Surveillance of human Yersinia enterocolitica infections in Belgium: 1963–1978

Details are given on the epidemiology of human Yersinia enterocolitica infections in Belgium, based on 3167 isolations from 1963 to 1978. A continuing increase of the number of isolations is noted, with 1386 isolations in the last three years covered, excluding repeated isolations from the same patient.Serotype 3 remains predominant accounting for 84 per cent of all isolations. However, a changing pattern of serotypes distribution has been observed in recent years, with an increasing proportion of serotype 9 and serotypes other than 3 or 9.Most isolations are from faeces. From blood and deep abscesses only serotypes 3 and 9 were recovered. In Belgium only the latter serotypes are clearly associated with human disease, such as enteritis, pseudo-appendicular syndrome and septicaemia. The pseudo-appendicular syndrome is seen at an older age than is enteritis, and is relatively more frequent in serotype 9 infections. In contrast, serotypes other than 3 or 9 are relatively more common in persons without any illness or with atypical symptoms. There is evidence that they are non-pathogenic.     

Socioeconomic support to improve initiation of tuberculosis preventive therapy and increase tuberculosis treatment success in Peru: a household-randomised,controlled evaluation

Background

For the first time in the modern era of tuberculosis control, the WHO's End TB strategy specifically integrates socioeconomic support for people affected by tuberculosis with existing biomedical interventions. However, there is little evidence of the impact of this approach on tuberculosis outcomes. We designed and implemented one of the world's first tuberculosis-specific socioeconomic support interventions, assessed its impact on tuberculosis prevention measures and treatment success, and refined the support for use in the Community Randomized Evaluation of a Socioeconomic Intervention to Prevent Tuberculosis (CRESIPT) project.

The maximal biliary excretory rate (Tm) of ioglycamide in the rat. Effect of taurocholate

Biliary excretion of ioglycamide was studied in Wistar and Gunn rats. A hepatic transport-maximum (Tm) was observed. Higher Tm-values were found in Gunn rats, which have a greater bile flow compared to the parent Wistar rats, in spite of having a similar bile acid output. This suggests that the Tm is related to the bile acid-independent bile flow. In bile acid-depleted Wistar rats, bile acid output was 30% of control values whereas bile flow and ioglycamide-Tm had only decreased by approximately 15%. Ioglycamide excretion could not be increased by taurocholate infusion. An additional 22.0 ml of bile was excreted per mmol of biliary ioglycamide. Loads of the contrast agent markedly exceeding the Tm resulted in a decrease of its own biliary excretion and its choleretic properties. These presumed 'toxic' effects were counteracted by near-physiological amounts of taurocholate. Thus, the effect of taurocholate varies greatly depending upon the amounts of the contrast agent and the taurocholate administered.     

Use of machine learning approaches to compare the contribution of different types of data for predicting an individual's risk of ill health: an observational study

Background

Public health science has made considerable effort to understand the determinants of health. Although substantial gains have been made in understanding the determinants of population health, our ability to translate discoveries at the population level towards discriminating between cases and non-cases of disease at the individual level has been limited despite increasing availability of data. This study draws from the recent advances in machine learning approaches to explore whether such methods can revolutionise how we build predictive models of health using social survey data.

Changes in lung cancer incidence by sex and smoking status in China: a multicentre observational study

Background

Lung cancer is traditionally more prevalent in elderly people, men, and smokers, and is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage. However, as low-dose CT (LDCT) lung cancer screening is increasingly popular in some regions of China, and since it might lead to the detection of more small-sized lung cancers, we hypothesised the spectrum of lung cancer might change.

Comparison of serial diagnostic tests in a patient with invasive aspergillosis

Studies on a liver transplant recipient with fatal disseminated aspergillosis are described. The concentration of IgG antibodies to Aspergillus rose sharply with the onset of fever and changes in the chest X-ray, reaching a peak on day 10. Thereafter, antibody concentrations fell and were within the normal range by day 21, when Aspergillus was first isolated from an endotracheal aspirate and one day before death. The fall in antibodies preceded a rise in circulating immune complexes but Aspergillus antigens were not detected in the serum. Serial quantitative assay for antibodies to Aspergillus may be more appropriate than culture or attempts to detect antigen in the early diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis in immunocompromised patients.     

Implementation of the Early Essential Newborn Care (EENC) on neonatal outcomes in west China: an observational study

Background

West China exhibits poorer newborn health outcomes than in other parts of mainland China. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effect of the Early Essential Newborn Care (EENC) on neonatal outcomes in west China.

Moderate sodium restriction and diuretics in the treatment of hypertension

Using a cross-over type setup with 4 periods of 1 month each in 22 patients with mild, mostly essential hypertension, the antihypertensive action of the following therapeutic regimens were compared: (1) a regular diet and placebo (period RP), (2) a regular diet and 100 mg. hydrochlorothiazide and 100 mg. spironolactone (period RD), (3) a moderate sodium restriction and placebo (LP period), and (4) this diet together with the same diuretics (period LD). The diuretics or placebo were administered on a double blind basis, while the sodium restriction or regular sodium diet was prescribed in an open, but randomized system. The 24 hour urinary sodium averaged 191.1 ± 61.2 mEq. during the RP period and 92.8 ± 41.8 mEq. during the LP period.Compared to the RP period, the reduction in home blood pressures was more important with diuretics alone ($\text{16.1}\text{8.1}$ mm. Hg) than with this moderate sodium restriction alone ($\text{7.7}\text{4.4}$ mm. Hg), while the combination of both produced a statistically significantly (p < 0.005) higher blood pressure reduction ($\text{20.7}\text{10.8}$ mm. Hg).Not only the diuretics but also the sodium restriction increased the serum uric acid, and this could be related to the decreased urinary uric acid clearance.A significant (p < 0.001) correlation (r = 0.66) was obtained between the decrease in systolic blood pressure (expressed in mm. Hg) produced by the sodium restriction (y) and the decrease in 24 hour urinary sodium excretion (expressed in mEq.) produced by the same diet:

$\text{y=?6.58+0.163}\text{x}$

These data suggest that a reduction of the daily NaCl intake from 10 to 5 Gm. could produce a decrease of blood pressure of about $\text{10}\text{5}$ mm. Hg.