The risk of potential thromboembolic, renal and cardiac complications of sickle cell trait.

Many complications of sickle cell trait have been well-established, but associations with additional disease states remain controversial. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to examine the frequency of receiving a diagnosis of thromboembolism, pulmonary embolism (PE), ischemic stroke, renal disease (acute, chronic), coronary artery disease (CAD) and congestive heart failure (CHF) in patients with sickle cell trait. A total of 13,964 adult African Americans registered in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) health system (Oakland, CA, USA), were included based on laboratory and diagnostic code data for the years 1995-2008: 2642 with sickle cell trait, 11,183 with normal hemoglobin (Hb) and 139 with sickle cell disease.

Bacteremia, fever, and splenomegaly caused by a newly recognized bartonella species.

Bartonella species cause serious human infections globally, including bacillary angiomatosis, Oroya fever, trench fever, and endocarditis. We describe a patient who had fever and splenomegaly after traveling to Peru and also had bacteremia from an organism that resembled Bartonella bacilliformis, the causative agent of Oroya fever, which is endemic to Peru. However, genetic analyses revealed that this fastidious bacterium represented a previously uncultured and unnamed bartonella species, closely related to B.

A family of variably expressed outer-membrane proteins (Vomp) mediates adhesion and autoaggregation in Bartonella quintana.

Bartonella species are fastidious, Gram-negative human pathogens that can persist in the host bloodstream for years and bind to and invade several types of host cells. For many pathogens, adhesion to host cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) components is a critical virulence determinant. Bacteria often vary expression of surface adhesins by phase or antigenic variation to subvert the host immune response and permit adaptive interaction with different host structures.