Premature Ventricular Contractions (PVCs): A Narrative Review.

Premature ventricular complexes/contractions (PVCs) are relatively common, occurring in 3%-20% of the general population, and are often found during work-up of palpitations or incidentally on routine electrocardiographic testing. They are usually considered benign but can be a sign of underlying cardiac disease and cause significantly impairing symptoms. While often thought of as a problem for the cardiologist, it is not uncommon for PVCs to be identified initially in a primary care or inpatient general medicine setting.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs of Pediatric Health Care Workers: Understanding the Response to COVID-19.

Introduction: This research aims to assess knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of PHCW regarding COVID-19.

Method: Data collected using an electronic survey sent to pediatric health care workers.

Results: Age was not likely to influence willingness to care for patients with COVID-19.

Impact of Different Electronic Cohort Definitions to Identify Patients With Atrial Fibrillation From the Electronic Medical Record.

Background Electronic medical records (EMRs) allow identification of disease-specific patient populations, but varying electronic cohort definitions could result in different populations. We compared the characteristics of an electronic medical record-derived atrial fibrillation (AF) patient population using 5 different electronic cohort definitions. Methods and Results Adult patients with at least 1 AF billing code from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2017, were included.

Haemophilus influenzae OxyR: characterization of its regulation, regulon and role in fitness.

To prevent damage by reactive oxygen species, many bacteria have evolved rapid detection and response systems, including the OxyR regulon. The OxyR system detects reactive oxygen and coordinates the expression of numerous defensive antioxidants. In many bacterial species the coordinated OxyR-regulated response is crucial for in vivo survival.

Signature-tagging of a bacterial isolate demonstrates phenotypic variability of the progeny in vivo in the absence of defined mutations.

Awareness of the high degree of redundancy that occurs in several nutrient uptake pathways of Haemophilus influenzae led us to attempt to develop a quantitative STM method that could identify both null mutants and mutants with decreased fitness that remain viable in vivo. To accomplish this task we designed a modified STM approach that utilized a set of signature tagged wild-type (STWT) strains (in a single genetic background) as carriers for mutations in genes of interest located elsewhere in the genome. Each STWT strain differed from the others by insertion of a unique, Q-PCR-detectable, seven base pair tag into the same redundant gene locus.

Burkholderia cenocepacia utilizes ferritin as an iron source.

Burkholderia cenocepacia is a member of the Burkholderia cepacia complex, a group of genetically similar species that inhabit a number of environmental niches, including the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). To colonize the lung, this bacterium requires a source of iron to satisfy its nutritional requirements for this important metal. Because of the high potential for damage in lung tissue resulting from oxygen-iron interactions, this metal is sequestered by a number of mechanisms that render it potentially unavailable to invading micro-organisms.

Antibody-dependent enhancement, a possible mechanism in augmented pulmonary disease of respiratory syncytial virus in the Bonnet monkey model.

Bonnet monkeys develop an enhanced disease after immunization with the formalin-inactivated (FI) respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine that is characterized by increased viral replication in perivascular sites of the lung. These sites contain many mononuclear cells, which are known to be permissive for RSV replication. To test the hypothesis that FI-RSV vaccine stimulates the production of enhancing antibodies that serve to increase the replication of RSV in macrophages, in vitro studies were done.