When is pneumonia not pneumonia: a clinicopathologic study of the utility of lung tissue biopsies in determining the suitability of cadaveric tissue for donation.

Healthcare-associated pneumonia (HCAP) represents a major diagnostic challenge because of the relatively low sensitivity and specificity of clinical criteria, radiological findings, and microbiologic culture results. It is often difficult to distinguish between pneumonia, underlying pulmonary disease, or conditions with pulmonary complications; this is compounded by the often-subjective clinical diagnosis of pneumonia. We conducted this study to determine the utility of post-mortem lung biopsies for diagnosing pneumonia in tissue donors diagnosed with pneumonia prior to death.

Unmet need in Behcet's disease: most patients in routine follow-up continue to have oral ulcers.

The clinical course of Behcet's disease (BD) as a multisystemic disorder with a remitting-relapsing nature is insufficiently explored. As complete remission should be aimed in all inflammatory diseases, we investigated the frequency of complete remission in patients with BD followed in long-term, routine practice. In this retrospective study, 258 patients with BD who were regularly followed in outpatient clinics were assessed.

What we don't know may hurt us: urinary drainage system tubing coils and CA-UTIs-A prospective quality study.

Catheter-associated urinary tract infections account for >30% of infections in acute care hospitals. We hypothesized that coiling of/kinks in the indwelling urinary bladder catheter (IUBC) drainage bag tubing would increase the occurrence of infection/bacteriuria. Ninety-one patient events were evaluated over 60 days.

Decreasing ventricular infections through the use of a ventriculostomy placement bundle: experience at a single institution.

Object: Ventricular infection after ventriculostomy placement carries a high mortality rate. Responding to ventriculostomy infection rates, a multidisciplinary performance improvement team was formed, a comprehensive protocol for ventriculostomy placement was developed, and the efficacy was evaluated.

Methods: A best-practice protocol was developed, including hand hygiene before the procedure; prophylactic antibiotics; sterile gloves changed between preparation, draping, and procedure; hair removal by clipping for dressing adherence; skin preparation using iodine povacrylex (0.