We isolated Andes virus (formal name: Andes virus [ANDV], a species in the genus Hantavirus), from serum of an asymptomatic 10-year-old Chilean boy who died 6 days later of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). The serum was obtained 12 days after his grandmother died from HPS and 2 days before he became febrile. No hantavirus immunoglobulin (Ig) G or IgM antibodies were detected in the serum sa...

Viruses in the genus Hantavirus can cause one of two serious illnesses when transmitted from rodents to humans: hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) or hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). Of the two diseases, HPS is more severe with an approximate 40% mortality across the Americas. The high rate of mortality could be reduced if effective therapeutics could be discovered for treatment o...

Background: liver cirrhosis with respiratory failure is frequent cause of admission in critical care unit. Sometime no etiological factor other than hepatopulmonary syndrome is labelled. Does pulmonary arterial hypertension matters in hepatopulmonary syndrome? Aim: To assess the frequency of pulmonary hypertension among liver cirrhosis patients presenting with respiratory failure at Critical ca...

Pulmonary abnormalities are common in patients with advanced chronic liver disease. Two distinct syndromes strictly related to the presence of portal hypertension, but clearly different from a pathophysiologic point of view, have been identified. Portopulmonary hypertension, characterized by an increased pulmonary arterial pressure, is due to a progressive arteriolar vasoconstriction induced by...

Hermansky–Pudlak syndrome (HPS) is a rare, heterogeneously inherited, autosomal recessive group of disorders presenting with a triad of oculocutaneous albinism, a haemorrhagic defect secondary to platelet dysfunction and accumulation of ceroid-like material in the reticuloendothelial system [1, 2]. Although pulmonary fibrosis has occurred in a number of patients with this syndrome and generally...

Neonatal toxic shock syndrome-like exanthematous disease (NTED) is a newly recognized neonatal infectious disease, caused by the superantigen toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1). TSST-1 is mainly produced by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and the immune responses to TSST-1 are known to cause toxic shock syndrome, a life-threatening infectious disease. The clinical symptoms of NT...

Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome (HPS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by oculocutaneous albinism and a lack of dense granules in platelets. HPS types 1 and 4 are associated with a granulomatous enterocolitis that is phenotypically indistinguishable from Crohn's disease. We present two cases of HPS-associated Crohn's disease phenotype in which the patients were refractory to stand...

"How diseases of the liver affect lung function?" is one of those puzzling questions that can turn obsessive for those who want to understand how two seemingly distinctive organs can interact and eventually lead to severe disorders [1, 2]. The most common respiratory consequence of liver disease is hypoxaemia, which is often mild to moderate [3]. Seldom severe hypoxaemia occurs when the arteria...

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) was first recognized in 1993 after an outbreak of acute respiratory failure in young people in the Four Corners area of southwestern United States (U.S.). The case fatality rate among these cases was 76% [1]. Fortunately, recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) surveillance data reports a decline in the case-fatality rate of 30 to 40% [2]. HPS...

DOI: 10.5581/1516-8484.20120017 It is generally known that some viral infections, autoimmune diseases and hematologic malignancies, such as malignant lymphoma, can cause hemophagocytic syndrome (HPS). (1-3) In contrast, nonhematologic malignancies associated with HPS have rarely been reported. A case of malignancy-associated hemophagocytic syndrome (MAHS) by non-small cell lung cancer in a cach...