BACKGROUND Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. CAP can trigger acute cardiac events. We sought to determine the incidence of major cardiac complications in CAP patients to characterize the magnitude of this problem. METHODS AND FINDINGS Two investigators searched MEDLINE, Scopus, and EMBASE for observational studies of immunocompetent adults with ...

Recently, the ERS/ESCMID1 and SEPAR2 have published updated documents about the management of lower respiratory tract infections and community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). These are two clinically important issues that perhaps have not been sufficiently contemplated. The fact that our future actions for their treatment may be modified merits comment. Since 1993, different authors have published ma...

BACKGROUND From the first case reports of pandemic influenza (H1N1) 2009 it was clear that a significant proportion of infected individuals suffered a primary viral pneumonia. The objective of this study was twofold; to assess the utility of the CURB-65 community acquired pneumonia (CAP) severity index in predicting pneumonia severity and ICU admission, and to assess the relative sensitivity of...

Previous studies suggested an increase in the proportion of calcium phosphates (CaP) of the total phosphorus (P) pool in soils with a long-term poultry manure application history versus those with no or limited application histories. To understand and predict long-term P accumulation and release dynamics in these highly amended soils, it is important to understand what specific P species are be...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To assess the strength of the associations between neighbourhood characteristics and mortality, after adjusting for individual characteristics. DESIGN AND SETTING 1990 census records of over 25 year old men in the Helsinki Metropolitan area linked to death records in 1991-1995; almost 1.22 million person years and 15 000 deaths. Individual characteristics were education, occup...

BACKGROUND We previously developed a novel technique using an alternate soaking process that improves tendon-bone healing by hybridizing the tendon graft with calcium phosphate (CaP). However, the effects of the CaP-hybridized tendon graft on anatomic single-bundle anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction remain unclear. PURPOSE To determine the effects of CaP-hybridized tendon grafts ...

The spread of sexually transmitted infections caused by herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) has continued unabated. At least 20% of the United States population has been infected with HSV-2 and there is a high probability of further virus transmission by asymptomatic carriers. Given the absence of effective vaccines, this indicates the need to develop prophylactic measures such as topical micro...

BACKGROUND There is major need for a more sensitive assay for the diagnosis of pneumococcal community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). We hypothesized that pneumococcal nasopharyngeal (NP) proliferation may lead to microaspiration followed by pneumonia. We therefore tested a quantitative lytA real-time polymerase chain reaction (rtPCR) on NP swab samples from patients with pneumonia and controls. ME...