Pneumococcal disease in children in the Middle East and Northern Africa: A systematic literature review of clinical burden, serotype distribution, and vaccination programs.

Bacterial diseases caused by are an important public health problem in Middle Eastern and North African countries. The burden of is poorly documented in these regions, local surveillance programs are lacking. This systematic review was conducted in Medline and Embase to obtain a comprehensive overview of the clinical burden of pneumococcal disease and pneumococcal vaccination status in the pediatric population in Middle East and Northern Africa.

A systematic literature review of the global seroprevalence of cytomegalovirus: possible implications for treatment, screening, and vaccine development.

Background: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a common pathogen that affects individuals of all ages and establishes lifelong latency. Although CMV is typically asymptomatic in healthy individuals, infection during pregnancy or in immunocompromised individuals can cause severe disease. Currently, treatments are limited, with no prophylactic vaccine available.

Ceftazidime/Avibactam and Other Commonly Used Antibiotics Activity Against Enterobacterales and Isolated in Poland in 2015-2019.

Purpose: Infections caused by resistant Gram-negative bacteria are becoming increasingly common and now pose a serious public health threat worldwide, because they are difficult to treat due to few treatment options and they are associated with high morbidity and mortality. The combination of ceftazidime with the beta-lactamase inhibitor avibactam - seems to be the right choice in this situation. The aim of the study was to evaluate the activity of ceftazidime/avibactam and other commonly used antibiotics against Enterobacterales and strains isolated within last years in Poland.

Heart failure in Poland: Left ventricular assist device destination therapy and other challenges of interventional cardiology and cardiac surgery.

Patients with severe heart failure (HF), who are not eligible for cardiac transplantation and receive optimal medical management, based mainly on the use of pharmacological treatment and devices such as resynchronization therapy (implantable cardioverter-defibrillator), achieve poor clinical outcomes and constitute a group with extremely poor prognosis. Currently, the technology used in the latest generation left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), such as the HeartMate 3, makes it possible to achieve patient survival at the level obtained by patients after heart transplantation, and they can be used not only in patients eligible for heart transplantation as a bridge to transplant, but also in those with significantly worse prognosis, who are ineligible for heart transplantation as destination therapy. The objective of this publication is to present recommendations from experts in cardiology and cardiac surgery, supported by clinical trial results, on the use of LVADs as a destination therapy in HF patients who are not eligible for cardiac transplantation.

Recommendations on the use of innovative medical technologies in cardiology and cardiac surgery and solutions leading to increased availability for Polish patients.

There is a great need for innovative technologies that will improve the health and quality of life (QoL) of Polish patients with cardiac problems. It is important that the safety and effectiveness of the technology are confirmed by scientific evidence on which guidelines and clinical recommendations are based. Scientific evidence for medical devices is also increasingly important for decision-making in finance approval from public funds.

Avoiding the side effects of electric current pulse application to electroporated cells in disposable small volume cuvettes assures good cell survival.

Background: The harmful side effects of electroporation to cells due to local changes in pH, the appearance of toxic electrode products, temperature increase, and the heterogeneity of the electric field acting on cells in the cuvettes used for electroporation were observed and discussed in several laboratories. If cells are subjected to weak electric fields for prolonged periods, for example in experiments on cell electrophoresis or galvanotaxis the same effects are seen. In these experiments investigators managed to reduce or eliminate the harmful side effects of electric current application.

Decreasing the thresholds for electroporation by sensitizing cells with local cationic anesthetics and substances that decrease the surface negative electric charge.

The recently described method of cell electroporation by flow of cell suspension through localized direct current electric fields (dcEFs) was applied to identify non-toxic substances that could sensitize cells to external electric fields. We found that local cationic anesthetics such as procaine, lidocaine and tetracaine greatly facilitated the electroporation of AT2 rat prostate carcinoma cells and human skin fibroblasts (HSF). This manifested as a 50% reduction in the strength of the electric field required to induce cell death by irreversible electroporation or to introduce fluorescent dyes such as calcein, carboxyfluorescein or Lucifer yellow into the cells.

Reversible and irreversible electroporation of cell suspensions flowing through a localized DC electric field.

Experiments on reversible and irreversible cell electroporation were carried out with an experimental setup based on a standard apparatus for horizontal electrophoresis, a syringe pump with regulated cell suspension flow velocity and a dcEF power supply. Cells in suspension flowing through an orifice in a barrier inserted into the electrophoresis apparatus were exposed to defined localized dcEFs in the range of 0-1000 V/cm for a selected duration in the range 10-1000 ms. This method permitted the determination of the viability of irreversibly electroperforated cells.