Association of Immune Semaphorins with COVID-19 Severity and Outcomes.

Semaphorins have recently been recognized as crucial modulators of immune responses. In the pathogenesis of COVID-19, the activation of immune responses is the key factor in the development of severe disease. This study aimed to determine the association of serum semaphorin concentrations with COVID-19 severity and outcomes.

Endoscopic Endonasal Surgery for a Pterygopalatine Fossa Hydatid Cyst.

Background: Cystic echinococcosis is a manifestation of a zoonosis caused by larvae of the tapeworm sensu lato and pterygopalatine fossa cases are extremely rare.

Clinical Presentation And Findings: A 45-year-old Caucasian female with a history of repeated surgeries for HC was referred to our center for treatment of a cystic mass of the pterygopalatine fossa. Multiorgan dissemination was noted on preoperative imaging.

Unusual presentations of actinomycosis: a case series and literature review.

Introduction: To review unusual actinomycosis cases that appeared as a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge at our institution and to present a literature review on the usual clinical presentations.

Methodology: This retrospective review included all patients hospitalized for actinomycosis in a 10-year period at the University Hospital for Infectious Diseases "Dr. Fran Mihaljević", Zagreb, Croatia.

Combined Albenazole-Praziquantel Treatment in Recurrent Brain Echinococcosis: Case Report.

We present a 40-year-old woman with a history of relapsing echinococcosis who had undergone a number of surgical procedures for cyst removal (right pulmectomy, cardiac surgery and 6 subsequent brain surgeries and two gamma knife procedures) and was admitted to University Hospital for Infectious Diseases "Fran Mihaljeviæ", Zagreb, Croatia in 2014 for pre-operative medical treatment of brain hydatidosis in the right parietal region. We aimed to attain a high cyst albendazole sulphoxide (ASO) concentration in order to achieve a more pronounced protoscolex inactivation and a high serum ASO concentration (reflecting the tissue concentrations) to reduce the risk of disease recurrence. The patient was treated with a higher dose of albendazole (15 mg/kg/day for 4 wk) that we had found effective in patients with liver hydatidosis, and combined with praziquantel over the last 14 d at a dose that is typically used to treat neurocysticercosis with an intention to improve ASO bioavailability.

Repeated Percutaneous Treatment of Massive Hepatic Cystic Echinococcosis in a Child.

Because of mostly asymptomatic cyst growth and often-neglected nonspecific low-grade symptoms, many cases of cystic echinococcosis (CE) caused by in the pediatric population are diagnosed at school age, in an advanced and even complicated stage. In 2003, after 5 months of intermittent dull upper-right abdominal pain and nausea, a 13-year-old boy was diagnosed with massive liver CE, with ∼20 round-shaped double-walled medium-sized infective cysts, which permeated the whole liver. Because of their wide distribution across the liver tissue and the risky superficial position of some cysts, liver transplantation emerged as the optimal therapeutic option.

Relationship between age and intensive care unit-acquired bloodstream infections in infectious disease patients in Croatia.

Introduction: Intensive care unit-acquired bloodstream infections (ICU-BSI) belong to the most important nosocomial infections. Since there is scarce data available on their relationship with older age, we performed this study to estimate the age-related incidence of ICU-BSI and the odds of acquiring ICU-BSI in elderly critically ill infectious disease patients.

Methodology: A retrospective observational analysis of prospectively collected demographic and clinical data of adult mechanically ventilated infectious disease patients, treated in a teaching hospital in Croatia between 1994 and 2008, using univariate, bivariate, and multivariate logistic regression analyses.

Terminal ileum resection as a trigger for Strongyloides stercoralis hyperinfection and ensuing serial sepsis in a 37-year-old patient with complicated Crohn's disease: a case report.

The nematode Strongyloides stercoralis, outside the tropics and subtropics present in small endemic foci, can cause an infection after direct skin contact with contaminated soil containing infective filariform larvae and, rarely, after intimate interhuman contact or after transplantation of an infected solid organ. Following skin penetration, migration, and maturation through several stages, a small number of invasive filariform larvae can develop anew in the gut lumen, perpetuating new cycles of penetration, tissue migration, and reproduction, without leaving the host.In a state of immunosuppression, autoinfection can progress to life-threatening hyperinfection and/or infection disseminated through virtually any organ.

The polymicrobial Actinomyces naeslundii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa sepsis in a patient with ulcerative colitis 2 months after colonoscopy.

We describe a case of an abrupt onset of polymicrobial Actinomyces naeslundii/Pseudomonas aeruginosa sepsis in a patient with a previously silent abdominal actinomycosis, developed 2 months after colonoscopy when the diagnosis of a left-sided ulcerative colitis was established. Prolonged high-dose ceftriaxone therapy was clinically effective, albeit accompanied by the development of a reversible pseudocholelithiasis that persisted for 5 months.