Pneumonia

Vaccination has become an increasingly attractive strategy for protecting against antibiotic-resistant infections. Nanovaccines based on the outer membrane from Gram-negative bacteria are appealing due to their multiantigenic nature and inherent immunogenicity. Here, we develop cellular nanodiscs made of bacterial outer membrane (OM-NDs), as a platform for antibacterial vaccination. Using Pseudomonas aeruginosa as a model pathogen, the resulting OM-NDs can effectively interact with antigen-presenting cells, exhibiting accelerated uptake and an improved capacity for immune stimulation...

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes significant childhood morbidity and mortality in the developing world. The determinants of RSV seasonality are of importance in designing interventions. They are poorly understood in tropical and sub-tropical regions in low- and middle-income countries. Our study utilized long-term surveillance data on cases of RSV associated with severe or very severe pneumonia in children aged 1 day to 59 months admitted to the Kilifi County Hospital. A generalized additive model was used to investigate the association between RSV admissions and meteorological variables (maximum temperature, rainfall, absolute humidity); weekly number of births within the catchment population; and school term dates...

UNLABELLED: BACKGROUND AND GOALS: Gastric outlet obstruction (GOO) usually occurs at the pylorus or the duodenum through primary gastric, duodenal, or pancreatic tumors. However, metastatic GOO is relatively rare. Although self-expandable metal stent (SEMS) placement is often performed as an alternative and practical palliative approach for primary GOO, there are few reports of metastatic GOO treatment with SEMS. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy, safety, stent patency, and complications of SEMS for treating primary and metastatic GOO...

The present case reports on a 53-year-old patient with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and acute pneumonia who complained of massive right-sided chest pain and hemoptysis after a severe coughing fit. To the authors' great surprise, further clinical and radiological investigations revealed a rupture of the right intercostal muscles caused by the coughing fit, with herniation of parts of the right lower lobe of the lung down to the subcutaneous and below the M. latissimus dorsi...

The pneumonia vaccine is the best way to prevent pneumococcal disease and the high cost of readmission for patients and payors. The readmission rate at a skilled nursing facility (SNF) for a patient with a diagnosis of pneumonia was 24%, whereas the vaccination rate at the SNF was only 28%. This finding is significant because patients aged ≥65 years have a 35% reduction in pneumonia influenzas and all-cause mortality with appropriate pneumococcal vaccination. The current initiative sought to increase the pneumococcal vaccine rate at a SNF through implementation of a structured vaccine initiative...

OBJECTIVES: To compare the occurrence of healthcare-associated infections acquired in intensive care units (HAI-ICUs) in France among patients with COVID-19 and those without it in 2020 and the latter with that in patients before the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Multicentre HAI-ICU surveillance network (REA-REZO) data were used to identify 3 groups: 2019 patients (2019Control), a COVID-19 group (2020Cov), and a non-COVID-19 group (2020NonCov). The primary outcome was the occurrence of HAI-ICU (ventilator-associated pneumonia [VAP], bloodstream infections [BSIs], catheter-related bacteraemia)...

BACKGROUND: Many patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia experience hyperglycemia. It is often difficult to control blood glucose (BG) levels in such patients using standard intravenous insulin infusion therapy. Therefore, we used an artificial pancreas. This study aimed to compare the BG status of artificial pancreas with that of standard therapy. METHODS: Fifteen patients were included in the study. BG values and the infusion speed of insulin and glucose by the artificial pancreas were collected...

Ceftriaxone is widely used in children with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Currently, there is no available data regarding epithelial lining fluid (ELF) concentrations of ceftriaxone in children. Thus, Blood and bronchoalveolar lavage fluids (BALF) samples were collected by using an opportunistic sampling design, then we determined plasma and ELF concentrations in 22 children (0.5 - 11.7 years), with a total of 36 plasma and 22 ELF samples available for analysis. Ceftriaxone plasma and ELF concentrations ranged from 1...

INTRODUCTION: Pneumocystis jirovecii is an opportunistic, human-specific fungus that causes Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP). PCP symptoms are non-specific. A patient with P. jirovecii and another lung infection faces a diagnostic challenge. It may be difficult to determine which of these agents is responsible for the clinical symptoms, preventing effective treatment. Diagnostic and treatment efforts have been made more difficult by the rising frequency with which coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) and PCP co-occur...

BACKGROUND: Nanotechnology finds broad applications in the field of nanomedicine, an emerging new field used for diagnosis, treatment, prevention of diseases, and improvement of health. OBJECTIVES: To synthesize silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) from Withania somnifera and Fagonia indica and to carry out their antimicrobial, insecticidal, and phytotoxic activities, a step toward the new range of nanomedicines. METHODS: Silver nanoparticles were synthesized from Withania somnifera and Fagonia indica by chemical reduction method, and further biological activities of these nanoparticles were compared with crude methanolic extract, prepared through cold maceration process, at the concentration of 50 mg/ml...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the significance of vitamin D and human antimicrobial peptide LL-37 in the occurrence and development of bacterial pneumonia in infants. METHODS: From January 2021 to January 2022, 80 infants with bacterial pneumonia were selected, including 33 cases of gram-positive bacterial infection (GP) and 47 cases of gram-negative bacterial infection (GN). During the same period, 40 infants who underwent health examination in The Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University served as the healthy control group...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2022/8660752.].

BACKGROUND: Prior studies, comparing anterior and posterior approaches to lumbar fusion surgery, found similar fusion rates and clinical outcomes, but are limited by sample size. Further evaluation of the postoperative complications of each approach is necessary. METHODS: The MSpine database by PearlDiver was queried using ICD-9, ICD-10, and CPT codes to identify patients who had undergone single-level anterior or posterior lumbar interbody fusion surgery. Readmission rates, ileus, lower extremity DVT, infection, pneumonia, and stroke were used to compare post-operative complications of an anterior vs...

INTRODUCTION: Moderate to severely ill patients diagnosed with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia develop a series of complications and less frequently, we might witness cases of Pulmonary Thromboembolism (PE)-refractory to the standard treatment with Low Molecular Weight Heparin (LMWH). The aim of this case series is to report the presentation and management of pulmonary thromboembolism secondary to COVID-19 pneumonia. METHOD: We report a case series of seven cases aged 40-70 who were presented in Dhulikhel Hospital with COVID-19 symptoms in different stages...

BACKGROUND: Since December 2019, an unexplained pneumonia has broken out in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. In order to prevent the rapid spread of this disease, quarantine or lockdown measures were taken by the Chinese government. These measures turned out to be effective in containing the contagious disease. In spite of that, social distancing measures, together with disease itself, would potentially cause certain health risks among the affected population, such as sleep disorder. We herein conducted this web search analysis so as to examine the temporal and spatial changes of public search volume of the mental health topic of "insomnia" during COVID-19 pandemic in China...

Dysphagia lusoria (DL) occurs due to an aberrant right subclavian artery (ARSA) compressing the esophagus resulting in dysphagia, odynophagia, and/or reflux symptoms. It is diagnosed by barium esophagram followed by a CT scan or MRI. In this case report, there is a 44-year-old male with a chronic history of reflux and a cough that presents after a meal. The case was complicated due to the history of the patient's alcoholism with recurrent pancreatitis. A CT scan was obtained during his admission, which showed pleural effusion, atelectasis, aspiration pneumonia, and an incidental aberrant RCA...

Leptospirosis is an infection caused by Leptospira . Leptospirosis causes disease in humans mainly in developing countries and also in countries with poor housing and sanitation, due to animals (mainly rats) that are potential sources of contamination. The clinical manifestations and the severity of leptospirosis are highly variable. We present the case of a 56-year-old female that was admitted to the emergency department with a three-week history of fever (38.4ºC), headache, dyspnea, and cough...

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is an inflammatory process in the lungs that induces non-hydrostatic protein-rich pulmonary edema. ARDS occurs in roughly half of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia patients, with most of them requiring intensive care. Oxygen saturation, partial pressure of the oxygen, and the fraction of the inspired oxygen are health indicators that may indicate a severe illness necessitating further investigation. As treatments have evolved, a typical pattern of ARDS has likewise evolved...

BACKGROUND: Chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy or anti-vascular therapy is both recommended by guidelines for first-line treatment of lung adenocarcinoma. However, no head-to-head clinical trial has ever compared which strategy is the optimal choice. This real-world retrospective study was done to compare the efficacy and treatment-related adverse events of immunotherapy and bevacizumab in combination with chemotherapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: From January 2018 to March 2021, we retrospectively collected 276 patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma managed with chemotherapy combined with bevacizumab or PD-1 inhibitors at our center...

Early and fast detection of disease is essential for the fight against COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers have focused on developing robust and cost-effective detection methods using Deep learning based chest X-Ray image processing. However, such prediction models are often not well suited to address the challenge of highly imabalanced datasets. The current work is an attempt to address the issue by utilizing unsupervised Variational Auto Encoders (VAEs). Firstly, chest X-Ray images are converted to a latent space by learning the most important features using VAEs...