Mapping Proximity to Infectious Disease Physicians Across the United States.

Enduring shortages of infectious disease physicians across the United States continue despite efforts to mitigate the problem. The recent fellowship match results underscore the difficulty in rectifying that shortage. Our report sheds light on the current geographic distribution of US infectious disease physicians and highlights the challenges faced by rural communities.

COVID-19 among people living with HIV in Lebanon.

Background: There are conflicting reports of the interaction between COVID-19 and HIV infection among coinfected individuals, and there is a particular dearth of evidence among populations in the Middle East.

Aim: To determine if living with HIV and use of antiretroviral therapy increases susceptibility to, and severity of, COVID-19.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was based on telephone survey of COVID-19 symptoms duration and clinical course among 200 people living with HIV (PLWHs) and a review of medical records in Beirut, Lebanon, during Spring 2021.

Rifampin Based Therapy for Patients With Staphylococcus aureus Native Vertebral Osteomyelitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Background: Native vertebral osteomyelitis (NVO) caused by Staphylococcus aureus is associated with high risk of treatment failure and increased morbidity. The role of rifampin-based therapy for the treatment of this condition is controversial. The goal of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to explore the efficacy and safety of rifampin-based therapy for the treatment of S.

in spine tissue: characteristics and outcomes of non-hardware-associated vertebral osteomyelitis.

isolation from spine tissue can be challenging because the organism can represent a contaminant. There is a paucity of data regarding the role of in non-hardware-associated vertebral osteomyelitis (VO). Herein we evaluate the clinical and microbiological characteristics, treatment, and outcome of patients with VO.

The use of MRI, PET/CT, and nuclear scintigraphy in the imaging of pyogenic native vertebral osteomyelitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background Context: Native vertebral osteomyelitis (NVO) is a severe infection with an increasing incidence globally. Although there is no widely agreed upon reference standard for diagnosis of the disease, imaging plays a crucial role. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is currently the imaging modality of choice.

Factors Impacting the Yield of Image-Guided Biopsy in Native Vertebral Osteomyelitis: A 10-Year Retrospective Study.

Background: Image-guided biopsies in patients with suspected native vertebral osteomyelitis (NVO) are recommended to establish the microbiological diagnosis and guide antibiotic therapy. Despite recent advances, the microbiological yield of this procedure remains between 48% and 52%. A better understanding of factors associated with this low yield may lead to improved microbiological diagnosis.

Early switch to oral antibiotic therapy for the treatment of patients with bacterial native vertebral osteomyelitis: a quaternary center experience, systematic review, and meta-analysis.

Recent data suggest that oral therapy can be effective for bone infections. We aim to assess the efficacy of an early switch to oral therapy (  weeks) compared to a non-early switch in bacterial native vertebral osteomyelitis. We conducted a cohort study at Mayo Clinic, Rochester (MN), between 2019-2021 combined with a systematic review, which queried multiple databases.

The effect of the BNT162b2 vaccine on antinuclear antibody and antiphospholipid antibody levels.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech) in December 2020. New adverse events have emerged since these vaccines have reached market. Although no clear association between messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines and autoimmunity has emerged, the significance of such an association warrants further exploration.

The Emerging Role of the Gut Microbiome in the Cancer Response to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors: A Narrative Review.

The discovery of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has revolutionized the care of cancer patients. However, the response to ICI therapy exhibits substantial interindividual variability. Efforts have been directed to identify biomarkers that predict the clinical response to ICIs.

Diagnosis of vertebral osteomyelitis.

Native vertebral osteomyelitis (NVO) is a potentially fatal infection which has seen a gradual increase in its incidence over the past decades. The infection is insidious, presenting with symptoms of back pain. Fever is present in about 60 % of patients.

Prognostic Value of Procalcitonin, C-Reactive Protein, and Lactate Levels in Emergency Evaluation of Cancer Patients with Suspected Infection.

Cancer patients have increased risk of infections, and often present to emergency departments with infection-related problems where physicians must make decisions based on a snapshot of the patient's condition. Although C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, and lactate are popular biomarkers of sepsis, their use in guiding emergency care of cancer patients with infections is unclear. Using these biomarkers, we created a prediction model for short-term mortality in cancer patients with suspected infection.

Gastrointestinal adverse events associated with immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy.

Immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors has revolutionized cancer therapy and is now the standard treatment for several different types of cancer, supported by favorable outcomes and good tolerance. However, it is linked to multiple immune manifestations, referred to as immune-related adverse events (irAEs). These adverse events frequently affect the skin, colon, endocrine glands, lungs, and liver.

Diabetic ketoacidosis induced by a single dose of pembrolizumab.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors are a new class of anticancer drugs recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of various malignancies. Pembrolizumab is an immune checkpoint inhibitor that targets the programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) receptor and blocks its interaction with programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) and programmed cell death ligand-2 (PD-L2). Pembrolizumab was first approved by the FDA in 2014 for the treatment of advanced melanoma and is currently approved for use in non-small cell lung cancer and several other neoplasms.