Use of procedural ultrasound for the insertion of peripheral intravenous catheters: A nationwide survey in acute care departments in Belgium.

Purpose: Assessment of ultrasound use for peripheral intravenous cannulation among acute care nurses and physicians.

Methods: Over a population of 17,437, the calculated sample size of respondents required was 376.

Results: A total of 388 health professionals; 249 (64.

Compartment syndrome of the forearm with life-threatening bleeding after fasciotomy as the presenting sign of postpartum acquired hemophilia A: a case report.

: Acquired hemophilia A (AHA) is a rare bleeding disorder caused by the development of autoantibodies against clotting factor VIII. Although the cause of this disorder remains obscure, it is often linked to malignancies, drug administration, autoimmune diseases and pregnancy. In pregnancy-associated AHA, hemorrhagic symptoms usually present 1-4 months peripartum, however they may occur up to 1-year postpartum.

Drug-Drug Interaction of Ergotamine with a Combination of Darunavir, Abacavir, and Lamivudine Causing a Fatal Vasospastic Ischemia.

Ergotamine toxicity has become a rare condition which can be caused by, among others, drug-drug interaction. In this work we report a case with vasospastic ischemia induced by the wrongful combination of ergotamine with recently started Antiretroviral Therapy. Clinicians were not aware that patient was self-medicating for years with medication containing ergotamine and caffeine for migraines.

Streptococcal toxic shock syndrome in a returning traveller.

A patient presenting with fever and purpura after a stay in the tropics tempts a physician to make a differential diagnosis mainly focusing on imported diseases. Although the importance of considering a tropical disease is obvious, the fact that cosmopolitan infections account for one third of the cases in a febrile returning traveler must not be overseen. Toxic Shock Syndrome is amongst the most notorious diseases due to the high mortality when inappropriately managed and the association with necrotizing fasciitis.

Prognostic Accuracy of Sepsis-3 Criteria for In-Hospital Mortality Among Patients With Suspected Infection Presenting to the Emergency Department.

Importance: An international task force recently redefined the concept of sepsis. This task force recommended the use of the quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) score instead of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) criteria to identify patients at high risk of mortality. However, these new criteria have not been prospectively validated in some settings, and their added value in the emergency department remains unknown.

Large-scale synthesis and in situ functionalization of Zn3P2 and Zn4Sb3 nanowire powders.

A simple method for the large-scale synthesis of gram quantities of compound semiconductor nanowires without the need for any external catalysts or templates is presented. This method is demonstrated using zinc phosphide (Zn3P2) and zinc antimonide (β-Zn4Sb3) nanowires as example systems. Large-scale synthesis of Zn3P2 and Zn4Sb3 nanowire powders was accomplished using a hot-walled chemical vapor deposition chamber by transporting phosphorus and antimony, respectively, via the vapor phase onto heated zinc foils.

Indications and limits of meniscal allografts.

Meniscal allograft transplantation has emerged as a useful treatment for carefully selected patients. The aim of this review of meniscal allograft transplantation is to put this procedure into a clinical perspective. Since there still is a lack of consensus on how the success of meniscal transplantation should be evaluated it is difficult to compare study outcomes.

Escape of HIV-1 is associated with lack of V3 domain-specific antibodies in vivo.

This study was performed to analyse correlates of viral escape in AIDS patients. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from HIV- donors were inoculated with AIDS patients' serum to detect neutralization-resistant cell-free virus. Infectious virus was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and analysed by sequencing the V3 region.

Mutant EL-4 thymoma cells polyclonally activate murine and human B cells via direct cell interaction.

In this report we show that three mutagenized sublines of (murine) EL-4 thymoma cells can constitutively activate human and/or murine B cells via an MHC-nonrestricted cell-cell interaction. The activation signal is not by itself mitogenic but renders B cells capable of proliferating in response to interleukin 2 (IL 2). In addition, one of the mutant EL-4 sublines can constitutively respond by release of IL 2 in the presence of IL 1-containing macrophage (P388D1) supernatant.