Temporal trends, risk factors and outcomes in albicans and non-albicans candidaemia: an international epidemiological study in four multidisciplinary intensive care units.

This multicentre study (i) evaluated geographic and temporal changes in candidaemia ecology in the critically ill, (ii) identified risk factors associated with non-albicans candidaemia and (iii) examined the association of Candida ecology with mortality. A retrospective cohort study of patients who developed candidaemia in four general Intensive Care Units located in Australia, Greece, Belgium and Brazil was performed. Two hundred Candida organisms were identified by positive blood culture in 189 patients, including 112 Candida albicans (56.

Discordance in spirometric interpretations using three commonly used reference equations vs national health and nutrition examination study III.

Background: Spirometry plays an essential role in the diagnosis and management of pulmonary diseases. The accurate interpretation of spirometric data depends on comparison to a reference population to identify abnormalities in ventilatory function. National guidelines recommended the use of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (NHANES) III data set as the preferred reference population for those persons 8 to 80 years of age in the United States.

False impressions from clear cerebrospinal fluid and a normal computed tomography scan: the pressure is still on for a diagnosis.

We report the case of a 33-year-old man presenting with seizures following a 3 week, non-specific febrile illness characterized by progressive confusion. Despite the presence of risk factors, his HIV serology was negative and he had no premorbid suggestion of immunocompromise. We describe the difficulties in making the diagnosis of cryptococcal meningitis in the presence of cerebrospinal fluid analysis with the only abnormality initially being hypoglycorrhachia.

Computed tomography pulmonary angiography and venography: diagnostic and prognostic properties.

Computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) is now an established test in the diagnosis of suspected pulmonary embolism (PE). Some may argue that it has become the "one-stop" center for diagnosis and prognosis of acute PE and deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Current literature shows CTPA to be reliable and accurate.

Cold neutron energy dependent production of ultracold neutrons in solid deuterium.

A measurement of the production of ultracold neutrons from velocity-selected cold neutrons on gaseous and solid deuterium targets is reported. The expected energy dependence for two-particle collisions with well defined neutron and Maxwell-Boltzmann distributed molecular velocities is found for the gas target. The solid target data agree in shape with the phonon density-of-states curve and provide strong evidence for the phonon model including multiphonon excitations.

Two rare severe and fulminant presentations of Q fever in patients with minimal risk factors for this disease.

We described two rare severe and fulminant clinical presentations of acute Q fever. The first patient had severe multiorgan failure. The second patient had fever and severe cholera-like diarrhoea.

Chemical transformation and biological studies of marine sesquiterpene (S)-(+)-curcuphenol and its analogs.

Chemical transformation studies of the marine sesquiterpene phenol (S)-(+)-curcuphenol (1), isolated from the Jamaican sponges Myrmekioderma styx, were accomplished. In order to optimize the activity and better understand the SAR of (S)-(+)-curcuphenol, nineteen semisynthetic analogs were prepared and evaluated for activity against infectious diseases. A number of analogs showed significant activity against Mtb and Leishmania donovani, while showed good to moderate activities in antibacterial and antifungal assays as well as against Plasmodium falciparium (D6 clone) and (W2 clone).

(1)H nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomic analysis of mammary tumors from lean and obese Zucker rats exposed to 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene.

Obesity increases mammary tumor development in Zucker rats following a single administration of the procarcinogen 7,12-dimenthylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA). Fifty-day-old obese and lean female Zucker rats were orally gavaged with 65 mg/kg DMBA and sacrificed 139 days post DMBA treatment. At the end of the experiment, mammary tumors were detected in 68% of the obese rats compared to 32% of the lean group (P<0.

A fatal case of propylthiouracil-induced ANCA-positive vasculitis.

A 60-year-old man with a history of Graves' disease, treated with propylthiouracil (PTU), presented with a rash, pancytopenia, and lymphadenopathy. The patient subsequently developed acute renal failure and diffuse alveolar hemorrhage. Despite discontinuation of PTU and aggressive therapy including high-dose steroids, cyclophosphamide, and plasma exchange, the patient died.

Extreme hypernatraemia: a case report and brief review.

A 44-year-old man presented with extreme hypernatraemia. The case is unique in three respects: the patient's plasma sodium concentration was 208mmol/L; the aetiology was multifactorial, including essential hypernatraemia, hypodipsia and high ambient temperature; and the patient survived with full neurological recovery. We briefly review various disorders of thirst and osmorecepters.

Acute respiratory distress in a bleomycin primed patient: a new use for nitric oxide.

We describe the use of nitric oxide as an oxygen-sparing strategy in the context of prior bleomycin exposure. A 27-year-old male, previously treated with bleomycin for a testicular germ cell tumour presented with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome on the second postoperative day following an extensive retroperitoneal dissection. The mechanism of bleomycin toxicity and potential benefits of nitric oxide in this situation are considered.

Twice vs three times daily heparin dosing for thromboembolism prophylaxis in the general medical population: A metaanalysis.

Objectives: Prophylaxis with unfractionated heparin (UFH) has been proven to reduce rates of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in hospitalized medical patients. While twice-daily (BID) and three-times-daily (TID) dosing regimens have been studied, the two have never been directly compared. We performed a metaanalysis to assess whether TID is superior to BID dosing in the prevention of VTE.

Obesity increases the incidence of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene-induced mammary tumors in an ovariectomized Zucker rat model.

Obesity is associated with increased risk for postmenopausal, but not premenopausal breast cancer. Recently, we reported that intact obese Zucker rats had increased susceptibility to DMBA-induced mammary tumors compared to lean Zucker rats. In the present study, we investigated whether excessive adipose tissue would promote mammary tumor induction in the absence of ovarian estrogen.

Encapsulating fluorescein using adipic acid self-assembly on the surface of PPI-3 dendrimer.

A water-soluble self-assembly has been formed by associating adipic acid molecules onto the surface of the third generation poly(propyleneimine) dendrimer and this system has been used to encapsulate fluorescein.

Obesity promotes 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene-induced mammary tumor development in female zucker rats.

Introduction: High body mass index has been associated with increased risk for various cancers, including breast cancer. Here we describe studies using 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) to investigate the role of obesity in DMBA-induced mammary tumor susceptibility in the female Zucker rat (fa/fa), which is the most widely used rat model of genetic obesity.

Method: Fifty-day-old female obese (n = 25) and lean (n = 28) Zucker rats were orally gavaged with 65 mg/kg DMBA.

Provider preferences for DVT prophylaxis.

Background: Patients admitted to medicine wards are typically elderly with multiple co-morbidities, placing them at significant risk for venous thromboembolic (VTE) disease. Standard guidelines to help physicians assess risk and institute prophylaxis do not currently exist for this patient population. Our purpose was to assess how clinicians would rate a patient's risk for VTE and what recommendations they would make for prophylaxis.

Perceptual, affective, and cognitive judgments of odors: pleasantness and handedness effects.

The present study sought to examine the differential processing of pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant odors. The effects of the nostril stimulated (left or right) and the type of judgment (perceptual, affective, or cognitive) performed on the olfactory stimuli were also studied. To this end, 64 subjects were asked to smell pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant odors under four conditions (detection, intensity, pleasantness, and familiarity tasks).

Modulation of visual event-related potentials by emotional olfactory stimuli.

The objective of the present study was to determine whether an olfactory prime could modulate behavior and visual event-related potentials (ERPs) obtained in response to a visual stimulation representing female faces. More specifically, we tested the hypothesis that a pleasant odor could have effects on face perception: behavioral effects on subjective emotional estimation of faces, and on associated response times, and electrophysiological effects on the N400 and late positive complex or LPC. Experiments were performed in which subjects had to decide whether the presented face was pleasant or not, while visual ERPs were recorded.

A 41-year-old active duty U.S. Air Force enlisted man with a 3-week history of fevers, arthralgias, and myalgias.

A 41-year-old active duty male was transferred to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, for further evaluation of fever, rash, myalgias, arthralgias, and respiratory failure. An extensive evaluation with input from numerous subspecialties of medicine was performed. The patient was eventually diagnosed with adult Still's disease, which is a diagnosis of exclusion.

Psychophysiological correlates of affects in human olfaction.

Pleasantness and arousal have been identified as the main dimensions of affective responses to environment. Pleasantness is defined as the degree of favorable feelings a subject can experience under given circumstances. Arousal is defined as the degree of excitement (general activation) the subject feels under these circumstances.

Autonomic nervous system responses to odours: the role of pleasantness and arousal.

Perception of odours can provoke explicit reactions such as judgements of intensity or pleasantness, and implicit output such as skin conductance or heart rate variations. The main purpose of the present experiment was to ascertain: (i) the correlation between odour ratings (intensity, arousal, pleasantness and familiarity) and activation of the autonomic nervous system, and (ii) the inter-correlation between self-report ratings on intensity, arousal, pleasantness and familiarity dimensions in odour perception. Twelve healthy volunteers were tested in two separate sessions.