Bone and joint infections due to melioidosis; diagnostic and management strategies to optimise outcomes.

Background: Melioidosis, a life-threatening infection caused by the gram negative bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei, can involve almost any organ. Bone and joint infections (BJI) are a recognised, but incompletely defined, manifestation of melioidosis that are associated with significant morbidity and mortality in resource-limited settings.

Methodology/principal Findings: We identified all individuals with BJI due to B.

Utility of 30-day mortality as a quality metric for palliative radiation treatment: A population-based analysis from Queensland, Australia.

Introduction: Palliative radiotherapy (PRT) is frequently used to treat symptoms of advanced cancer, however benefits are questionable when life expectancy is limited. The 30-day mortality rate after PRT is a potential quality indicator, and results from a recent meta-analysis suggest a benchmark of 16% as an upper limit. In this population-based study from Queensland, Australia, we examined 30-day mortality rates following PRT and factors associated with decreased life expectancy.

Defining the expected 30-day mortality for patients undergoing palliative radiotherapy: A meta-analysis.

Background: The expected 30-day mortality rate for patients treated with palliative radiationisnotestablished. The primary objective of this study is todefinetheproportion of patientswith advanced cancerwho diewithin 30-daysofpalliative radiotherapy(PR). Additionally, we explored the short term survival of patient subgroups undergoing PR treatment.

Cranial irradiation in juvenile mice leads to early and sustained defects in the stem and progenitor cell pools and late cognitive impairments.

Cranial irradiation is used in combination with other therapies as a treatment for brain tumours and is thought to contribute to long-term cognitive deficits. Several rodent models have demonstrated that these cognitive deficits may be correlated with damage to neural progenitor cells in the subventricular zone (SVZ) and dentate gyrus (DG), the two neurogenic niches of the brain. Studies in rodent models typically assess the proliferating progenitor population, but rarely investigate the effect of cranial irradiation on the neural stem cell pool.

Activating Endogenous Neural Precursor Cells Using Metformin Leads to Neural Repair and Functional Recovery in a Model of Childhood Brain Injury.

The development of cell replacement strategies to repair the injured brain has gained considerable attention, with a particular interest in mobilizing endogenous neural stem and progenitor cells (known as neural precursor cells [NPCs]) to promote brain repair. Recent work demonstrated metformin, a drug used to manage type II diabetes, promotes neurogenesis. We sought to determine its role in neural repair following brain injury.