Impact of invasive infections on clinical outcomes in acute pancreatitis: early predictive factors and implications for prophylactic anti-infective therapy.

Background: The use of antibiotic therapy in acute pancreatitis remains controversial and is currently recommended only for confirmed infections of peripancreatic necrosis. However, reliable early predictors of septic complications and unfavorable outcomes are substantially lacking.

Methods: Patients with acute pancreatitis were retrospectively reviewed and divided into two groups: one with a septic course defined by pathogen detection [GERM(+)] and one without [GERM(-)].

Attentional network task performance in patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders: evidence of a specific deficit.

Although attentional deficits are frequently displayed by schizophrenia and spectrum patients, the precise nature of the impairment is unclear. The present study investigates attentional performance in 26 schizophrenia-spectrum outpatients and 24 healthy controls using the Attentional Network Task (ANT). We assessed the efficiency of the segregated alerting, orienting, and executive control networks by measuring how response latencies were influenced by alerting cues, spatial cues, and flanking stimuli.

Visuoconstructive performance, implicit hemispatial inattention, and schizotypy.

The present study investigates visuoconstructive performance and hemispatial inattention in schizotypic college students and control subjects using the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (CFT). Both copy and delay CFT accuracy, as well as line bisection scores on the CFT, were examined in right-handed males reporting positive schizotypy (deviantly high scorers on the Perceptual Aberration and Magical Ideation Scales; n=24) and those reporting negative schizotypy (deviantly high scorers on the revised Social Anhedonia Scale and Physical Anhedonia Scale; n=26), as well as controls (n=45). The negative schizotypy group displayed reduced visuoconstructive performance, as measured by performance on both the copy and delay trials of the CFT.