Lipids, biomarkers, and subclinical atherosclerosis in treatment-naive HIV patients starting or not starting antiretroviral therapy: Comparison with a healthy control group in a 2-year prospective study.

Objective: To assess the effect of HIV infection and combined antiretroviral therapy (c-ART) on various proatherogenic biomarkers and lipids and to investigate their relationship with subclinical atherosclerosis in a cohort of treatment-naive HIV-infected patients.

Methods: We performed a prospective, comparative, multicenter study of 2 groups of treatment-naive HIV-infected patients (group A, CD4>500 cells/μL, not starting c-ART; and group B, CD4<500 cells/μL, starting c-ART at baseline) and a healthy control group. Laboratory analyses and carotid ultrasound were performed at baseline and at months 12 and 24.

Substitution of nevirapine, efavirenz, or abacavir for protease inhibitors in patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection.

Background: We assessed the strategy of substituting nevirapine, efavirenz, or abacavir for a protease inhibitor in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) in whom virologic suppression had been achieved.

Methods: We randomly assigned 460 adults who were taking two nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors and at least one protease inhibitor and whose plasma HIV-1 RNA levels had been less than 200 copies per milliliter for at least the previous six months to switch from the protease inhibitor to nevirapine (155 patients), efavirenz (156), or abacavir (149). The primary end point was death, progression to the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or an increase in HIV-1 RNA levels to 200 copies or more per milliliter.

[Bacteremia due to Escherichia coli: epidemiological analysis and sensitivity to antibiotics in a county hospital].

Background And Objective: There are few studies analyzing the epidemiological characteristics of Escherichia coli bacteremia including the susceptibility to antibiotics and outcome.

Patients And Method: E. coli bacteremia episodes were recorded from January 1989 to December 1998.

Epidemiology and prognosis of bacteremia: a 10-y study in a community hospital.

In order to determine the epidemiology and factors influencing the outcome of adult bacteremia in a community hospital, episodes of significant bacteremia were recorded prospectively over a 10-y period (1989-98). The following variables were included: age, sex, etiology, acquisition and source of the bacteremia, risk factors, clinical manifestations, empirical antibiotic treatment and outcome. A total of 798 episodes of bacteremia were recorded (436 in males) and 185 (24%) were hospital-acquired.

[Bacteremia in patients discharged from the emergency unit].

Background: To know the clinical and epidemiologic characteristics, the evolution and the rate of adequate empiric antibiotic treatment in adult patients with a bacteremia discovered after discharge from an emergency unit.

Patients And Method: During 10 years (1989-1998), we registered the clinical and epidemiological data from patients with a bacteremia detected after discharge from emergency. The results were compared with those of patients admitted to hospital who had a community-acquired bacteremia.

[Surveillance of nosocomial infection at a regional++ hospital. Results of incidence and prevalence studies in a 2 years' experience].

Background: The most appropriate methods for surveillance of nosocomial infection (NI) in hospitals with less than 250 beds remain to be elucidated. The aims of this study were to investigate the differences between the results found in a study in incidence (IS) and in another concerning prevalence (PS) carried out in a county hospital and study the experience in the application of a collection method of incidental cases through a survey.

Methods: For 2 years IS trimestrally accumulated and simultaneously PS trimestrally were applied for global surveillance and for type of NI as well as for knowing the etiology of the same.

[Pulmonary infiltrates, eosinophilia and polyneuritis].

A case of chronic eosinophilic pneumonia which, during the evolution, developed a very rare motor-sensitive polyneuritis of the lower limbs, is presented. We comment on the results of the electromyography, the neuromuscular biopsy and show the differential diagnosis with other diseases with lung infiltrates, peripheric eosinophilia and polyneuritis, such as hypereosinophilic syndrome, allergic angiitis and granulomatosis of Churg and Strauss.

[Massive pleural effusion secondary to hydronephrosis].

The most frequent causes of pleural effusion are congestive heart failure, advanced cirrhosis and nephrotic syndrome. In some rare cases urine can be found accumulated in the pleural compartment, being this entity denominated urinotorax. This phenomenon is generally considered secondary to an urinary obstruction or to an urinoma on the same side as the effusion through mechanisms not yet clarified.

Bilateral and symmetrical osteomyelitis due to gram-negative bacilli. A report on two cases.

Gram-negative bacillary osteomyelitis secondary to sepsis is a rare condition. It most frequently attacks the vertebrae, occasionally in the long bones, and can on occasion be multiple. We present 2 patients with severe sepsis of urinary origin who, after a latent period, developed bilateral and symmetrical osteomyelitis due to the same microorganism that caused the sepsis.