Intestinal Microbiota Reduction Followed by Fasting Discloses Microbial Triggering of Inflammation in Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) synovitis is dominated by monocytes/macrophages with inflammatory patterns resembling microbial stimulation. In search of triggers, we reduced the intestinal microbiome in 20 RA patients (open label study DRKS00014097) by bowel cleansing and 7-day fasting (≤250 kcal/day) and performed immune monitoring and microbiome sequencing. Patients with metabolic syndrome ( = 10) served as a non-inflammatory control group.

Clinical features and outcome of vertebral osteomyelitis after spinal injection: is it worth the price?

Purpose: Spinal injections are increasingly used for back pain treatment. Vertebral osteomyelitis (VO) after spinal injection (SIVO) is rare, but patient characteristics and outcome have not been well characterized. The aim of this study was to assess patient characteristics of SIVO in comparison to patients with native vertebral osteomyelitis (NVO) and to determine predictors for 1-year survival.

Improving Emergency Department Patient-Physician Conversation Through an Artificial Intelligence Symptom-Taking Tool: Mixed Methods Pilot Observational Study.

Background: Establishing rapport and empathy between patients and their health care provider is important but challenging in the context of a busy and crowded emergency department (ED).

Objective: We explore the hypotheses that rapport building, documentation, and time efficiency might be improved in the ED by providing patients a digital tool that uses Bayesian reasoning-based techniques to gather relevant symptoms and history for handover to clinicians.

Methods: A 2-phase pilot evaluation was carried out in the ED of a German tertiary referral and major trauma hospital that treats an average of 120 patients daily.