Evaluating the Accuracy of the COMSOL-Based Finite-Element Method for Simulating Plasmon-Modified Fluorescence.

Accurately modeling plasmon-modified fluorescence is important for understanding and guiding the design of experimental nanostructures that reliably enhance fluorescence. They are of particular interest due to their potential to allow localized "hot spots" of high fluorescence enhancement in a reproducible manner. Given the increasingly prevalent use of the COMSOL Multiphysics software package for simulating these phenomena, we investigate its accuracy using an analytically tractable model consisting of a gold nanosphere interacting with either a plane wave or a radiating point dipole.

Laboratory-based, 2-year surveillance of pediatric parapneumonic pneumococcal empyema following heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine universal vaccination in Madrid.

Background: In October 2006, the heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine was included in the Madrid vaccination calendar, warranting serotype (St) surveillances in pneumococcal pediatric parapneumonic empyema (PPE).

Methods: A prospective 2-year (May 2007-April 2009) laboratory-confirmed PPE surveillance was performed in 22 hospitals. All isolates (for serotyping) and culture-negative pleural fluids were sent to the reference laboratory for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis.

Impact of immigration on pulmonary tuberculosis in Spanish children: a three-decade review.

Background: Tuberculosis causes significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. In the last years, international travel and immigration have led to important changes in the epidemiology of this disease. Drug resistance has emerged as an important threat to tuberculosis control.

Successful treatment of childhood cutaneous leishmaniasis with liposomal amphotericin B: report of two cases.

Treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis is sometimes difficult. No single ideal therapy has yet been identified and some of the drugs that are currently used are associated with significant toxicity. We present two cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis in children, one caused by Leishmania infantum and the other by Leishmania braziliensis.

[Acute otitis media in the era of pneumococcal vaccination].

Acute otitis media (AOM) is one of the most common childhood diseases and the main reason for prescribing antibiotics in developed countries. Indiscriminate treatment of children with an inconclusive diagnosis has favored the development of resistance, and this has led to the creation of clinical guidelines to promote judicious antibiotic use. AOM has shown high rates of spontaneous resolution and minimal benefits from antibiotics; hence a policy of observation for 48-72 hours before initiating treatment is justified in many children.

Coronary involvement in infants with Kawasaki disease treated with intravenous gamma-globulin.

Aim: To analyze the clinical spectrum and the incidence of coronary involvement in infants with typical Kawasaki's disease (KD).

Patients And Methods: A retrospective study was performed on children one year of age or younger diagnosed from February 1992 to January 2006 with typical KD. Children with incomplete forms of the disease were not included.

Marburgvirus genomics and association with a large hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Angola.

In March 2005, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigated a large hemorrhagic fever (HF) outbreak in Uige Province in northern Angola, West Africa. In total, 15 initial specimens were sent to CDC, Atlanta, Ga., for testing for viruses associated with viral HFs known to be present in West Africa, including ebolavirus.

Combined systemic and intrapleural treatment of Aspergillus pulmonary empyema after invasive aspergillosis.

A 12-year-old immunocompromised boy was hospitalized because of invasive aspergillosis with lung and central nervous system involvement. He was treated with surgery and liposomal amphotericin B, but he developed a pulmonary empyema and a bronchopleural-cutaneous fistula. A catheter was placed through the fistula, and amphotericin B (up to 50 mg in 10 ml of 5% dextrose) was instilled daily into the pleural cavity for 45 days.

Acute Q fever pericarditis followed by chronic hepatitis in a two-year-old girl.

Acute Coxiella burnetii infection is most commonly a mild and self-limiting disease with fever, pneumonia and hepatitis. Endocarditis is the most frequent clinical presentation of chronic infection. We report a 2-year-old child with Q fever who presented with acute pericarditis and cardiac tamponade and who developed a chronic hepatic infection.

Twenty years of pulmonary tuberculosis in children: what has changed?

Objectives: To compare the frequency, clinical and radiologic manifestations and source of infection of pulmonary tuberculosis in children treated in our hospital during two decades (1978 through 1987 and 1988 through 1997) and to evaluate the influence of the emergence of HIV infection (since 1985) and the effect of the discontinuation of Calmette-Guérin bacillus (BCG) vaccination (since 1987) on childhood tuberculosis.

Methods: We reviewed 324 children diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis in our hospital during the 20 years (1978 through 1997). The data from 2 decades, 1978 through 1987 and 1988 through 1997, were compared.