Search results for " Infections"

Current and Future Trends in the Laboratory Diagnosis of Sexually Transmitted Infections

2021

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) continue to exert a considerable public health and social burden globally, particularly for developing countries. Due to the high prevalence of asymptomatic infections and the limitations of symptom-based (syndromic) diagnosis, confirmation of infection using laboratory tools is essential to choose the most appropriate course of treatment and to screen at-risk groups. Numerous laboratory tests and platforms have been developed for gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, trichomoniasis, genital mycoplasmas, herpesviruses, and human papillomavirus. Point-of-care testing is now a possibility, and microfluidic and high-throughput omics technologies promise to revo…

Efficacy of 1-week ranitidine-bismuth-citrate (RBC)-based triple therapy for eradication of Helicobacter pylori infection

1999

Direct-acting antivirals for hepatitis C virus infections in patients co-infected with human immunodeficiency virus

2011

Summary Nearly three-quarters of human immunodeficiency virus–hepatitis C virus (HIV-HCV) coinfected patients in France currently need to be cured of their chronic HCV infection. The increase in sustained virological response rates obtained with the recently available HCV protease inhibitors in treatment-naive genotype-1 patients has generated considerable hope in these co-infected patients. However, several particularities (such as a higher baseline HCV load, more advanced liver fibrosis, frequent co-morbidities, and the risk of toxicity and drug–drug interactions) have not allowed the direct extrapolation of the results observed in HCV-monoinfected patients to patients with HIV-HCV co-inf…

Direct-acting antiviral-based therapy for chronic hepatitis C virus in HIV-infected patients

2015

The aim of this review was to detail the current therapies and treatments for chronic hepatitis C virus in coinfected patients, focusing on HCV antiviral agents currently used in practice today or scheduled to enter the open market soon. Several direct-acting antiviral (DAA) combinations show high sustained virologic response (SVR) rates in HIV/HCV-coinfected patients, which are often close to those observed in HCV-monoinfected patients. Most recommendations regarding treatment stem from trials with coinfected patients. However, data are lacking for some aspects of HCV-treatment in coinfection, so extrapolations must be made from data obtained predominately from monoinfected patients. HIV/H…

Acute hepatitis C: in search of the optimal approach to cure.

2006

Abstract IFN monotherapy for acute hepatitis C can be supported, but a strategy taking into account both baseline (clinical presentation, genotype, HIV coinfection) and early (spontaneous viral decay) virologic response should be developed from carefully conducted, controlled prospective studies comparing a “wait and see strategy”, and different schedules of PEG IFN monotherapy to optimize adherence and costs and to reduce the number needed to treat. The price of the ultimate success of therapy for AVH due to HCV, i.e. a stable and definitive clearance of HCV with no residual liver disease in the long term, should not be paid by a high number of patients who are treated needlessly.

Ureterosciatic Hernia A Rare Cause of Pyonephrosis

1989

A female patient presented as an emergency case with pyonephrosis and septicemia as a result of ureterosciatic hernia. Septicemia was treated successfully by immediate percutaneous nephrostomy tubing. After complete disappearance of symptoms, the hernia was closed operatively. Topographic anatomy of ureterosciatic hernia is presented.

Need to evaluate the performance of real-time PCR assays for the quantitation of cytomegalovirus DNA load in lower respiratory tract specimens

2013

There is an increasing appreciation for the potential clinical value of the quantitation of cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNA in the lower respiratory tract in critically ill patients lacking canonical immunosuppression, in view of the possible pathogenic role of CMV in these patients [1]. No data have been published on the analytical performance of real-time PCR assays for this purpose. We present our data on the performance of the COBAS® AmpliPrep/COBAS® TaqMan CMV PCR Assay (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany) for the quantitation of CMV DNA in tracheal aspirates (TA). This CMV PCR assay has been approved recently by the US Food and Drug Administration for use with plasma specimens [2]. We cho…

Pathogen safety of long-term treatments for bleeding disorders: (un)predictable risks and evolving threats.

2013

Substantial improvements in the safety of blood and plasma products for the management of bleeding disorders have been achieved in recent decades. This has led some clinicians to believe that the infectious threat is over and that inhibitor formation is the foremost complication of hemophilia therapy. On the contrary, elimination of all microbes from blood is difficult, potentially impossible, and there are always threats from emerging pathogens. The risk of infection transmission is also increasing due to greater exposure to products, increasing prophylaxis and high-dose regimens for immune tolerance, and longevity of hemophilia patients. Current products can be considered "reasonably safe…

The effect of timing on community acquired respiratory virus infection mortality during the first year after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell trans…

2019

The effect of timing of community acquired respiratory virus (CARV) infection after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (allo-HCT) is an as yet unsettled issue. We evaluate this issue by including all consecutive allo-HCT recipients with molecularly-documented CARV infection during the first year after transplant. The study cohort was drawn from a prospective longitudinal survey of CARV in allo-HCT recipient having respiratory symptoms conducted from December 2013 to December 2018 at two Spanish transplant centers. Respiratory viruses in upper and/or lower respiratory specimens were tested using multiplex PCR panel assays. The study cohort comprised 233 allo-HCT recipients with 37…

A Multivariate Age-Structured Stochastic Model with Immunization Strategies to Describe Bronchiolitis Dynamics

2021

Bronchiolitis has a high morbidity in children under 2 years old. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most common pathogen causing the disease. At present, there is only a costly humanized monoclonal RSV-specific antibody to prevent RSV. However, different immunization strategies are being developed. Hence, evaluation and comparison of their impact is important for policymakers. The analysis of the disease with a Bayesian stochastic compartmental model provided an improved and more natural description of its dynamics. However, the consideration of different age groups is still needed, since disease transmission greatly varies with age. In this work, we propose a multivariate age-struct…