INTRODUCTION Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) requires prompt treatment, but its diagnosis is complex. Improvement of bacterial CAP diagnosis by biomarkers has been evaluated using chest X-ray infiltrate as the CAP gold standard, producing conflicting results. We analyzed the diagnostic accuracy of biomarkers in suspected CAP adults visiting emergency departments for whom CAP diagnosis was es...

Suppose that ω ⊂ Ω ⊂ R. In the annular domain A = Ω \ ω̄ we consider the class J of complex valued maps having degree 1 on ∂Ω and ∂ω. It was conjectured in [5] that the existence of minimizers of the Ginzburg-Landau energy Eκ in J is completely determined by the value of the H-capacity cap(A) of the domain and the value of the Ginzburg-Landau parameter κ. The existence of minimizers of Eκ for al...

Muscle tissue samples were obtained from vastus lateralis muscle of elite weight/power lifters (WL/ PL, n = 8), endurance athletes (EA, n = 8), and nonathletes (NA, n = 8). Histochemical stainings for myofibrillar ATPase, NADH-tetrazolium reductase, and amylase-periodic acid-Schiff, respectively, were undertaken to assess relative distribution of fast-twitch (FT) and slow-twitch (ST) muscle fib...

BACKGROUND Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is currently used as a biomarker for diagnosis and management of prostate cancer (CaP). However, PSA typically lacks the sensitivity and specificity desired of a diagnostic marker. OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to identify an additional biomarker or a panel of biomarkers that is more sensitive and specific than PSA in differentiating benign ve...

INTRODUCTION Community acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a highly prevalent pathology whose etiology is determined by the characteristics of the geographic region, and the patient. The study of these features is essential for a proper therapeutic approach. Our aim was to study the changes of the causative agent of CAP brought about by the influence of seasonal and climatic changes in our geographic a...

BACKGROUND The British Thoracic Society (BTS) developed a rule (BTSr) based on severity criteria to predict short term mortality in adults admitted to hospital with community acquired pneumonia (CAP). However, neither the BTSr nor a recent modification of it (mBTSr) have been validated in the UK. A case-control study was conducted in a typical UK population to determine the clinical factors pre...

INTRODUCTION The value of measuring procalcitonin (PCT) in patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is unclear. The aim of this study was to determine the value of PCT as a marker for microbial etiology and a predictor of outcome in CAP patients. METHODS A single-center observational study was conducted with CAP patients. On admission, their leukocyte count, serum C-reactive protein l...