Fusobacterium necrophorum findings in Denmark from 2010 to 2014 using data from the Danish microbiology database

Fusobacterium necrophorum findings in Denmark and estimation of the incidence of F. necrophorum bacteraemia was described using data from the nationwide Danish microbiology database (MiBa). All microbiological reports on any Fusobacterium species in Denmark were extracted for a period of 5 years from 2010 to 2014 from MiBa and from the local department of clinical microbiology. The overall incidence of F. necrophorum bacteraemia from 2010 to 2014 was 2.8 cases per million/year vs 9.4 in the age group 15–24 years. F. necrophorum was rare in blood cultures from children and middle‐aged patients and then raised again. However, 48 of 232 cases of Fusobacterium bacteraemia were not identified to species level, so the incidences of F. necrophorum bacteraemia may be underestimated in our study. F. necrophorum was found in throat swabs in the age group between 13 and 40 years and in otitis media in children below 2 years in those departments which performed anaerobic culture. The incidence of F. necrophorum bacteraemia found was comparable to earlier reported figures for Lemierre's syndrome. Fusobacterium bacteraemia should always be identified to species level.     

Aggregation‐induced changes in the chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) signals of proteins

Chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) is an MRI technique that allows mapping of biomolecules (small metabolites, proteins) with nearly the sensitivity of conventional water proton MRI. In living organisms, several tissue‐specific CEST effects have been observed and successfully applied to diagnostic imaging. In these studies, particularly the signals of proteins showed a distinct correlation with pathological changes. However, as CEST effects depend on various properties that determine and affect the chemical exchange processes, the origins of the observed signal changes remain to be understood. In this study, protein aggregation was identified as an additional process that is encoded in the CEST signals of proteins. Investigation of distinct proteins that are involved in pathological disorders, namely amyloid beta and huntingtin, revealed a significant decrease of all protein CEST signals upon controlled aggregation. This finding is of particular interest with regard to diagnostic imaging of patients with neurodegenerative diseases that involve amyloidogenesis, such as Alzheimer's or Huntington's disease. To investigate whether the observed CEST signal decrease also occurs in heterogeneous mixtures of aggregated cellular proteins, and thus prospectively in tissue, heat‐shocked yeast cell lysates were employed. Additionally, investigation of different cell compartments verified the assignment of the protein CEST signals to the soluble part of the proteome. The results of in vitro experiments demonstrate that aggregation affects the CEST signals of proteins. This observation can enable hypotheses for CEST imaging as a non‐invasive diagnostic tool for monitoring pathological alterations of the proteome in vivo.     

INTENSIVE CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC REGIMENS AGAINST ACUTE LEUKEMIA TRANSIENTLY SUPPRESS ASTHMA SYMPTOMS BUT DO NOT LEAD TO LONG-TERM RELIEF

In some very rare cases children suffer from a combination of asthma and a malignant disease. This study investigated whether intensive chemotherapy might have a positive effect on asthma in these special cases and whether asthma generally relapses after completion of chemotherapy. The authors monitored clinical outcome and lung function of 43 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma who received chemotherapy at the University Children's Hospital of Greifswald between 1993 and 1998. Cytostatic chemotherapy was administered according to the German treatment protocols. Two of the 43 patients had asthma before leukemia was diagnosed. During the course of chemotherapy, asthma symptoms diminished promptly after beginning of chemotherapy but asthma was rediagnosed after completion of chemotherapy in both cases. The third patient developed asthmatic symptoms shortly after completion of chemotherapy for the first time. It can be stated that chemotherapy does not essentially cure asthma. Therefore, it seems mandatory to perform follow-up lung testings after chemotherapy, especially in patients with asthma.     

Electrical impedance tomography: the holy grail of ventilation and perfusion monitoring?

This review summarizes the state-of-the-art in electrical impedance tomography (EIT) for ventilation and perfusion imaging. EIT is a relatively new technology used to image regional impedance distributions in a cross-sectional area of the body. After the introduction, a brief overview of the recent history is provided followed by a review of the literature on regional ventilation monitoring using EIT. Several recently presented indices that are useful to extract information from EIT image streams are described. Selected experimental and clinical findings are discussed with respect to future routine applications in intensive care. Finally, past and ongoing research activities aimed at obtaining cardiac output and regional perfusion information from EIT image streams are summarized.