Validation of an Equation Model to Predict Intracranial Pressure in Clinical Studies.

: There has been an interest regarding the possible role intracranial pressure (ICP) plays in the pathogenesis of the glaucoma optic neuropathy. A major impediment to the understanding of the possible role of ICP on glaucoma is the reliance on alternative noninvasive methods to measure the ICP. A formula was developed to estimate the ICP for the Chinese population.

In vitro antibacterial activity of bioactive glass S53P4 on multiresistant pathogens causing osteomyelitis and prosthetic joint infection.

Background: Conventional local treatment for medullary osteomyelitis (OM) includes insertion of antibiotic-loaded polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) cement. Nevertheless, PMMA may delivery irregular concentration of antibiotic to surrounding tissue. We aimed to compare the in vitro antibacterial activity of Bioactive Glass (BAG) S53P4, which is a compound showing local antibacterial activity, to that of antibiotic-loaded PMMA against multidrug resistant bacteria from OM isolates.

Microbial investigation of biofilms recovered from endotracheal tubes using sonication in intensive care unit pediatric patients.

Objectives: To compare cultured microorganisms identified on endotracheal tubes biofilms through sonication technique with traditional tracheal aspirate collected at extubation of pediatric intensive care unit patients.

Methods: Demographic and epidemiological data were analyzed to identify factors possibly related with the microbiological profile of the two collection methods. Associations between categorical and continuous variables were analyzed using the chi-square or Fisher's exact test, or Student's t test.

Concentration of Sonication Fluid through Centrifugation Is Superior to Membrane Filtration for Microbial Diagnosis of Orthopedic Implant-Associated Infection.

Microbial identification of orthopedic implant-associated infections using sonication fluid (SF) submitted to a concentration step by membrane filtration (SMF) was compared with the standard centrifugation (SC) method. Among 33 retrieved infected implants, sonication identified microorganisms in 26 (78.8%).

Microbial diagnosis of infection and colonization of cardiac implantable electronic devices by use of sonication.

Objectives: The clinical utility of sonication as an adjunctive diagnostic tool for the microbial diagnosis of cardiac implantable device-associated infections (CIDAIs) was investigated.

Methods: The implants of 83 subjects were investigated, 15 with a CIDAI and 68 without a clinical infection. Clinical data were analyzed prospectively and sonication fluid cultures (83 patients, 100%) and traditional cultures (31 patients, 37.

Improved diagnosis of infection associated with osteosynthesis by use of sonication of fracture fixation implants.

Previous studies have shown that sonication fluid cultures from removed orthopedic devices improved the microbiological diagnosis of orthopedic implant-associated infections; however, few of these investigations have applied sonication to the removed fracture fixation devices to evaluate its utility for the diagnosis of osteosynthesis-associated infection (OAI). We compared sonication fluid to conventional tissue cultures from 180 subjects with different sizes of plates and screws (n = 156), spinal implants (n = 26), and intramedullary nails (n = 3), of whom 125 and 55 subjects had OAI and noninfected osteosynthesis (NIO), respectively. The sensitivity for detecting OAI was 90.

Antibiotic resistance patterns of pediatric community-acquired urinary infections.

Knowledge about antimicrobial resistance patterns of the etiological agents of urinary tract infections (UTIs) is essential for appropriate therapy. Urinary isolates from symptomatic UTI cases attended at Santa Casa University Hospital of São Paulo from August 1986 to December 1989 and August 2004 to December 2005 were identified by conventional methods. Antimicrobial resistance testing was performed by Kirby Bauer's disc diffusion method.