Executive summary of the consensus document for the training and development of clinical ultrasound in Internal Medicine: Recommendations from the Clinical Ultrasound Working Group of the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine (GTECO-SEMI).

Introduction: Given the increasing adoption of clinical ultrasound in medicine, it is essential to standardize its application, training, and research.

Objectives And Methods: The purpose of this document is to provide consensus recommendations to address questions about the practice and operation of clinical ultrasound units. Nineteen experts and leaders from advanced clinical ultrasound units participated.

Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) as an Extension of the Physical Examination in Patients with Bacteremia or Candidemia.

Background: In general, transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is the first diagnostic test used for patients with bacteremia or candidemia and clinical signs of Infective Endocarditis (IE). Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) may be used in addition to physical examination for the detection of structural heart disease and valve abnormalities.

Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of POCUS for the detection of signs suggestive of IE, including vegetation, valvular regurgitation, structural heart disease, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly and septic embolisms, in patients with bacteremia or candidemia.

[Positive urine pneumococcal antigen test and vaccination].

Introduction And Objective: Although urine pneumococcal antigen is an useful test, it has false positives such as pneumococcal vaccination.

Material And Methods: Positive urine pneumococcal antigen in Hospital de Denia (January-February/2015). We studied epidemiological, radiological and microbiological variables as well as previous pneumococcal vaccination (neumo-23 and/or neumo-13).

[Candidemias: multicentre analysis in 16 hospitals in Andalusia (Spain)].

Introduction: Candidemia is a nosocomial infection with high associated mortality. There have been changes in microbiology, epidemiology and treatment over the last few years, which has led us to analyse our own situation.

Material And Methods: Prospective, multicentre and observational study.

Old and new insights in the treatment of thyroid carcinoma.

Thyroid cancer is the endocrine tumor that bears the highest incidence with 33 550 new cases per year. It bears an excellent prognosis with a mortality of 1530 patients per year (Jemal et al.; 2007).

Efficacy of pegylated interferon plus ribavirin treatment in HIV/hepatitis C virus co-infected patients receiving abacavir plus lamivudine or tenofovir plus either lamivudine or emtricitabine as nucleoside analogue backbone.

Objectives: To compare the response to hepatitis C virus (HCV) therapy among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/HCV co-infected patients receiving a nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitor [N(t)RTI] backbone consisting of abacavir plus lamivudine with that observed in subjects who receive tenofovir plus lamivudine or emtricitabine.

Methods: A total of 256 subjects, enrolled in a cohort of 948 HIV-infected patients who received pegylated interferon and ribavirin from October 2001 to January 2006, were included in this study. All patients were taking one protease inhibitor or one non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor and abacavir plus lamivudine or tenofovir plus lamivudine or emtricitabine as N(t)RTI backbone during HCV therapy.

Clinical findings, therapeutic approach, and outcome of brucellar vertebral osteomyelitis.

Background: Osteoarticular complications are the most common focal complications of brucellosis. Although vertebral osteomyelitis is the most frequent location in adults >30 years of age, little information is available about this serious complication of brucellosis, and great confusion surrounds its prognosis and the most appropriate treatment.

Methods: We undertook a descriptive, retrospective, observational study of 96 patients who received a diagnosis of brucella vertebral osteomyelitis from September 1982 through December 2005 at a tertiary care hospital.

[Impact of demographic and psychosocial factors on adherence to antiretroviral treatment].

Background And Objective: Antiretroviral efficacy is closely related to the degree of adherence. The aim of this study is to assess the association between psychosocial and demographic variables and adherence to antiretroviral treatment.

Patients And Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 320 patients under antiretroviral treatment was conducted in four Andalusian hospitals, using a semi-structured questionnaire given by health care professionals.

[Clinical status, adherence to HAART and quality of life in HIV-infected patients receiving antiretroviral treatment].

Introduction: Quality of life is one of the most frequently used subjective measures in chronic health problems. The aim of this study is to analyze the association between clinical and therapeutic parameters, and 11 quality of life domains in HIV-infected patients.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 320 patients on antiretroviral treatment was conducted in four Andalusian hospitals (Spain).

Epidemiological, clinical, and prognostic differences between the diseases caused by Mycobacterium kansasii and Mycobacterium tuberculosis in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus: a multicenter study.

A multicenter, comparative study was performed to determine the epidemiological, clinical, and prognostic differences between the diseases caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium kansasii in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients. From 1 January 1995 through 31 December 1999, 25 HIV-infected patients received diagnoses of M. kansasii infection, and another 75 were selected as control subjects from among patients who had M.