Objectives: This study examined the prevalence of Pneumocystis jirovecii in the sputum of adults with cystic fibrosis during clinical stability and acute pulmonary exacerbation.
Methods: This was a prospective, longitudinal observational study of patients attending the Manchester Adult Cystic Fibrosis Centre. Sputum samples were analysed for P. jirovecii DNA using PCR at enrolment and up to 5 follow-up visits. Patients were classified as stable or exacerbating using a modified Fuch's pulmonary exacerbation score.
Results: 226 samples were tested from 111 patients. P. jirovecii was more likely to be detected in samples at acute pulmonary exacerbation (7/76 (9.2%)) compared with stable visits (3/150 (2%)), p = 0.03. P. jirovecii was detected less frequently if patients had received co-trimoxazole within 3 months of sample collection (0% versus 29.7%, p = 0.03).
Conclusions: Prevalence of P. jirovecii in stable patients is low, but P. jirovecii is detected in approximately 1 in 10 patients experiencing an acute pulmonary exacerbation.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2016.05.001 | DOI Listing |
J R Coll Physicians Edinb
January 2025
Department of Rheumatology, Centre for Rheumatology, Calicut, Kerala, India.
Low-dose methotrexate (LD-MTX) is the anchor drug used in the treatment of various rheumatological illnesses. There are a lot of misconceptions associated with the long-term use of MTX in the minds of practitioners. The origin of most of these myths stems from the ill effects associated with high-dose MTX used in cancer chemotherapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCureus
December 2024
Cardiology/Internal Medicine, Luton and Dunstable University Hospital, Luton, GBR.
A thrombus straddling a patent foramen ovale (TSPFO) is a rare condition that presents significant health risks, including stroke or myocardial infarction, and can be life-threatening if not promptly addressed. We report the case of a 42-year-old female with morbid obesity who presented with sudden shortness of breath due to a bilateral pulmonary embolism. Imaging revealed a thrombus extending from the right atrium to the left atrium through the patent foramen ovale (PFO).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur J Case Rep Intern Med
November 2024
Department of Lung Diseases and Thoracic Surgery, Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital, Riga, Latvia.
Background: Clinically amyopathic dermatomyositis (CADM) is a rare subtype of idiopathic inflammatory myositis often linked with the presence of autoantibodies targeting melanoma differentiation-associated protein 5 (MDA5). Patients with CADM are at increased risk of developing rapidly progressing interstitial lung disease, which significantly increases both morbidity and mortality compared to other forms of inflammatory myopathies. While there is no standardized treatment regimen, current therapeutic strategies are generally focused on combination immunosuppressive therapies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur J Case Rep Intern Med
December 2024
The Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University and Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.
Introduction: There is little information in the literature on the early, sub-clinical stage and laboratory test results in patients with primary mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma of the lung, a rare disease.
Case Description: In a 75-year-old man, an open lung biopsy-confirmed diagnosis of primary pulmonary lymphoma was preceded by almost six months of anaemia of inflammatory disease and monocytosis without any pulmonary symptoms. When he developed a dry cough, increasing dyspnoea and marked weight loss, these changes deepened and became associated with reactive thrombocytosis; markedly increased ferritin and C-reactive protein (positive acute-phase reactants), as well as reduced albumin and transferrin (negative acute-phase reactants).
HCA Healthc J Med
December 2024
Trident Medical Center, Charleston, SC.
Background: Nitrofurantoin is a prevalent antibiotic used to treat urinary tract infections. Despite nitrofurantoin's general safety, it can cause serious side effects, including acute pulmonary toxicity, fulminant hepatitis, and severe systemic inflammatory responses, which may mimic conditions such as ischemia and infection. However, reports of acute systemic inflammatory response syndrome after nitrofurantoin ingestion are uncommon in medical literature.
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