[Quality of life in palliative care].

Palliative care aims to improve the quality of life of patients with a serious or terminal progressive disease, through global and multidisciplinary care. The notion of quality of life is multidimensional and unique to each individual patient, making them key players in their own care. Taking into account the different dimensions of a patient's quality of life is necessary in order to propose a personalised and appropriate care plan.

Nutritional therapy and infectious diseases: a two-edged sword.

The benefits and risks of nutritional therapies in the prevention and management of infectious diseases in the developed world are reviewed. There is strong evidence that early enteral feeding of patients prevents infections in a variety of traumatic and surgical illnesses. There is, however, little support for similar early feeding in medical illnesses.

Predicting AIDS-related events using CD4 percentage or CD4 absolute counts.

Background: The extent of immunosuppression and the probability of developing an AIDS-related complication in HIV-infected people is usually measured by the absolute number of CD4 positive T-cells. The percentage of CD4 positive cells is a more easily measured and less variable number. We analyzed sequential CD4 and CD8 numbers, percentages and ratios in 218 of our HIV infected patients to determine the most reliable predictor of an AIDS-related event.

Moraxella catarrhalis coaggregates with Streptococcus pyogenes and modulates interactions of S. pyogenes with human epithelial cells.

The pathogens Streptococcus pyogenes and Moraxella catarrhalis colonize overlapping regions of the human nasopharynx. We have found that M. catarrhalis can dramatically increase S.

Quorum sensing and its relevance to infectious diseases.

Quorum sensing allows bacteria to detect the density of their own species and alter their metabolism to take advantage of this density. Quorum sensing is used by a wide variety of bacteria including human pathogens. Quorum sensing genes are important for the pathogenic potential of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus, as well as other invasive bacteria.