Treatment of Primary Pulmonary Aspergillosis: An Assessment of the Evidence.

Aspergillus spp. are a group of filamentous molds that were first described due to a perceived similarity to an aspergillum, or liturgical device used to sprinkle holy water, when viewed under a microscope. Although commonly inhaled due to their ubiquitous nature within the environment, an invasive fungal infection (IFI) is a rare outcome that is often reserved for those patients who are immunocompromised. Given the potential for significant morbidity and mortality within this patient population from IFI due to Aspergillus spp., along with the rise in the use of therapies that confer immunosuppression, there is an increasing need for appropriate initial clinical suspicion leading to accurate diagnosis and effective treatment. Voriconazole remains the first line agent for therapy; however, the use of polyenes, novel triazole agents, or voriconazole in combination with an echinocandin may also be utilized. Consideration as to which particular agent and for what duration should be made in the individual context for each patient based upon underlying immunosuppression, comorbidities, and overall tolerance of therapy

Correction: Stewart, E.R.; Thompson, G.R. Treatment of Primary Pulmonary Aspergillosis: An Assessment of the Evidence. J. Fungi 2016, 2, 25.

The authors of the published paper [1] would like to correct Table 1.[...]

Detection of Bending Stresses in Buried Pipelines

When gas or oil pipelines must be laid through sand or permafrost or other unstable soils, the pipe walls can he subjected to large bending loads if the soil shifts. In order to detect this condition and correct it, it would be useful to monitor the state of stress along the pipeline\u27at regular time intervals using a vehicle that is moved through the line by the fluid or gas in it. The experiments described here demonstrate that such a vehicle, using EMATs to excite and detect ultrasonic waves in the pipe wall, would be feasible because the transduction efficiency of the EMATs and thus the insertion loss of such a system can be related quantitatively to the stress level in the pipe wall

Drug-induced endocrine blood pressure elevation

Patients with uncontrolled hypertension are at risk for cardiovascular complications. The majority of them suffers from unidentified forms of hypertension and a fraction has so-called secondary hypertension with an identifiable cause. The patient's medications, its use of certain herbal supplements and over-the-counter agents represent potential causal factors for secondary hypertension that are often overlooked. The current review focuses on drugs that are likely to elevate blood pressure by affecting the human endocrine system at the level of steroid synthesis or metabolism, mineralocorticoid receptor activity, or by affecting the catecholaminergic system. Drugs with known adverse effects but where benefits outweigh their risks, drug candidates and market withdrawals are reviewed. Finally, potential therapeutic strategies are discussed

Noninvasive testing and surrogate markers in invasive fungal diseases

Invasive fungal infections continue to increase as at-risk populations expand. The high associated morbidity and mortality with fungal diseases mandate the continued investigation of novel antifungal agents and diagnostic strategies that include surrogate biomarkers. Biologic markers of disease are useful prognostic indicators during clinical care, and their use in place of traditional survival end points may allow for more rapid conduct of clinical trials requiring fewer participants, decreased trial expense, and limited need for long-term follow-up. A number of fungal biomarkers have been developed and extensively evaluated in prospective clinical trials and small series. We examine the evidence for these surrogate biomarkers in this review and provide recommendations for clinicians and regulatory authorities