Galactomannan and Polymerase Chain Reaction-Based Screening for Invasive Aspergillosis Among High-Risk Hematology Patients: A Diagnostic Meta-analysis.

Background: Screening of high-risk patients for invasive aspergillosis (IA) has the potential to decrease the use of empiric antifungal agents. However, the performance of different screening methods has not been studied.

Methods: We performed a meta-analysis of published studies to assess the diagnostic performance of galactomannan (GM) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) as weekly screening tests in high-risk populations.

Radiotherapy quality assurance report from children's oncology group AHOD0031.

Purpose: A phase 3 trial assessing response-based therapy in intermediate-risk Hodgkin lymphoma mandated real-time central review of involved field radiation therapy (IFRT) and imaging records by a centralized review center to maximize protocol compliance. We report the impact of centralized radiation therapy review on protocol compliance.

Methods And Materials: Review of simulation films, port films, and dosimetry records was required before and after treatment.

Matrix confinement plays a pivotal role in regulating neutrophil-generated tractions, speed, and integrin utilization.

Neutrophils are capable of switching from integrin-dependent motility on two-dimensional substrata to integrin-independent motion following entry into the confined three-dimensional matrix of an afflicted tissue. However, whether integrins still maintain a regulatory role for cell traction generation and cell locomotion under the physical confinement of the three-dimensional matrix is unknown, and this is challenging to deduce from motility studies alone. Using three-dimensional traction force microscopy and a double hydrogel sandwich system, we determined the three-dimensional spatiotemporal traction forces of motile neutrophils at unprecedented resolution and show, for the first time, that entry into a highly confined space (2.

Potassium intake and risk of stroke in women with hypertension and nonhypertension in the Women's Health Initiative.

Background And Purpose: Dietary potassium has been associated with lower risk of stroke, but there are little data on dietary potassium effects on different stroke subtypes or in older women with hypertension and nonhypertension.

Methods: The study population consisted of 90 137 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 at enrollment, free of stroke history at baseline, followed up prospectively for an average of 11 years. Outcome variables were total, ischemic, and hemorrhagic stroke, and all-cause mortality.

Antimicrobial lock solutions as a method to prevent central line-associated bloodstream infections: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Background: Antimicrobial lock solutions may be an effective strategy to prevent catheter-associated infections. However, there remains concern about their efficacy and safety.

Methods: To investigate the efficacy of antimicrobial lock therapy to prevent central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs), we performed a systematic search of PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and ClinicalTrials.

Biologic therapies in rheumatoid arthritis and the risk of opportunistic infections: a meta-analysis.

Objective: Biologic agents are increasingly used to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We aimed to review their association with opportunistic infections (OIs), including fungal, viral (with a focus on herpesvirus-related infections), tuberculosis and other mycobacterial infections.

Methods: We searched PubMed and EMBASE through June 24, 2013, and complemented the search with the reference lists of eligible articles.

Compliance with postoperative cataract surgery care in an urban teaching hospital.

The quality of postoperative care received by patients undergoing resident-performed cataract surgery is not well described. In a retrospective chart review, this study investigated the prevalence and preoperative predictors of noncompliance with postoperative cataract surgery care in an urban teaching hospital. It found that one in four patients was noncompliant with cataract surgery postoperative care and that age 50 years or less was a key predictor of non-compliance.

Morphologic features of 211 adrenal masses at initial contrast-enhanced CT: can we differentiate benign from malignant lesions using imaging features alone?

Objective: The objective of our study was to determine whether morphologic features of adrenal masses detected at initial contrast-enhanced MDCT can differentiate benign from malignant disease.

Materials And Methods: Two hundred eleven adrenal masses (1-4 cm) detected during standard contrast-enhanced MDCT with a proven final diagnosis were retrospectively identified in 188 patients through a computer search of CT, PET/CT, and pathology reports. Three authors blinded to the diagnoses independently reviewed the contrast-enhanced MDCT images of the adrenal masses and evaluated their morphologic features: lesion margin (smooth, lobulated, or irregular), density (homogeneous or heterogeneous), and additional features of central low density and enhancing rim.

Advances in myelin imaging with potential clinical application to pediatric imaging.

White matter development and myelination are critical processes in neurodevelopment. Myelinated white matter facilitates the rapid and coordinated brain messaging required for higher-order cognitive and behavioral processing. Whereas several neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis are associated with gross white matter damage and demyelination, other disorders such as epilepsy may involve altered myelination in the efferent or afferent white matter pathways adjoining epileptic foci.

Incidental clinically important extraurinary findings at MDCT urography for hematuria evaluation: prevalence in 1209 consecutive examinations.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to describe the prevalence and the characteristics of clinically important incidental extraurinary findings detected at MDCT urography performed for hematuria.

Materials And Methods: A computer search of CT reports using the term "hematuria" identified 1209 reports of patients who had undergone MDCT urography. The results were retrospectively reviewed to determine unsuspected extraurinary findings that are clinically important or potentially important, warranting further imaging studies or medical or surgical intervention.

H. pylori vaccines: why we still don't have any.

Helicobacter pylori was appreciated as the major cause of peptic ulcers about 30 years ago and the most significant etiological agent in gastric cancer in the mid-1990s. Since that time, progress in the development of a preventive or therapeutic H. pylori vaccine has been relatively slow.

Predictors of extubation success in patients with middle cerebral artery acute ischemic stroke.

Introduction. Stroke patients often meet respiratory guidelines for extubation, but uncertainty exists if patients will protect their airway due to impaired mental status. Patients with middle cerebral artery (MCA) acute ischemic stroke (AIS) might have specific predictors of successful extubation.

Hematuria evaluation with MDCT urography: is a contrast-enhanced phase needed when calculi are detected in the unenhanced phase?

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the added utility of the contrast-enhanced phase of MDCT urography (MDCTU) when urinary tract calculi are detected in the preliminary unenhanced phase.

Materials And Methods: A computer search of CT reports with the term "hematuria" yielded the records of 1209 patients who had undergone MDCTU. The reports of 286 MDCTU examinations in which urinary tract calculi were detected were identified, and two blinded abdominal radiologists reviewed the images to find a second source of hematuria.

Incidentally discovered adrenal mass.

Adrenal masses are common incidental findings on cross-sectional imaging. Most of these masses are benign, and adenomas are the most common entity. Several imaging studies allow accurate diagnosis of these masses, separating inconsequential benign masses from the lesions that require treatment.

HelicoVax: epitope-based therapeutic Helicobacter pylori vaccination in a mouse model.

Helicobacter pylori is the leading cause of gastritis, peptic ulcer disease and gastric adenocarcinoma and lymphoma in humans. Due to the decreasing efficacy of anti-H. pylori antibiotic therapy in clinical practice, there is renewed interest in the development of anti-H.

Ischemic stroke and rhabdomyolysis in a 15-year-old girl with paraganglioma due to an SDHB exon 6 (Q214X) mutation.

Background: We report a 15-year-old girl with a recent diagnosis of type 2 diabetes mellitus who presented in malignant hypertensive crisis (BP 210/120 mm Hg). Abdominal CT showed an 8.2 x 4.

Intestinal necrosis due to sodium polystyrene sulfonate (Kayexalate) in sorbitol.

Background: Sodium polystyrene sulfonate (SPS, Kayexalate) has been implicated in the development of intestinal necrosis. Sorbitol, added as a cathartic agent, may be primarily responsible. Previous studies have documented bowel necrosis primarily in postoperative, dialysis, and transplant patients.