model for community acquired bacteremia in patients from an Internal Medicine Unit].

Background And Objective: Clinical suspicion of bacteremia lacks of sensitivity, specificity or predictive values enough to be clinically useful. The aim of this study was to develop a clinical prediction rule of bacteremia for patients hospitalized in an internal medicine department, with community-acquired symptoms, who had blood cultures obtained.

Patients And Method: A prospective study, including all patients who had blood cultures in the first 48 h after admission, was performed.