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2024 NOV 30 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- According to news reporting based on a preprint abstract, our journalists obtained [...]

2024 AUG 17 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- According to news reporting based on a preprint abstract, our journalists obtained [...]

2023 MAR 18 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- According to news reporting based on a preprint abstract, our journalists obtained [...]

2022 MAR 12 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- According to news reporting based on a preprint abstract, our journalists obtained [...]

ABSTRACT: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a rare cause of community-acquired infection. The source of this organism has usually been inapparent or environmental (ie, contaminated humidifiers). We documented transmission of P aeruginosa [...]

Study objective: Interleukin (IL)-18 is a proinflammatory cytokine, originally termed interferon (IFN)-γ-inducing factor, which promotes T-helper type 1 (Th1) cytokine responses. We recently reported that serum IL-18 levels were elevated [...]

Study objectives: This study was undertaken to evaluate the laboratory abnormalities observed in patients with bacterial pneumonia as predictors of the severity of illness. Design: Retrospective analysis. Setting: Tertiary care hospital. Patients and participants: We studied 302 consecutive patients who were admitted to the Long Island Jewish Medical Center from January through December 1993 and treated for bacterial pneumonia. The patients were subdivided into two groups based on their serum phosphorus level either on hospital admission or 4 days before the onset of pneumonia, if this was acquired in-hospital. Hypophosphatemia (group 1) was defined as serum phosphorus level of [is less than or equal to] 2.4 mg/dL and normophosphatemia [is greater than] 2.4 mg/dL (group 2). Three hundred randomly selected hospitalized patients treated for conditions other than pneumonia comprised the control group (group 3). Measurements: Groups 1 and 2 were compared with respect to laboratory data, mortality rate, and duration of hospitalization. The laboratory data of patients in group 3 were compared with those treated for bacterial pneumonia (groups 1 and 2). Stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis was employed to identify the variables that best predicted the onset of pneumonia. Results: In groups 1 and 2, a greater (p [is less than] 0.0001) number of patients (135 of 302 patients with pneumonia, 44.7%) developed hypophosphatemia compared with patients in group 3 (31 of 300 control subjects, 10.3%). Patients with pneumonia (groups 1 and 2) had higher levels (p [is less than] 0.01) of bicarbonate compared with control subjects. Moreover, patients with pneumonia demonstrated lower levels (p [is less than] 0.01) of calcium, phosphorus, albumin, cholesterol, and alanine aminotransferase compared with control patients (group 3). Among patients with pneumonia, those with hypophosphatemia (group 1) had significantly lower levels (p [is less than] 0.05) of potassium, calcium, and albumin compared to those subjects with normophosphatemia (group 2). Furthermore, hypophosphatemic subjects manifested higher levels of glucose (p [is less than] 0.01) and creatine phosphokinase (p [is less than] 0.05) compared to their normophosphatemic counterparts. In addition, hypophosphatemic patients experienced a longer duration of hospital stay (hypophosphatemia, 24.6 ± 2.0 days, vs normophosphatemia, 14.1 ± 1.0, p [is less than] 0.001) and higher (p [is less than] 0.001) mortality compared to normophosphatemic subjects. The incidence of nosocomial pneumonia was higher (p [is less than] 0.0001) in hypophosphatemic patients compared to those with normophosphatemia. Conclusion: We conclude that hypophosphatemia, hypocalcemia, hypokalemia, and hypoalbuminemia may be predictors of the severity of illness in patients admitted to the hospital with bacterial pneumonia. (CHEST 1997; 111:595-600) Key words: bacterial pneumonia; hypophosphatemia; laboratory abnormalities, Pneumonia is the most common life-threatening infectious disease.[1] Pleuropulmonary infection remains the fifth most common cause of mortality in the United States, accounting for an estimated 55,000 deaths annually.[2] Pneumonia [...]

Background: Pneumonia caused by Chlamydia pneumoniae or Streptococcus pneumoniae cannot be reliably differentiated by clinical signs or symptoms. Objective: To find differences in the roentgenographic patterns of community-acquired pneumonia caused by C pneumoniae, S pneumoniae, or both in hospitalized patients during a C pneumoniae epidemic in Finland. Methods: The patients were divided into 3 groups: 24 patients with serologic evidence of C pneumoniae only; 8 patients with combined C pneumoniae and S pneumoniae infection; and 13 patients with infection caused by S pneumoniae only. The chest roentgenograms obtained on admission to the hospital, during the hospital stay, and at follow-up visits were reevaluated by one of us (S.L.) who was unaware of the causative organism. In the final study groups, other causes of community-acquired pneumonia were excluded by a large pattern of microbiological methods. Results: Bronchopneumonia was observed in 21 (88%) of the group with C pneumoniae and 10 (77%) of the group with S pneumoniae (P=.67). Lobar or sublobar (air space) pneumonia was seen in 7 (29%) of the patients with C pneumoniae compared with 7 (54%) with pneumonia caused by S pneumoniae. In the combined group, bronchopneumonia was seen as frequently as in the group with C pneumoniae, and air-space involvement was seen as frequently as in the group with S pneumoniae. The pneumonic shadowing was usually unilateral and in the lower lobes in all groups. Of the patients in the C pneumoniae group, 17% had residual abnormalities at follow-up visits. Conclusions: Roentgenographic changes cannot be used to differentiate pneumonia caused by C pneumoniae from that caused by S pneumoniae. Thus, initial antibiotic treatment should be directed at the pathogens that commonly cause community-acquired pneumonia.

Bacterial pneumonia may be linked with a steady rise in HIV RNA in AIDS patients. Serum samples from 13 patients with HIV who had antiretroviral therapy showed increased HIV RNA upon developing bacterial pneumonia. Before, during and after bacterial pneumonia, assays showed 60,000 copies per millimeter (ml), 245,000 copies per ml and 84,000 copies per ml, respectively. No significant change was seen in HIV RNA and in CD4 counts before and after pneumonia.

Two patients with acute pulmonary coccidioidomycosis presenting as acute bacterial pneumonia and sepsis are described. One patient died despite appropriate antifungal therapy, whereas the diagnosis in the other patient was only established after postmortem examination. In both cases, coccidioidomycosis had disseminated beyond the lungs. Factors leading to overwhelming coccidioidomycosis are discussed, and the relation of the sepsis syndrome to coccidioidomycosis is reviewed.

The term bronchiolitis obliterans was used by Lange[1] in 1901. There have been scattered reports of this disorder until the 1980s when a proliferation of publications began to appear regarding [...]

Idiopathic bronchiolitis obliterans with organizing pneumonia (BOOP) or cryptogenic organizing pneumonitis (COP) is a specific clinicopathologic syndrome of unknown etiology. Since the histopathologic lesions present in this syndrome can be [...]

'Alginate overproduction by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, also known as mucoidy, is associated with chronic endobronchial infections in cystic fibrosis. Alginate biosynthesis is initiated by the extracytoplasmic function sigma factor (sigma(22); AlgU/AlgT),' [...]

Fresh data on Pneumonia are presented in the report 'Modulators of sphingolipid metabolism reduce lung inflammation.' According to the authors of a study from Verona, Italy, 'The investigation of novel [...]

'In a previous study, a relation between decreased serum angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) activity and physiological parameters was observed in patients with community-acquired pneumonia. The present study aims to further assess [...]

It has been shown that patients with COPD require as long as 20 min for equilibration oxygen tension to occur after changing the fraction of inspired oxygen ([FIo.sub.2]). To date, [...]

Data detailed in 'Genetic structure and distribution of the colibactin genomic island among members of the family Enterobacteriaceae' have been presented. According to a study from Wurzburg, Germany, 'A genomic [...]

Researchers detail in 'Crystallization of dihydrodipicolinate synthase from a clinical isolate of Streptococcus pneumoniae,' new data in strep infection. 'Dihydrodipicolinate synthase (DHDPS; EC 4.2.1.52) catalyzes the rate-limiting step in the [...]

Purpose: To evaluate the prevalence of microorganisms causing CAP and the usefulness of a clinical practice guideline in their routine management. Methods: All patients with diagnosis of CAP seen during [...]