Medicine
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Observational Study
Clinical, Pathological, and Prognostic Characteristics of Glomerulonephritis Related to Staphylococcal Infection.
Staphylococcal infection has become a common cause of postinfectious glomerulonephritis in the past 3 decades. Because few investigations focus on this disease, the demographics and clinicopathological features of glomerulonephritis related to staphylococcal infection are not well characterized. We conducted a pooled analysis of published literature in electronic databases and analyzed the clinical features, laboratory findings, and histopathological changes. ⋯ Glomerulonephritis related to staphylococcal infection has different features than typical postinfectious glomerulonephritis. The diagnosis of glomerulonephritis related to staphylococcal infection relies on immunofluorescence and electron microscopy findings. Age and DM are independent risk factors of poor prognosis for glomerulonephritis related to staphylococcal infection.
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The aim of this study was to determine whether perinatal HIV infection (PHIV), HIV-exposed uninfected (PHEU) versus HIV-unexposed (PHU) status predicted long-term executive function (EF) deficit in school-aged Ugandan children. Perinatal HIV status was determined by 18 months via DNA polymerase chain reaction test and confirmed at cognitive assessment between 6 and 18 years using HIV rapid-diagnostic test. Primary outcome is child EF measured using behavior-rating inventory of executive function questionnaire across 8 subscales summed to derive the global executive composite (GEC). ⋯ PHIV had long-term EF deficits compared with other groups. Furthermore, PHEU ≥11 years may have long-term EF deficits compared with PHU, but future studies are needed to clarify this relationship. Cognitive remediation interventions with emphasis on EF may translate to improvements in long-term functional survival in HIV-affected children from sub-Saharan Africa.
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Zika virus (transmitted by mosquitoes) reached French Polynesia for the first time in 2013, leading to an epidemic affecting 10% of the total population. So far, it has not been known to induce any neurological complications, but, a few weeks after the outbreak, an unexpectedly high number of 42 patients presented with Guillain-Barré syndrome. We report the clinical and electrophysiological characteristics of this series. ⋯ Lumbar puncture showed elevated proteins in 90% of the cases, with cell count always inferior to 50/μL. This epidemic raises several questions, such as the potential existence of interactions between Zika virus and Polynesian HLA system and/or the consequences of several recombination events of this virus. This situation should call for increased vigilance, especially in countries where Aedes mosquitoes are present.
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Donor organ shortage continues to limit the availability of liver transplantation, a successful and established therapy of end-stage liver diseases. Strategies to mitigate graft shortage include the utilization of marginal livers and recently ex-situ normothermic machine perfusion devices. A 59-year-old woman with cirrhosis due to primary sclerosing cholangitis was offered an ex-situ machine perfused graft with unnoticed severe injury of the suprahepatic vasculature due to road traffic accident. ⋯ This report illustrates the operative technique to utilize an otherwise unusable organ, in the current environment of donor shortage and declining graft quality. Normothermic machine perfusion can definitely play a role in increasing the graft pool, without compromising the quality of livers who had vascular or other damage before being ex-situ perfused. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of promptly and thoroughly communicating organ injuries, as well as considering all reconstructive options within the level of expertise at the recipient center.
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The aim of the study was to elucidate pretreatment factors that can predict the outcome of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy or chemotherapy (NAC(R)T) and help us choose treatment strategies appropriate for individual patients. Few studies have investigated whether clinical data obtainable before the treatment can predict the efficacy of NAC(R)T. Of 1540 patients treated for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) at our department between January 2000 and June 2014, those who underwent surgical resection of cStage II or more advanced ESCC after NAC(R)T (113 NACRT and 146 NACT patients) were enrolled in this study. ⋯ On the other hand, NACT was effective in 21 (14%) of 146 patients. The analysis of pretreatment factors showed that absence of dyslipidemia (HR = 10.204; 1.302-83.33) and therapy with docetaxel, cisplatin, and 5-fluorouracil (HR = 2.097; 1.027-4.280) were factors predicting NACT effectiveness. The findings of this study investigating factors that could predict the outcome of NAC(R)T suggest that the prevalence of dyslipidemia influences the outcome of NAC(R)T for ESCC.