Clinical predictors for laboratory-confirmed influenza infections: exploring case definitions for influenza-like illness.

Objective: To identify clinical signs and symptoms (ie, "terms") that accurately predict laboratory-confirmed influenza cases and thereafter generate and evaluate various influenza-like illness (ILI) case definitions for detecting influenza. A secondary objective explored whether surveillance of data beyond the chief complaint improves the accuracy of predicting influenza.

Design: Retrospective, cross-sectional study.

Pseudo-outbreak of Mycobacterium gordonae Following the Opening of a newly constructed hospital at a Chicago Medical Center.

OBJECTIVE To identify the source of a pseudo-outbreak of Mycobacterium gordonae DESIGN Outbreak investigation. SETTING University Hospital in Chicago, Ilinois. PATIENTS Hospital patients with M.

Identification, management, and clinical characteristics of hospitalized patients with influenza-like illness during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, Cook County, Illinois.

Objective: To describe the identification, management, and clinical characteristics of hospitalized patients with influenza-like illness (ILI) during the peak period of activity of the 2009 pandemic strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 (2009 H1N1).

Design: Retrospective review of electronic medical records.

Patients And Setting: Hospitalized patients who presented to the emergency department during the period October 18 through November 14, 2009, at 4 hospitals in Cook County, Illinois, with the capacity to perform real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction testing for influenza.

Serratia marcescens bacteremia because of contaminated prefilled heparin and saline syringes: a multi-state report.

A national outbreak of Serratia marcescens bacteremia because of contaminated prefilled heparin and saline syringes led to their recall. We evaluated the clinical impact of this outbreak in 57 patients at 3 centers. All patients were symptomatic and were treated with intravenous antibiotics with a fatal outcome in 1 patient.