Cluster analysis of sputum cytokine-high profiles reveals diversity in T(h)2-high asthma patients.

Background: Asthma is characterized by a heterogeneous inflammatory profile and can be subdivided into T(h)2-high and T(h)2-low airway inflammation. Profiling of a broader panel of airway cytokines in large unselected patient cohorts is lacking.

Methods: Patients (n = 205) were defined as being "cytokine-low/high" if sputum mRNA expression of a particular cytokine was outside the respective 10/90 percentile range of the control group (n = 80).

Fighting human error : what surgeons can learn from aviators.

Background: The rigorous implementation of safety policies have made air travel one of the safest modes of transport. Health institutions and hospital managing bodies increasingly adopt cues from aviation safety protocols and policies in an attempt to reduce medical errors and patient harm. Among hospital staff, surgeons are most likely to be confronted with these aviation-derived safety concepts.

An unsuspected cause of diarrhoea and gastrointestinal bleeding during corticosteroid therapy.

We report on a fatal case of disseminated strongyloidiasis during corticosteroid treatment presenting with abdominal pain, diarrhoea and lower gastrointestinal bleeding. The patient emigrated from Thailand 16 years before the current hospitalisation. Complicated strongyloidiasis is a relatively unrecognized complication of corticosteroid therapy in non-endemic areas.

Stenting complex aorta aneurysms with the Cardiatis multilayer flow modulator: first impressions.

Objectives: Our aim was to assess the feasibility and efficacy of the Cardiatis multilayer flow modulator in the treatment of complex aorta aneurysms.

Methods: This is a single-center prospective registry. Six patients (4 males and 2 females; mean age 74 years) with complex aorta aneurysms (unsuitable for endovascular repair with standard, fenestrated, or branched stent grafts) were treated with the Cardiatis multilayer flow modulator.

Wound morphology and topography in the diabetic foot: hurdles in implementing angiosome-guided revascularization.

Purpose. Angiosome-guided revascularization is an approach that improves wound healing but requires a surgeon to determine which angiosomes are ischemic. This process can be more difficult than anticipated because diabetic foot (DF) wounds vary greatly in quantity, morphology, and topography.