INTRODUCTION Latent tuberculosis infection is detected by the tuberculin skin test before treating with anti-Tumour-Necrosis factor alpha (anti TNFα) reagents. More accurate are Interferon gamma release assays (IFNγ release assays) to identify patients with latent tuberculosis. Because of a positive control in this assay, it is possible to identify those patients in which a result of tuberculos...

Kidney transplantation today has excellent short-term outcomes that have paralleled the use of new immunosuppressive agents introduced in the 1990s. In addition to reducing acute rejection, the goals for developing new agents is to improve long-term outcome, minimize nephrotoxicity, and reduce infectious, cardiovascular, and malignancy-related complications. Novel small molecules and biological...

The spectrum of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD) is changing. Apart from antibiotic use, other risk factors such as use of proton pump inhibitors (PPI) and immunosuppressive agents, intensive care unit (ICU) stay and inflammatory bowel disease are being recognized. We retrospectively analyzed data on patients whose stool samples were tested for C. difficile toxin (CDT) by enzyme...

The incidence of posttransplantation comorbidities related to use of immunosuppressive agents is extremely high. As rates of survival have progressively improved after heart transplantation, the implications of these treatmentrelated comorbidities on long-term health, patient survival, and healthcare costs have become clear. This article reviews the major nonvasculopathy complications of immuno...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Steroid treatment is a mainstay in the management of nephrotic syndrome, but has the potential to impair growth and development of children. This study evaluated the effects of steroid regimens on linear growth of body height in children with nephrotic syndrome. METHODS Hospital records of height measurements were reviewed for a selected cohort of 50 children with nephr...