Effect of open-lung vs conventional perioperative ventilation strategies on postoperative pulmonary complications after on-pump cardiac surgery: the PROVECS randomized clinical trial.

Purpose: To evaluate whether a perioperative open-lung ventilation strategy prevents postoperative pulmonary complications after elective on-pump cardiac surgery.

Methods: In a pragmatic, randomized, multicenter, controlled trial, we assigned patients planned for on-pump cardiac surgery to either a conventional ventilation strategy with no ventilation during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and lower perioperative positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) levels (2 cm HO) or an open-lung ventilation strategy that included maintaining ventilation during CPB along with perioperative recruitment maneuvers and higher PEEP levels (8 cm HO). All study patients were ventilated with low-tidal volumes before and after CPB (6 to 8 ml/kg of predicted body weight).

Embolisation of pulmonary arteriovenous malformations using high-frequency jet ventilation: benefits of minimising respiratory motion.

Background: To evaluate patient radiation dose and procedural duration recorded during pulmonary arteriovenous malformation (PAVM) embolisation performed using high-frequency jet ventilation (HFJV) as compared with conventional intermittent positive pressure ventilation (IPPV) METHODS: Patients undergoing PAVM embolisation with HFJV assistance after April 2017 were retrospectively identified as group A, and those treated with IPPV before April 2017 as group B. Primary outcomes were patient radiation dose and procedural duration between groups A and B. Secondary outcomes were difference in diaphragmatic excursion between groups A and B, in group A with/without HFJ assistance, technical/clinical success, and complications.

Fatal primary amoebic meningoencephalitis in a Norwegian tourist returning from Thailand.

Introduction: Primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) is a rare disease caused by the free-living amoeba . Infection occurs by insufflation of water containing amoebae into the nasal cavity, and is usually associated with bathing in freshwater. Nasal irrigation is a more rarely reported route of infection.

Circulating levels of HMGB1 are correlated strongly with MD2 in HIV-infection: possible implication for TLR4-signalling and chronic immune activation.

Progressive HIV infection is characterized by profound enterocyte damage, microbial translocation and chronic immune activation. We aimed to test whether High Mobility Group Box protein 1(HMGB1), a marker of cell death, alone, or in combination with LPS, might contribute to HIV-associated immune activation and progression. Altogether, 29 untreated HIV-infected individuals, 25 inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients and 30 controls were included.

Hepatitis C treatment of opioid dependants receiving maintenance treatment: results of a Norwegian pilot study.

Background: Many physicians are still skeptic to treat opioid dependants, with or without maintenance treatment, for hepatitis C (HCV) because of concerns about psychiatric comorbidity, stability and adherence. In Norway, there are about 3,500 patients participating in the restrictive medication-assisted rehabilitation (LAR) programs in which all patients are given methadone or buprenorphine maintenance therapy. This study was undertaken to determine whether HCV combination therapy with pegylated interferon alpha-2a plus ribavirin is feasible, efficient and safe in this patient group.

[South American blastomycosis--a differential diagnosis to tuberculous meningitis].

Background: South American blastomycosis is primarily a lung infection often complicated by multiorgan or intracranial disease.

Material And Methods: We describe the clinical and pathological findings of fatal cerebral blastomycosis occurring in a woman that immigrated to Norway from Brazil 23 years earlier.

Results: The clinical symptoms together with the radiological findings of multiple cerebral lesions and thickening of the basal meninges were interpreted as cerebral tuberculosis.

[Serious bacterial and fungal infections in intravenous drug addicts].

Invasive infections caused by bacteria and fungi are common complications of intravenous drug abuse. Various vital organs and structures may be affected, e.g.

The estimated impact of the CCR-5 delta32 gene deletion on HIV disease progression varies with study design. Oslo HIV Cohort Study Group.

Objectives: To study the impact of the genotype CCR-5 wild-type +/A32 on the progression rate to AIDS and death, and to discuss sources of bias according to study design.

Methods: A prospective study of 310 HIV-positive subjects with follow-up time from study entry (prevalent cohort), and a prospective study of 105 HIV-positive subjects with well-defined time of HIV seroconversion, with follow-up time from the retrospectively assessed date of HIV seroconversion (retrospective incident cohort).

Results: Slower progression to AIDS among subjects with CCR-5 +/delta32 than those with CCR-5 +/+ genotype was estimated in the prevalent cohort (P=0.

[Splenic atrophy and fatal pneumococcal infection in inflammatory bowel disease].

Fatal pneumococcal disease occurred in a young woman with ulcerative colitis that had been quiescent for ten years. Howell-Jolly bodies were present in the peripheral blood smear. Severe atrophy of the spleen (weight 7 g) was discovered at autopsy.

[An outbreak of hepatitis A among intravenous drug addicts in Oslo 1995-96].

Intravenous drug abuse is a well-known risk factor for acquiring hepatitis A infection. Among drug abusers most cases are sporadic, but epidemic outbreaks may occur occasionally. In this article we describe an epidemic outbreak including 144 serologically proved cases of hepatitis A among intravenous heroin and amphetamine abusers in Oslo.

The impact of exposure group on the progression rate to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. A comparison between intravenous drug users, homosexual men and heterosexually infected subjects.

The objective was to study the impact of exposure group on the progression rate to the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). 289 subjects in Oslo, Norway, infected with the human immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV) and without major clinical signs of HIV infection (102 intravenous drug users, 151 homosexual men and 36 heterosexually infected subjects) were recruited to the Oslo HIV Cohort Study from 1989 and followed until 1 January 1995. 15 (14.

Co-infection with HIV-1/HTLV-II and the risk of progression to AIDS and death. The Oslo HIV Cohort Study Group.

Human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) types I and II were the first discovered human retroviruses. While HTLV-I has been clearly associated with disease, the health implications of HTLV-II infection are still unsettled. A prospective epidemiological study of 409 HIV-infected subjects of different transmission categories was performed to study the presence of HTLV-II antibodies, and whether HTLV-II antibodies are associated with the progression to AIDS and to death of any cause.

[Risk of AIDS in the Oslo HIV-cohort study. A comparison between homosexual men, intravenous addicts and heterosexual persons].

In order to study differences in risk of the development of AIDS in different groups of HIV infected subjects, 151 homosexual men, 110 intravenous drug users (IVDUs) and 36 heterosexually infected persons without major signs of HIV infection at entry to the study were enrolled in a cohort study. The mean follow-up time was 35 months. At the end of follow-up 40 subjects (13%) were diagnosed as having AIDS.

[Diagnosis and treatment of infections of the digestive system in HIV-infected patients].

Patients with HIV infection often suffer from opportunistic and bacterial infections of the digestive tract. The most common agents are Candida albicans, Herpes simplex and Cytomegalovirus, Mycobacterium avium intracellulare, Cryptosporidium parvum, and enteropathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella, Shigella and Campylobacter. The diagnosis is established by means of microbiological examination of blood and faeces, often supplemented by gastrointestinal endoscopy, with mucosal biopsies for culture and histology.

Expression of costimulatory molecule CD28 on T cells in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection: functional and clinical correlations.

To study the functional integrity of T cells from human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected persons, CD4+ and CD8+ cells were examined for proliferation and secretion of interleukin-2 (IL-2) in response to staphylococcal superantigens and antibodies to CD3 and the alpha beta T cell receptor. A functional defect within CD8+ but not within CD4+ cells from HIV-1-infected persons was observed. Within CD8+ cells, proliferation and secretion of IL-2 was restricted to cells expressing the costimulatory molecule CD28.

[Outbreak of typhoid fever in a family].

We describe a small epidemic of typhoid fever in a family who came originally from Pakistan. In 1992 six members (mother and five children) of a family of ten were admitted to our department with typhoid fever within a nine-day period. The index case was an 18 months old girl who had been hospitalized and treated elsewhere for typhoid fever.

Inhibition of halothane-induced lipid peroxidation by misoprostol without hepatoprotection.

In mice, the synthetic prostaglandin derivative misoprostol failed to protect against liver damage induced by acetaminophen, carbon terachloride,1,1-dichloroethylene or thioacetamide. In rats, misoprostol (20-100 micrograms/kg p.o.

Enhanced in vivo-lipid peroxidation associated with halothane hepatotoxicity in rats.

To study the role of lipid peroxidation in halothane-induced hepatic damage, ethane exhalation by rats exposed to 1% halothane for 1 hour was determined under normoxic (21% O2) and hypoxic (6% O2) conditions. The effects of microsomal enzyme induction by phenobarbital and/or glutathione depletion on this parameter of in vivo lipid peroxidation were studied. To assess the degree of liver damage, serum activities of liver specific enzymes (glutamate-pyruvate-transaminase, GPT, and sorbitol dehydrogenase, SDH) were measured 3 hrs after the end of exposure.