A 6-mRNA host response classifier in whole blood predicts outcomes in COVID-19 and other acute viral infections.

Predicting the severity of COVID-19 remains an unmet medical need. Our objective was to develop a blood-based host-gene-expression classifier for the severity of viral infections and validate it in independent data, including COVID-19. We developed a logistic regression-based classifier for the severity of viral infections and validated it in multiple viral infection settings including COVID-19.

Diabetes on sepsis outcomes in non-ICU patients: A cohort study and review of the literature.

Aims: We sought to determine whether primary outcomes differ between non-ICU septic patients with and without type 2 diabetes (T2D).

Methods: This study utilized the Hellenic Sepsis Study Group Registry, collecting nationwide data for sepsis patients since 2006, and classified patients upon presence or absence of T2D. Patients were perfectly matched for a) Sepsis 3 definition criteria (including septic shock) b) gender, c) age, d) APACHE II score and e) Charlson's comorbidity index (CCI).

Pulmonary nocardiosis in an immunocompetent patient with COPD: the role of defective innate response.

Objectives: Pulmonary nocardiosis is an uncommon opportunistic infection affecting mainly immunocompromised patients. We herein present a case of nocardiosis without profound underlying immunodeficiency.

Background: A female, 84-years' old patient with stage IV chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is presented.

Recurrent cardiac myxoma in a 25 year old male: a DNA study.

We present a 25 year old Caucasian male patient with multiple recurrences of cardiac myxomas after surgical removal of the original tumor. His mother was operated on for right ventricular myxoma. The genetic analyses disclosed an aneuploid DNA content by flow cytometry analysis.

An ESICM systematic review and meta-analysis of procalcitonin-guided antibiotic therapy algorithms in adult critically ill patients.

Purpose: We sought to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of procalcitonin(PCT)-guided antibiotic therapy algorithms for critically ill adult patients.

Methods: We performed a search in PubMed and in the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. Seven evaluable randomised clinical trials (RCTs) were identified and analysed.

Triple valve endocarditis as an unusual complication of bacterial meningitis.

We report a case of Staphylococcus aureus endocarditis with late onset in a 39-year-old male drug abuser, who presented with bacterial meningitis. Despite resolution of the meningitis as the result of appropriate antimicrobial chemotherapy he developed triple valve endocarditis. Some striking features of this case and a comparison with other reported cases of this uncommon presentation of infective endocarditis are discussed.

Primary right atrium angiosarcoma mimicking pericarditis.

Background: Primary cardiac neoplasms occur rarely and most of them are benign. Malignant tumors including angiosarcoma are extremely rare and have a non specific clinical presentation and a poor prognosis.

Case Presentation: We present a case of a young male who was transferred to our hospital because of shock and multiple organ failure after a complicated pericardial biopsy.

Fatal post-traumatic zygomycosis in an immunocompetent young patient.

Zygomycosis, a relatively uncommon infection, usually occurs among immunocompromised individuals. It has been reported only rarely in trauma patients. A fatal case is reported of pulmonary and rapidly progressive cutaneous zygomycosis in a young, otherwise healthy farmer, with multiple bone fractures, wounds and soft tissue injuries after an accident with an agricultural machine in the field.

Community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus carrying Panton-Valentine leukocidin genes: a lethal cause of pneumonia in an adult immunocompetent patient.

Necrotizing pneumonia and fatal septic shock were caused by Panton-Valentine leukocidin-positive, community-acquired, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) in a previously healthy, 61-y-old female. This patient did not belong to any high-risk group (e.g.

Kinetics of progenitor hemopoetic stem cells in sepsis: correlation with patients survival?

Background: Current theories underline the crucial role of pro-inflammatory mediators produced by monocytes for the pathogenesis of sepsis. Since monocytes derive from progenitor hemopoetic cells, the kinetics of stem cells was studied in peripheral blood of patients with sepsis.

Methods: Blood was sampled from 44 patients with septic syndrome due to ventilator-associated pneumonia on days 1, 3, 5 and 7 upon initiation of symptoms.