Publications by authors named "Luis Cuellar"

Candidemia is the predominant form of invasive candidiasis and the most frequently occurring serious fungal infection in critically ill patients in Intensive Care Units (ICU). Studies carried out in Latin America reveal a higher incidence of candidemia and higher mortality rates when compared to North America or Europe. This highlights the need to develop guidelines for correctly diagnosing and treating candidemia in critically ill patients in the ICU.

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Background: Studies have shown that more than 50% of the antibiotics used in hospitals are unnecessary or inappropriate and, that antimicrobial resistance may cost up to 20 billion USD in excess medical costs each year. On the other hand, Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs (ASP) significantly reduce inappropriate antimicrobial use, emergence of antimicrobial resistance, healthcare associated infections, and costs in hospital settings.

Objective: To evaluate the development of ASP and antibiotic savings in 7 Latin American hospitals using standardized quantitative indicators in all the participating health care institutions.

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Purpose: Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a multifocal angioproliferative disease. In Peru, the implementation of the highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) program was in 2005, the model for treating patients with HIV-positive KS shifted to a potential cure. In this study, we aim to compare clinicopathological characteristics and prognostic factors associated with outcomes in patients with HIV-positive KS.

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Listeriosis infection is a severe disease, with high morbidity and mortality in the immunocompromised patient, especially with disseminated and fatal presentations in cancer patients. A descriptive study was developed to describe the clinical and epidemiologic characteristics in oncologic patients with listeriosis in the Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplásicas between the years 2005-2015. A total of 29 patients were included; 23 (79.

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Objective: This cross-sectional study examined the influence of education on executive functions, behavioral problems and functional performance in people with chronic schizophrenia.

Method: Our sample was composed of 116 subjects with a schizophrenia diagnosis (evolution time = 17.5 ± 9.

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Article Synopsis
  • Trichosporon fungaemia (TF) cases have risen, with high mortality rates, prompting a need for better understanding of its treatment and underlying factors.
  • A study conducted from 2005 to 2018 analyzed 88 TF episodes in South America, highlighting that many patients had serious underlying conditions and a strong association with the use of central venous catheters (CVCs).
  • Key findings included a 30-day mortality rate of 51.1%, with predictors like age and mechanical ventilation worsening outcomes, while removing CVCs significantly reduced mortality risk.
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Introduction: Blood transfusion is still common in patients undergoing major cancer surgery. Blood transfusion can be associated with poor prognosis in patients with cancer. Perioperative Care in the Cancer Patient -1 (ARCA-1) aims to assess in a large cohort of patients the current incidence, pattern of practice and associations between perioperative blood transfusions and 1-year survival in patients undergoing major cancer surgery.

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Introduction: Carbapenemases are β-lactamases able to hydrolyze a wide range of β-lactam antibiotics, including carbapenems. Carbapenemase production in and spp., with and without the co-expression of other β-lactamases is a serious public health threat.

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Article Synopsis
  • Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is the most prevalent cancer among HIV patients, predominantly affecting those in developing countries like Peru, yet most existing research focuses on developed regions.
  • This study analyzed outcomes in HIV-positive patients with NHL treated at a Peruvian institution from 2004 to 2014, comparing antiretroviral therapy (ART)-naïve patients to those previously treated with ART.
  • Key findings indicated that ART-exposed patients had worse overall survival rates, with significant factors influencing prognosis being advanced disease stage, low serum albumin levels, and in ART-naïve individuals, patients over 60 years old fared worse, though they still had better outcomes than those who were ART-exposed.
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Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health problem that, due to the clinical variability of its presentation, can be confused with cancer. The aim of this study was to identify the clinical-radiological characteristics and to describe the methodology that allowed to achieve a TB diagnosis in patients referred to the National Institute of Neoplastic Diseases (INEN) with a presumed diagnosis of cancer between 2014 and 2016. The study included 170 patients (52.

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Aims: The objective of this study was to determine whether vitamin D and genistein supplementation had an additive beneficial effect on levels of vitamin D and bone markers and whether this effect was mediated by genes regulating isoflavone metabolism.

Materials And Methods: We carried out a prospective study in postmenopausal women randomized to calcium and vitamin D supplementation or calcium, vitamin D, and genistein supplementation. Vitamin D, parathyroid hormone (PTH), cross-linked C-telopeptide (CTX), and procollagen 1 N-terminal (P1NP) were determined by electrochemiluminescence.

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African swine fever virus (ASFV) is one of the most dangerous viruses for pigs and is endemic in Africa but recently also spread into the Russian Federation and the Eastern border of the EU. So far there is no vaccine or antiviral drug available to curtail the infection. Thus, control strategies based on novel inhibitors are urgently needed.

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Nanogels are water soluble cross-linked polymer networks with nanometer size dimensions that can be designed to incorporate different types of compounds and are promising carrier systems for drugs and biological molecules. In this study, the interactions of thermoresponsive nanogels (tNGs) with the human skin barrier and underlying epidermis cells were investigated with the aim of using such macromolecules to improve dermal and transdermal drug delivery. The investigated tNGs were made of acrylated dendritic polyglycerol, as water soluble cross-linker, and of oligo ethylene glycol methacrylate (OEGMA) as subunit conferring thermoresponsive properties.

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The molecular organization of eukaryotic nuclear volumes remains largely unexplored. Here we combined recent developments in cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) to produce three-dimensional snapshots of the HeLa cell nuclear periphery. Subtomogram averaging and classification of ribosomes revealed the native structure and organization of the cytoplasmic translation machinery.

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Objectives: To assess the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of active tuberculosis in patients with malignancy and to assess the influence of TB treatment on cancer management at the National Institute of Neoplastic Diseases from 2008 to 2013.

Materials And Methods: Observational study of TB cases diagnosed by positive sputum microscopy in patients with cancer. Clinical information, evolution, and pathologic information of neoplasia was reviewed.

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We report the results of an International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) surveillance study from January 2007-December 2012 in 503 intensive care units (ICUs) in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. During the 6-year study using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) U.S.

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U1 small nuclear interference (U1i) has recently been described as a novel gene silencing mechanism. U1i employs short oligonucleotides, so-called U1 adaptors, for specific gene knockdown, expanding the field of current silencing strategies that are primarily based on RNA interference (RNAi) or antisense. Despite the potential of U1 adaptors as therapeutic agents, their in vivo application has not yet been studied.

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Objective: To assess the feasibility and effectiveness of the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) multidimensional hand hygiene approach in 19 limited-resource countries and to analyze predictors of poor hand hygiene compliance.

Design: An observational, prospective, cohort, interventional, before-and-after study from April 1999 through December 2011. The study was divided into 2 periods: a 3-month baseline period and a 7-year follow-up period.

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Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium's multidimensional approach on the reduction of ventilator-associated pneumonia in patients hospitalized in intensive care units.

Design: A prospective active surveillance before-after study. The study was divided into two phases.

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Cryo-electron tomography (CET) is a three-dimensional imaging technique for structural studies of macromolecules under close-to-native conditions. In-depth analysis of macromolecule populations depicted in tomograms requires identification of subtomograms corresponding to putative particles, averaging of subtomograms to enhance their signal, and classification to capture the structural variations among them. Here, we introduce the open-source platform PyTom that unifies standard tomogram processing steps in a python toolbox.

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Background: A high prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies in obese subjects has been reported. Bariatric surgery is the most effective long-term treatment of morbid obesity, but this treatment can result in secondary micronutrient deficiencies. The aim of our work was to describe the micronutrient status in obese women before surgery at a university hospital.

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The results of a surveillance study conducted by the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) from January 2004 through December 2009 in 422 intensive care units (ICUs) of 36 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe are reported. During the 6-year study period, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN; formerly the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance system [NNIS]) definitions for device-associated health care-associated infections, we gathered prospective data from 313,008 patients hospitalized in the consortium's ICUs for an aggregate of 2,194,897 ICU bed-days. Despite the fact that the use of devices in the developing countries' ICUs was remarkably similar to that reported in US ICUs in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were significantly higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals; the pooled rate of central line-associated bloodstream infection in the INICC ICUs of 6.

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Background: Zinc and copper are two essential trace elements. However, few studies have been conducted specifically to investigate these deficiencies in patients who underwent bariatric surgery. The aim of our work was to describe the influence of biliopancreatic diversion (BPD) on serum copper and zinc levels during 4 years.

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