Pilot Evaluation of a Functional Pain Assessment Scale.

Purpose/aims: Common pain assessment tools measure intensity, ignoring other dimensions of pain like function. The aim of this study was to test the psychometric properties of a newly developed functional pain assessment scale (FPAS) for use in clinical practice.

Design/methods: In this descriptive correlational study, an FPAS was developed and then evaluated against 2 validated pain tools in 68 hospitalized adult patients experiencing acute and/or chronic pain.

Typhoid fever outbreak associated with frozen mamey pulp imported from Guatemala to the western United States, 2010.

Background: Fifty-four outbreaks of domestically acquired typhoid fever were reported between 1960 and 1999. In 2010, the Southern Nevada Health District detected an outbreak of typhoid fever among persons who had not recently travelled abroad.

Methods: We conducted a case-control study to examine the relationship between illness and exposures.

Ciprofloxacin-resistant Salmonella enterica Serotype Typhi, United States, 1999-2008.

We report 9 ciprofloxacin-resistant Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi isolates submitted to the US National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System during 1999-2008. The first 2 had indistinguishable pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns and identical gyrA and parC mutations. Eight of the 9 patients had traveled to India within 30 days before illness onset.

2008 outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul infections associated with raw produce.

Background: Raw produce is an increasingly recognized vehicle for salmonellosis. We investigated a nationwide outbreak that occurred in the United States in 2008.

Methods: We defined a case as diarrhea in a person with laboratory-confirmed infection with the outbreak strain of Salmonella enterica serotype Saintpaul.

A prolonged outbreak of Salmonella Montevideo infections associated with multiple locations of a restaurant chain in Phoenix, Arizona, 2008.

An outbreak of Salmonella serotype Montevideo infections associated with multiple locations of restaurant chain A in Phoenix, AZ, was identified in July 2008. One infected individual reported eating at a chain A catered luncheon where others fell ill; we conducted a cohort study among attendees to identify the vehicle. Food and environmental samples collected at six chain A locations were cultured for Salmonella.

Characterization of extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant Salmonella enterica serovar Heidelberg isolated from humans in the United States.

During the past decade, extended-spectrum cephalosporin resistance has increased among human isolates of Salmonella enterica serovar Heidelberg, the fourth most common serotype in the United States. We therefore characterized 54 Heidelberg isolates with decreased susceptibility (minimum inhibitory concentrations >or=2 mg/L) to ceftriaxone or ceftiofur; 49 (90.7%) contained the CMY-type beta-lactamase (bla(CMY)) gene.

Pectin induces apoptosis in human prostate cancer cells: correlation of apoptotic function with pectin structure.

Treatment options for androgen-independent prostate cancer cells are limited. Therefore, it is critical to identify agents that induce death of both androgen-responsive and androgen-insensitive cells. Here we demonstrate that a product of plant cell walls, pectin, is capable of inducing apoptosis in androgen-responsive (LNCaP) and androgen-independent (LNCaP C4-2) human prostate cancer cells.