Procalcitonin and procalcitonin kinetics for diagnosis and prognosis of intravascular catheter-related bloodstream infections in selected critically ill patients: a prospective observational study.

Background: Procalcitonin (PCT) has emerged as a valuable marker of sepsis. The potential role of PCT in diagnosis and therapy monitoring of intravascular catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSI) in intensive care unit (ICU) is still unclear and was evaluated.

Methods: Forty-six patients were included in the study, provided they were free of infection upon admission and presented the first episode of suspected CRBSI during their ICU stay.

Differential effect of baseline adiponectin on all-cause mortality in hemodialysis patients depending on initial body mass index. Long-term follow-up data of 4.5 years.

Objectives: We sought to investigate the interaction of adiponectin levels and body mass index (BMI) for predicting all-cause mortality in a cohort of hemodialysis (HD) patients.

Design: Longitudinal, observational cohort study.

Setting: HD unit.

Serum pattern of circulating soluble receptor of leptin throughout the menstrual cycle.

Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate the pattern of circulating soluble receptor of leptin (sLeptinR) during the menstrual cycle and the association of sLeptinR to leptin, sex hormones and gonadotropins.

Methods: Fasting blood samples were collected on alternate days throughout a full cycle from fifteen healthy volunteers. Immunoenzymatic assays were employed to record the relevant levels.

A case of Listeria meningoencephalitis complicated by hydrocephalus in an immunocompetent infant.

We report a very unusual case of meningoencephalitis due to Listeria monocytogenes in a 7-month-old immunocompetent boy. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) culture was initially negative, but was positive on the seventh day. The disease was complicated by seizures and hydrocephalus managed with temporary ventriculostomy.

Asthma, lung function and sensitization in school children with a history of bronchiolitis.

Background: The purpose of the present retrospective study was to investigate the association of school-age asthma with acute-bronchiolitis and examine the influence of potential risk factors.

Methods: One hundred and eighty-nine children aged 7.5 +/- 2.

Extensive cutaneous anthrax in an immunocompetent patient.

Bacillus anthracis disease constitutes an extremely important worldwide epidemiological problem. Interest in cutaneous anthrax resides in its skin manifestations, course, diagnostic methods and management. An extensive cutaneous anthrax of the whole left upper arm, accompanied by lymphadenopathy and high fever, in a 60 year-old male patient, a shepherd by profession, is reported.

The role of breastfeeding and passive smoking on the development of severe bronchiolitis in infants.

Aim: Bronchiolitis is an acute infectious disease of the lower respiratory tract which causes the obstruction of bronchioles in children younger than 2 years. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of passive smoking alone and in conjunction with breastfeeding on the severity of acute bronchiolitis in infancy and the duration of hospitalisation.

Methods: We studied 240 consecutive infants aged from 6 to 24 months (137 boys and 103 girls) median age 14 months, who required hospital admission for acute bronchiolitis at the Paediatric Department of Democritus University Hospital, Alexandroupolis, Greece.

Diagnostic usefulness of bone marrow aspiration material for the amplification of IS6110 insertion element in extrapulmonary tuberculosis: comparison of two PCR techniques.

Setting: In many cases of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB), with the exception of paucibacillary analysed specimens, the suspected site of mycobacterial infection is relatively inaccessible or unknown, making laboratory confirmation of TB laborious and problematic.

Objective: Two different polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based methods were compared to investigate the validity of bone marrow aspiration material as an easily accessible alternative sample for molecular analysis in EPTB.

Design: We amplified the same sequence of IS6110 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in 19 confirmed cases of EPTB using two different nested PCR techniques: one in-house 'classic' PCR and another based on LightCycler technology.

Amifostine protects lymphocytes during radiotherapy and stimulates expansion of the CD95/Fas and CD31 expressing T-cells, in breast cancer patients.

A large body of experimental research supports the anti-neoplastic activity of cellular and humoral immunity. Disease and therapy-related immune suppression may be important on the treatment outcome or on the subsequent course of the malignant disease. The aim of the study was to investigate the efficacy of amifostine in preventing the immunological toxicity of post-operative radiotherapy (RT) in breast cancer patients.

Tumour necrosis factor-alpha levels in non-diabetic offspring of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is considered to be involved in the insulin resistance of type 2 diabetes mellitus. The offspring of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus are at increased risk of developing diabetes and several metabolic abnormalities, but the underlying defects responsible are not known. We studied serum TNF-alpha levels in 30 healthy non-diabetic offspring of type 2 diabetic parents (group A), and the relationship between TNF-alpha levels and variables associated with insulin resistance and diabetes.