Limitations of infrared ear temperature measurement in clinical practice.

Principles: Detection of elevated body temperature is critical in the early diagnosis of sepsis. Due to its convenience, infrared ear temperature measurement (IETM) has become the standard of care. Unfortunately, the limitations of this method are largely unexplored.

Patients presenting to the emergency department with non-specific complaints: the Basel Non-specific Complaints (BANC) study.

Objectives: Patient management in emergency departments (EDs) is often based on management protocols developed for specific complaints like dyspnea, chest pain, or syncope. To the best of our knowledge, to date no protocols exist for patients with nonspecific complaints (NSCs) such as "weakness,""dizziness," or "feeling unwell." The objectives of this study were to provide a framework for research and a description of patients with NSCs presenting to EDs.

Peripheral lymphadenopathy in immunocompetent adults.

Although unexplained lymphadenopathies are not particular prevalent in the general population (<1%), they represent a diagnostic dilemma. The differential diagnosis is broad, and although only few diseases will be either severe or treatable, patients as well as their doctors are in fear of missing a relevant diagnosis such as a malignancy. For the differential diagnosis it is prudent to distinguish between localised and generalised lymphadenopathy.

[Headaches and aphasia in an immunocompromised patient].

We report the case of a 81-year-old, immunocompromised Patient, admitted to our hospital with new-onset headaches and word-finding difficulties. The MRI of the brain revealed a temporal mass on the left with marginal contrast-enhancement. During the next days Listeria monocytogenes grew in the bloodcultures so that the diagnosis of a brain-abscess caused by Listeria was established.