BACKGROUND During intensive chemotherapy, bloodstream infection (BSI) represents an important complication in paediatric cancer patients. Most patients carry a long-term central venous access device (CVAD). Improved maintenance care of these vascular catheters may decrease the risk of BSI. METHODS Intervention study (adapted CVAD prevention protocol) with two observation periods (P1: 09-2009 ...

BACKGROUND The epidemiology of paediatric bloodstream infection (BSI) in Sub-Saharan Africa is poorly documented with limited data on hospital-acquired sepsis, impact of HIV infection, BSI trends and antimicrobial resistance. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed paediatric BSI (0-14 years) at Tygerberg Children's Hospital between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2013 (excluding neonatal wards). ...

Measurements of natural cosmogenic Si (t1/2 ~ 140 years) in tropical deltaic sediments demonstrate for the first time that most Si is present in rapidly formed authigenic clays and not biogenic opaline silica (bSi). The burial of bSi in deltaic and continental margin sediments has likely been greatly underestimated because of diagenetic alteration of bSi to clay, little of which dissolves in th...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the pattern of perfusion abnormalities in ictal and interictal brain perfusion SPECT images (BSI) from patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). METHOD It was acquired interictal and ictal BSI from 24 patients with refractory TLE. BSIs were analyzed by visual inspection and statistical parametric mapping (SPM2). Statistical analysis compared the patients group to a ...

INTRODUCTION We evaluated bone scan index (BSI) as a predictive biomarker for time to castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) in patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC). MATERIALS AND METHODS We identified 85 consecutive mHSPC patients treated with first-line androgen deprivation therapy. We analyzed the correlations between time to CRPC and clinicopathological ...

INTRODUCTION Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) are life-threatening drug reactions with a higher incidence in HIV-infected persons. SJS/TEN are associated with skin and mucosal failure, predisposing to systemic bacterial infection (BSI), a major cause of death. There are limited data on risk factors associated with BSI and and mortality in HIV-infected people w...

INTRODUCTION To estimate the incidence of intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired bloodstream infection (BSI) and its independent effect on hospital mortality. METHODS We retrospectively studied acquisition of BSI during admissions of >72 hours to adult ICUs from two university-affiliated hospitals. We obtained demographics, illness severity and co-morbidity data from ICU databases and microbiolog...

BACKGROUND Genetic variation in the innate immune system of the host may play a role in determining the risk of developing infection, as well as outcome from infection. METHODS Infectious complications were retrospectively determined in 293 (233 African-American (AA), 57 Caucasian and 3 Hispanic) mechanically ventilated very low birth weight (VLBW) infants (<1500 grams at birth) who were geno...

BACKGROUND Bloodstream infections (BSIs) are an ever-present concern for clinicians evaluating ill-appearing pediatric patients with central venous catheters (CVCs) in the ambulatory care setting. METHODS We performed a case-control study of a cohort of 200 pediatric patients who were evaluated in the ambulatory care setting and who were found to have laboratory-confirmed BSI in the context o...

BACKGROUND Healthcare-associated (HCA) bloodstream infections (BSI) have been associated with worse outcomes, in terms of higher frequencies of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms and inappropriate therapy than strict community-acquired (CA) BSI. Recent changes in the epidemiology of community (CO)-BSI and treatment protocols may have modified this association. The objective of this study was t...