The -938C>A Polymorphism in Is Associated with Susceptibility to Tuberculosis: A Pilot Study.

. Tuberculosis (TB) is a major disease worldwide, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection. The Toll-Like Receptor (TLR) pathway plays a crucial role in the recognition of MTB.

Emergency department triage of acute heart failure triggered by pneumonia; when an intensive care unit is needed?

Community acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a frequent triggering factor for decompensation of a chronic cardiac dysfunction, leading to acute heart failure (AHF). Patients with AHF exacerbated by CAP, are often admitted through the emergency department for ICU hospitalization, even though more than half the cases do not warrant any intensive care treatment. Emergency department physicians are forced to make disposition decisions based on subjective criteria, due to lack of evidence-based risk scores for AHF combined with CAP.

Soluble ICAM-1 levels in small-cell lung cancer: prognostic value for survival and predictive significance for response during chemotherapy.

Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) is an adhesion molecule, member of the immunoglobulin gene superfamily that seems to participate in the evolution of the metastatic process. We investigated the significance of baseline soluble ICAM-1 levels on the outcome of patients with small-cell lung cancer and whether soluble ICAM-1 is a predictive marker for objective response during and after chemotherapy in patients with small-cell lung cancer. Fifty patients with recently diagnosed small-cell lung cancer, as well as 27 healthy smokers, were enrolled.

Clinical and surgical-pathological staging in early non-small cell lung cancer.

Staging is of the utmost importance in the evaluation of a patient with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) because it defines the actual extent of the disease. Accurate staging allows multidisciplinary oncology teams to plan the best surgical or medical treatment and to predict patient prognosis. Based on the recommendation of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), a tumor, node, and metastases (TNM) staging system is currently used for NSCLC.