Isolation from Urine Culture in Hospitalised Patients: Incidence of Complicated Urinary Tract Infections and Asymptomatic Bacteriurias and Impact on Treatment of the EUCAST 2020 Update.

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) and asymptomatic bacteriurias (ABU) represent a large field of interest for antimicrobial stewardship programmes especially after 2020 EUCAST update in antimicrobial susceptibility testing interpretation and the possible related increase in carbapenems' prescription rate. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the 2020 EUCAST update on antibiotic prescription in UTI due to organism and their characteristics. A retrospective observational study.

Brain-like hardware, do we need it?

The brain's ability to perform efficient and fault-tolerant data processing is strongly related to its peculiar interconnected adaptive architecture, based on redundant neural circuits interacting at different scales. By emulating the brain's processing and learning mechanisms, computing technologies strive to achieve higher levels of energy efficiency and computational performance. Although efforts to address neuromorphic solutions through hardware based on top-down CMOS-based technologies have obtained interesting results in terms of energetic efficiency improvement, the replication of brain's self-assembled and redundant architectures is not considered in the roadmaps of data processing electronics.

Predictors of Early Death in Patients With Wild-Type Transthyretin Cardiac Amyloidosis.

Background: For the time being, tafamidis is the only approved treatment for wild-type transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis. However, benefits on all-cause death only emerge after ≈18 months. The current available staging systems are unable to specifically discriminate patients at high risk of death within 18 months from diagnosis, and the selection of patients who are expected to benefit from tafamidis is left to the clinical judgment of treating physicians, being often based primarily (and sometimes only) on age.

Feasibility of a Biomarker-Based Screening for Pre-Symptomatic AL Amyloidosis in Patients With Intermediate/High-Risk MGUS.

Biomarker-based screening enables early detection of AL amyloidosis in intermediate/high-risk MGUS patients. Our study shows that identifying pre-symptomatic AL through biomarker longitudinal monitoring allows early treatment, leading to significant organ function recovery.