Occupational Risk Factors for SARS-CoV-2 Seropositivity in Healthcare Workers: Results of a Longitudinal Cohort.

Objective: The aim of the study is to evaluate COVID-19 risk factors among healthcare workers (HCWs) before vaccine-induced immunity.

Methods: We conducted a longitudinal cohort study of HCWs ( N = 1233) with SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin G quantification by ELISA and repeated surveys over 9 months. Risk factors were assessed by multivariable-adjusted logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards models.

Presence of Tumor Necrosis Factor-Alpha in Urine Samples of Patients With Chronic Low Back Pain Undergoing Chiropractic Care: Preliminary Findings From a Prospective Cohort Study.

Background And Aims: Low back pain is the leading cause of years lived with disability worldwide. Chiropractors employ different interventions to treat low back pain, including spinal manipulative therapy, although the mechanisms through which chiropractic care improves low back pain are still unclear. Clinical research and animal models suggest that spinal manipulation might modulate plasma levels of inflammatory cytokines, which have been involved in different stages of low back pain.

Development and Application of a Polydimethylsiloxane-Based Passive Air Sampler to Assess Personal Exposure to SARS-CoV-2.

Exhaled respiratory droplets and aerosols can carry infectious viruses and are an important mode of transmission for COVID-19. Recent studies have been successful in detecting airborne SARS-CoV-2 RNA in indoor settings using active sampling methods. The cost, size, and maintenance of these samplers, however, limit their long-term monitoring ability in high-risk transmission areas.

Immunogenic amino acid motifs and linear epitopes of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.

Reverse vaccinology is an evolving approach for improving vaccine effectiveness and minimizing adverse responses by limiting immunizations to critical epitopes. Towards this goal, we sought to identify immunogenic amino acid motifs and linear epitopes of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that elicit IgG in COVID-19 mRNA vaccine recipients. Paired pre/post vaccination samples from N = 20 healthy adults, and post-vaccine samples from an additional N = 13 individuals were used to immunoprecipitate IgG targets expressed by a bacterial display random peptide library, and preferentially recognized peptides were mapped to the spike primary sequence.

The value of missing information in severity of illness score development.

Objective: We aim to investigate the hypothesis that using information about which variables are missing along with appropriate imputation improves the performance of severity of illness scoring systems used to predict critical patient outcomes.

Study Design And Setting: We quantify the impact of missing and imputed variables on the performance of prediction models used in the development of a sepsis-related severity of illness scoring system. Electronic health records (EHR) data were compiled from Christiana Care Health System (CCHS) on 119,968 adult patients hospitalized between July 2013 and December 2015.

Pyramid approach for the reduction of parallax-related artefacts in optical recordings of moving translucent volumes.

Functional optical imaging (OI) of intrinsic signals (like blood oxygenation coupled reflection changes) and of extrinsic properties of voltage sensitive probes (like voltage-sensitive dyes (VSD)) forms a group of invasive neuroimaging techniques, that possess up to date the highest temporal and spatial resolution on a meso- to macroscopic scale. There are different sources that contribute to the OI signal of which many are noise. In our previous works, we have used dense optical flow for the reduction of movement artefacts.

Compensation of pulsation artifacts during optical imaging with and without cranial chamber.

Functional Optical Imaging (OI) through the opened skull forms a group of Neuroimaging techniques characterized by a high temporal and spatial resolution on a meso-to macroscopic scale. State of the art OI experiments are generally difficult to execute, with a very timely surgical preparation preceding the experiment, that requires a skilled surgeon to mount a sealed imaging chamber onto the skull. The chamber reduces brain pulsation artifacts and swelling of the brain through movement restriction.

Motion invariant contrast enhancement of optical imaging data in the gradient domain.

Functional optical imaging (OI) of intrinsic signals (like blood oxygenation coupled reflection changes) and of extrinsic properties of voltage sensitive probes (like voltage-sensitive dyes (VSD)) forms a group of neuroimaging techniques that possess up to date highest temporal and spatial resolution on a meso-to macroscopic scale. An inherent problem of OI is a very low signal to noise ratio (SNR), which restricts the recordings to be completely motionless and requires detailed knowledge of the properties of the different noise sources. In our experiments we performed a durectomy and did not use an imaging chamber to allow us future joint electroencephalography-optical imaging (EEG-OI) measures, which resulted in movement artifacts.

Lymphangitic carcinomatosis as a cause of malignant transient pleural transudate.

Although it is generally accepted that a malignant transient pleural transudate may appear during the early stages of lymphatic obstruction, cases demonstrating such probability are rare in literature. A 67-year-old woman was admitted to hospital because a lymphangitic carcinomatosis and a transudative infrapulmonary pleural effusion with a cytology positive for adenocarcinoma. One month later the effusion keeps being positive for adenocarcinoma but exudative in character.

A density functional theory study of phenyl formation initiated by ethynyl radical (C2H*) and ethyne (C2H2).

An ab initio computational density functional theory (DFT) was used to study the formation of the first cyclic molecule (phenyl) initiated by the ethynyl radical (C(2)H*). The study covers a competition reaction between the addition reactions of C(2)H* with ethyne (C(2)H(2)) and some molecular re-arrangement schemes. The minimum energy paths of the preferred cyclic formation route were characterized.

Idiopathic organizing pneumonia: a relapsing disease. 19 years of experience in a hospital setting.

Background: Although organizing pneumonia (OP) is a common pathological finding, studies including a substantial number of patients with idiopathic forms from a unique center and a long follow-up are rare.

Objectives: To determine patients with cryptogenic forms of organizing pneumonia (COP), in order to characterize their clinical course, to identify predictive factors for relapse and to assess their effect on outcome.

Methods: For a 19-year period, all histopathological reports from a community teaching hospital were reviewed, and OP was found in 210 lung specimens belonging to 197 patients.

Cell-free DNA concentration in pleural fluid and serum: quantitative approach and potential prognostic factor in patients with cancer and pleural effusions.

Purpose: The presence of pleural effusions in patients with tumors is often indicative of locally advanced or metastatic disease, and detection of malignancy in effusion samples frequently leads to a disease upstaging. Our purpose was to quantify the DNA in pleural effusion and serum in patients presenting pleural effusion in order to assess the potential prognostic impact.

Patients And Methods: The DNA level was determined by amplifying hRNase P in paired samples of serum and pleural fluid in 70 consecutive patients with cancer showing pleural effusion.

Potential diagnostic value of methylation profile in pleural fluid and serum from cancer patients with pleural effusion.

Background: The objective of this study was to investigate the diagnostic value of methylation profiles for discrimination between malignant and benign pleural effusions. A secondary objective was to examine the concordance of methylation in samples of serum and pleural fluid.

Methods: The authors used methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP) analysis to examine the promoter methylation status of 4 genes in patients with pleural effusion: death-associated protein kinase (DAPK), Ras association domain family 1A (RASSF1A), retinoic acid receptor beta (RARbeta), and p16/INK4a.

Urinothorax: a new approach.

Purpose Of Review: The presence of urine in the pleural space (urinothorax) is a rarely recognized cause of pleural effusion. To date, only 58 cases have been reported. In this article the features of urinothorax are analyzed, and clinical and biochemical characteristics are reviewed in order to propose a classification, founded on pathogenic criteria, that will be useful in achieving the diagnosis.

Budesonide/formoterol in a single inhaler for maintenance and relief in mild-to-moderate asthma: a randomized, double-blind trial.

Study Objective: To compare a novel asthma management strategy--budesonide/formoterol in a single inhaler for both maintenance therapy and symptom relief--with a higher dose of budesonide plus as-needed terbutaline.

Methods: This was a 6-month, randomized, double-blind, parallel-group study in patients with mild-to-moderate asthma (n = 697; mean age, 38 years [range, 11 to 79 years]; mean baseline FEV1, 75% of predicted; mean inhaled corticosteroid [ICS] dosage, 348 microg/d). Following a 2-week run-in period, all patients received two blinded, dry powder inhalers, one containing maintenance medication and one containing medication to be used as needed for the relief of symptoms.

Respiratory failure secondary to organizing pneumonia in a patient with membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis and lung haemorrhage.

We report the case of a woman with membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis type I who presented with acute respiratory failure secondary to alveolar haemorrhage. The persistence of the respiratory failure, once the alveolar haemorrhage had ceased, was apparently due to diffuse alveolar damage in organization. The recognition of this proliferative reaction through the performance of transbronchial biopsy allowed the initiation of a correct treatment with which a favourable response was obtained.

Fatal, gold-induced pneumonitis.

We report in detail an experience with irreversible interstitial pneumonitis developed during gold sodium thiomalate therapy. Factors that could influence the unfavourable course of this adverse, usually reversible pharmacological reaction, are analysed, and the importance of early recognition and prompt discontinuation of the drug is emphasised.

Functional sequelae of tuberculous pleurisy in patients correctly treated.

Study Objectives: To assess the functional sequelae (FS) of patients with tuberculous pleurisy (TP), to analyze the influence of different factors in the occurrence of these FS, and, finally, to evaluate the relationship between the FS and roentgenographic sequelae.

Design: An observational, retrospective study.

Setting: A community teaching hospital in Alicante, Spain.

CEA and CA 549 in serum and pleural fluid of patients with pleural effusion.

Background: The determination of the pleural fluid (PF) carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) concentration has proved helpful in the differentiation between pleural effusions (PE) of malignant and benign origin. The present study was designed to prospectively compare the utility of CEA with that of a recently introduced tumour marker, carbohydrate antigen 549 (CA 549).

Patients And Methods: In 383 consecutive patients referred for thoracentesis (130 malignant and 253 benign), pleural and serum levels of CEA and CA 549 were, respectively, determined by enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and immunoradiometric assay (IRMA).

Organizing pneumonia adjacent to lung cancer: frequency and clinico-pathologic features.

In order to assess the frequency of peripheral organizing pneumonia (OP) in patients with resected lung tumours and to describe its differential features, a cross-sectional study with prospective data collection was realized in a community teaching hospital. Demographic and clinical data were collected from clinical records. The lung specimens removed with a curative purpose in 89 consecutive patients with lung tumours were studied and the clinical and pathological characteristics of patients with and without OP were compared.