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Technological advancements have shifted human living and working environments from outdoor to indoor. Although indoor spaces offer protection from unfavorable weather conditions, they also present new health challenges. Stale, humid, and warm indoor air creates an ideal breeding ground for bacteria and fungi, leading to health issues such as asthma and bacterial infections. Although proper ventilation is crucial, a comprehensive inspection of local indoor air quality is necessary to prevent widespread diseases. In vitro experiments involving bacteria and fungi collected from indoor air yield accurate results but are time- and cost-intensive. In silico methods offer faster results and provide valuable insights for guiding further in vitro experiments. In this study, we conduct an in vitro cytotoxicity assay on 32 fungi species and compare its results with a memory-efficient in silico modeling method using parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT) and ProtBERT. This study suggests a potential methodology for predicting the toxicity of indoor airborne fungi when their identities are known. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The threat of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) to public health has been increasing due to the rapid spread of the ticks that carry the causative viral agent. The SFTS virus (SFTSV) was first identified in China and subsequently detected in neighboring countries, including South Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. In addition to the tick-mediated infection, human-to-human transmission has been recently reported with a high mortality rate; however, differential study of the pathogen has been limited by the route of infection. In this study, we investigated the pathogenic potential of SFTSV based on the infection route in aged ferrets, which show clinical signs similar to that of human infections. Ferrets inoculated with SFTSV via the intramuscular and subcutaneous routes show clinical signs comparable to those of severe human infections, with a mortality rate of 100%. Contrastingly, intravascularly infected ferrets exhibit a comparatively lower mortality rate of 25%, although their early clinical signs are similar to those observed following infection via the other routes. These results indicate that the infection route could influence the onset of SFTS symptoms and the pathogenicity of SFTSV. Thus, infection route should be considered in future studies on the pathogenesis of SFTSV infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) and scrub typhus are disorders with similar clinical features; therefore, differentiating between them is difficult. We retrospectively collected data from 183 SFTS and 178 scrub typhus patients and validated an existing scoring system to develop a more sensitive, specific, and objective scoring system. We first applied the scoring systems proposed by Kim et al. to differentiate SFTS from scrub typhus. Multivariable logistic regression revealed that altered mental status, leukopenia, prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), and normal C-reactive protein (CRP) level (≤1.0 mg/dL) were significantly associated with SFTS. We changed the normal CRP level from ≤1.0 mg/dL to ≤3.0 mg/dL and replaced altered mental status with the creatine kinase (CK) level. The modified scoring system showed 97% sensitivity and 96% specificity for SFTS (area under the curve (AUC): 0.983) and a higher accuracy than the original scoring system (p = 0.0308). This study's scoring system had 97% sensitivity and 98% specificity for SFTS (AUC: 0.992) and a higher accuracy than Kim et al.'s original scoring system (p = 0.0308). Our scoring system that incorporated leukopenia, prolonged aPTT, normal CRP level (≤3.0 mg/dL), and elevated CK level (>1000 IU/L) easily differentiated SFTS from scrub typhus in an endemic area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clinical characteristics and the effect of viral RNA loads on fatality in 56 patients with severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) were analyzed. The non-survival group (12 patients) demonstrated a significantly higher mean age (77 years) than the survival group (44 patients, 65 years) (p = 0.003). The survival rates were 91.7% and 8.3% in patients with Ct values ≥30 and differed significantly (p = 0.001) in the survival and non-survival groups, respectively. The survival rates were 52.4% and 47.6% in patients with viral copy numbers ≥10,000 and 94.3% and 5.7% in patients with viral copy numbers <10,000 in the survival and non-survival groups, respectively (p = 0.001). In a multivariate analysis, viral copy numbers and initial Acute Psychologic Assessment and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) scores were identified as the factors affecting fatality (p = 0.015 and 0.011, respectively). SFTS viral RNA loads can be useful markers for the clinical prediction of mortality and survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pain after laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is multifactorial and usually not effectively treated. Rectus sheath block (RSB) has been proven to reduce the pain from midline abdominal incision and laparoscopic surgery. We investigated the preemptive analgesic effect of RSB after LC. Methods: In this prospective, randomized, single-center trial, 200 patients undergoing LC were randomized into preoperative RSB (pre-RSB) or postoperative RSB (post-RSB) group. An ultrasound-guided RSB was performed before skin incision in the pre-RSB group or after skin closure in the post-RSB group. The primary outcome was total rescue analgesic consumption at 24 h post-surgery. The secondary outcomes were cumulated rescue analgesic consumption and postoperative pain measured by numerical rating scale (NRS) at 0, 1, 2, 6, 9, 18, and 24 h post-surgery. Results: Total rescue analgesic consumption at 24 h post-surgery was significantly lower in the pre-RSB group than in the post-RSB group (p = 0.020). The cumulated rescue analgesic consumption was significantly lower in the pre-RSB group than in the post-RSB group at 1 h (p = 0.023), 9 h (p = 0.020) and 18 h (p = 0.002) post-surgery. NRS was significantly lower in the pre-RSB group than in the post-RSB group at 0 h post-surgery (p = 0.023). Conclusion: The pre-RSB reduced the analgesic requirements in patients undergoing LC compared with the post-RSB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]