Impact of an interventional bundle on complications associated with peripheral venous catheters in elderly patients.

Purpose: Elderly patients admitted to geriatrics departments often require peripheral venous catheters (PVC), which should be inserted and maintained following a series of preventive recommendations. Our objective was to evaluate the impact of a training bundle comprising measures aimed at reducing complications associated with the use of PVC in elderly patients admitted to a tertiary teaching hospital.

Methods: We performed a prospective study of patients who received a PVC within 24 h of admission to a geriatrics department.

Enhancement of grayscale image display with amplitude Fourier holograms, employing a limited bandwidth phase.

An alternative method is proposed to generate a modified random phase that is able to concentrate the light around a given direction, produces well-contrasted Fourier amplitude holograms, reduces the quantity and the randomness of the speckle noise in the image, and decreases the amount of data necessary for the phase definition. This modified limited bandwidth random phase uses structured random phase patterns to control the object dispersion. The resulting hologram displays an image with structured speckle noise (SSN), exhibiting similar metrics as the iterative method for hologram generation.

Successful treatment of interstitial pneumonitis with anakinra in a patient with adult-onset Still's disease.

A 29-year-old African woman with active adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD) that developed at the end of 2018 presented to our hospital in September 2019 with pleuritic right-sided pain and respiratory insufficiency of almost a month's duration, which had failed to respond to high-dose corticosteroid and antibiotic treatment. A thoracic CT revealed right pleural effusion, multiple consolidations and pulmonary collapse. Besides pulmonary symptoms, the patient had arthralgia, fever, a salmon-coloured rash, leucocytosis and rising inflammatory markers.

Assessment of the sensitivity of the bovine tuberculosis eradication program in a high prevalence region of Spain using scenario tree modeling.

In spite of the efforts invested to eradicate bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle, the disease is still present in several developed countries, including Spain. Among the factors related with disease persistence in high prevalence areas, the lack of sensitivity of the screening test for detection of infected herds [single intradermal tuberculin (SIT) test] can play a major role. Here, a scenario tree model mimicking the diagnostic test scheme in place in the region of Castilla y Leon (Spain) was developed to estimate the probability of detecting bTB in an infected-non detected officially tuberculosis free (OTF) herd (herd sensitivity, HSe).

Full image reconstruction with reduced speckle noise, from a partially illuminated Fresnel hologram, using a structured random phase.

In computer generated holograms, a random phase is added to spread out the object wave, but this introduces a strong speckle noise in the reconstructed image. Spreading out the object wave helps to record a large object in a smaller hologram. We propose a random repeated and displaced phase, which reduces the speckle noise in the reconstructed image and spreads out the object information in a limited area.

Evaluation of the Performance of the IDvet IFN-Gamma Test for Diagnosis of Bovine Tuberculosis in Spain.

In Spain, the national bovine tuberculosis (bTB) eradication program is based on yearly skin testing of every ≥6 weeks old animal using the single or comparative tuberculin test and parallel use of the interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) assay as an ancillary diagnostic test in infected herds. There are several versions of the latter. Recently, a new commercial IDvet IFN-γ assay has been authorized for use in the program, but there is limited scientific evidence about its performance in different epidemiological settings.

Analysis of the cattle movement network and its association with the risk of bovine tuberculosis at the farm level in Castilla y Leon, Spain.

Between-farm transmission of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) occurs mostly through fence-to-fence contact between neighbouring farms, endemic infected wildlife or movement of infected animals. Unfortunately, bTB detection is frequently delayed and identification of the source of introduction is often difficult, particularly in endemic regions. Here, we characterized the cattle movement network of Castilla y Leon, a high bTB-prevalence (1.

Application of a specific quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) to identify Leishmania infantum DNA in spleen, skin and hair samples of wild Leporidae.

The aim of this study was to compare a quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) validated for the detection of Leishmania infantum in dogs with a nested PCR but in wild Leporidae. Additionally, L. infantum results from indirect immunofluorescent antibody test (IFAT) and in vitro culture were also compared with qPCR.

Assessment of the sensitivity and specificity of serological (IFAT) and molecular (direct-PCR) techniques for diagnosis of leishmaniasis in lagomorphs using a Bayesian approach.

Leishmaniasis, caused by , is a vector-borne zoonotic disease that is endemic to the Mediterranean basin. The potential of rabbits and hares to serve as competent reservoirs for the disease has recently been demonstrated, although assessment of the importance of their role on disease dynamics is hampered by the absence of quantitative knowledge on the accuracy of diagnostic techniques in these species. A Bayesian latent-class model was used here to estimate the sensitivity and specificity of the Immuno-fluorescence antibody test (IFAT) in serum and a -nested PCR (Ln-PCR) in skin for samples collected from 217 rabbits and 70 hares from two different populations in the region of Madrid, Spain.

Efficacy of a typing scheme for Campylobacter based on the combination of true and questionable CRISPR.

This study evaluates an improved scheme for Campylobacter genotyping based on the combination of true and questionable CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) elements. A total of 180 Campylobacter strains (Campylobacter jejuni n=93 and Campylobacter coli n=87), isolated from neck skin and caecal content of broilers, poultry meat and sewage water were analysed. Another 97 C.

Spatial dynamics of bovine tuberculosis in the Autonomous Community of Madrid, Spain (2010-2012).

Progress in control of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is often not uniform, usually due to the effect of one or more sometimes unknown epidemiological factors impairing the success of eradication programs. Use of spatial analysis can help to identify clusters of persistence of disease, leading to the identification of these factors thus allowing the implementation of targeted control measures, and may provide some insights of disease transmission, particularly when combined with molecular typing techniques. Here, the spatial dynamics of bTB in a high prevalence region of Spain were assessed during a three year period (2010-2012) using data from the eradication campaigns to detect clusters of positive bTB herds and of those infected with certain Mycobacterium bovis strains (characterized using spoligotyping and VNTR typing).

Bovine tuberculosis: within-herd transmission models to support and direct the decision-making process.

Use of mathematical models to study the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases is becoming increasingly common in veterinary sciences. However, modeling chronic infectious diseases such as bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is particularly challenging due to the substantial uncertainty associated with the epidemiology of the disease. Here, the methodological approaches used to model bTB and published in the peer-reviewed literature in the last decades were reviewed with a focus on the impact that the models' assumptions may have had on their results, such as the assumption of density vs.

Evidence of Leishmania infantum infection in rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in a natural area in Madrid, Spain.

Leishmaniasis is one of the most important neglected zoonosis and remains endemic in at least 88 developing countries in the world. In addition, anthropogenic environmental changes in urban areas are leading to its emergency world wide. Zoonotic leishmaniasis control might only be achieved by an integrated approach targeting both the human host and the animal reservoirs, which in certain sylvatic cycles are yet to be identified.

Risk factors associated with negative in-vivo diagnostic results in bovine tuberculosis-infected cattle in Spain.

Background: Despite great effort and investment incurred over decades to control bovine tuberculosis (bTB), it is still one of the most important zoonotic diseases in many areas of the world. Test-and-slaughter strategies, the basis of most bTB eradication programs carried out worldwide, have demonstrated its usefulness in the control of the disease. However, in certain countries, eradication has not been achieved due in part to limitations of currently available diagnostic tests.

Phase shifting digital holography implemented with a twisted-nematic liquid-crystal display.

We describe and experimentally demonstrate a phase shifting method based on the lateral displacement of a grating implemented with a twisted-nematic liquid-crystal spatial light modulator. This method allows an accurate implementation of the phase shift without requiring moving parts. The technique is implemented in a Mach-Zehnder digital holography setup in which the field transmitted by the sample object freely propagates to the hologram plane.

Salivary testosterone and EEG spectra of 9- to 11-year-old male children.

Although most investigators agree that there are electroencephalogram (EEG) changes with chronological age around puberty, no one has remarked on why this is so. As the increase in testosterone at the end of prepubertal childhood is a biomarker for the on-set of a period of accelerated growth and development, we searched for an association between testosterone level and the spectral power and topography of EEG. We tested 60 children between 9- and 11-years-old, each demonstrating normal neurological examination and Wechsler intelligence scale over 90.