BACKGROUND To date, antiretroviral therapy (ART) guidelines and programs in resource-limited settings (RLS) have focused on 1(st)- and 2(nd)-line (2 L) therapy. As programs approach a decade of implementation, policy regarding access to 3(rd)-line (3 L) ART is needed. We aimed to examine the impact of maintaining patients on failing 2 L ART on the accumulation of protease (PR) mutations. METH...

PURPOSE Current management for patients with differentiated thyroid cancer includes near total thyroidectomy and radioactive iodine therapy followed by administration of supraphysiological doses of levothyroxine (L-T4). Although hyperthyroidism is a well known risk factor for osteoporosis, the effects of L-T4 treatment on bone mineral density (BMD) in patients with thyroid cancer do not appear ...

An overview of long-term clinical consequences of TSH suppressive therapy provides evidence that serum TSH levels should be maintained at levels <0.1 mU/l in high-risk (stage III and IV) patients, whereas lower-risk patients should be allowed to have their TSH levels rise into the normal range after residual disease has been ruled out by imaging and/or stimulated thyroglobulin measurement. The ...

BACKGROUND Combination antiretroviral therapy suppresses but does not eradicate human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) in infected persons, and low-level viremia can be detected despite years of suppressive antiretroviral therapy. Short-course (28-day) intensification of standard antiretroviral combination therapy is a useful approach to determine whether complete rounds of HIV-1 replicati...

Currently, liver transplantation is the most effective treatment for end-stage disease. Immuno-suppressive agents are required to be taken after operations, which have significantly reduced rejection rates and improved short-term (&lt;1 year) survival rates. However, post-transplant complications related immuno-suppressive therapy led development of new protocols aimed at protecting renal funct...

BACKGROUND Acid-suppressing agents have been associated with increased Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) in adults. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association of acid-suppressing therapy with the development of CDI in the pediatric population. METHODS This was a retrospective case-control study. Children aged 1 through 17 years with a positive C difficile polymerase chain...

In recent years, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has become popular in immunotherapy, particularly after its tremendous success in the treatment of lineage-restricted hematologic cancers. However, the application of CAR T-cell therapy for solid tumors has not reached its full potential because of the lack of specific tumor antigens and inhibitory factors in suppressive tumor micr...

HIV infection is characterized by persistent immune activation, even in the context of suppressive antiretroviral therapy. This persistent activation, which appears to be fueled by microbial translocation from the gut resulting from HIV-related damage, is associated with deficits in immune function that in turn contribute to persistent activation. The presence of latent HIV reservoirs in lympho...

BACKGROUND The increasing load placed by joint replacement surgery on health care systems makes infection, even with the lowest rates, a serious concern that needs to be thoroughly studied and addressed using all possible measures. METHODS A comprehensive review of the current literature on salvage procedures for recurrent PJIs using PubMed, EMBASE and CINAHL has been conducted. RESULTS Pro...

The symptoms of extra-oesophageal gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) (such as chronic cough and hoarseness) are traditionally more difficult to treat than typical GORD symptoms (heartburn and regurgitation). Patients with extra-oesophageal manifestations may require longer and higher doses of acid suppressive therapy. In patients not responding to acid suppressive therapy the physician fa...