Brain abscess following rituximab infusion in a patient with pemphigus vulgaris.

BackgroundImmunocompromised patients are at increased risk for developing meningitis or, rarely, brain abscess with opportunistic organisms like Listeria monocytogenes.Case reportA 52 year-old Saudi Arabian woman who was diagnosed with pemphigus vulgaris and diabetes and had been on prednisolone and azathioprine for about 4 years. She presented with headache, low-grade fever, and left-sided weakness 2 weeks after receiving the second dose of rituximab infusion. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed an enhanced space-occupying lesion with multiple small cyst-like structures and vasogenic edema in the right temporoparietal area. Her blood culture was positive for Listeria monocytogenes, and a brain biopsy showed necrotic tissues with pus and inflammatory cells. She recovered after a 6-week course of antibiotics with ampicillin and gentamycin.ConclusionsBrain abscess due to Listeria monocytogenes is a risk that should be considered when adding rituximab to the regimen of a patient who is already Immunocompromised

Dual-wave β-correction spectrophotometric determination of palladium ions using neothorin

AbstractA simple low cost method has been developed and validated for the determination of trace amounts of palladium (II) ions in water and fertilizer samples. The method is based on the reaction of palladium (II) ions with the reagent neothorin (2-(2-arsonophenylazo) chromotropic acid disodium salt). The complex formed exhibits an absorption maximum at 567nm (λmax) in Britton–Robinson (BR) buffer (pH=2). The corrected absorbance of the formed complex at λmax was obtained by employing a β-correction spectrophotometric method. The Beer–Lambert law and Ringbom's plots of the coloured palladium reagent complex were obeyed in the concentration ranges of 0.05–2.7 and 0.1–2μgmL−1 palladium (II) ions, respectively, with relative standard deviations in the range of ±1.3–2.1%. The limits of detection (LOD) and quantitation (LOQ) of the procedure were 0.011 and 0.04μgmL−1 palladium, respectively. The proposed method was applied for the analysis of palladium (II) ions in spiked tap, mineral and underground water samples. The results of the developed method were satisfactorily compared with the data obtained by the inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometric (ICP-MS) method. Statistical comparison of the results of the proposed method with those obtained by the standard method revealed no significant differences in accuracy and precision. The developed method offers a simple system coupled with good reproducibility, accuracy, ruggedness and cost effectiveness

Statistical Analysis of a Linear Multi-Step Numerical Treatment

The aim of this paper is to compare the relative accuracies between predictor-corrector methods, Adams-Bashforth method and Adams-Moulton method for solving initial value Differential Equations numerically to observe which methods tend to function well in which step-size brackets as well as which ones provide the minimum amount of error when compared to the true value. The statistical analysis shows that there is always a small amount of error present using Heun’s method; however, the error is rarely large enough unless the function is rapidly rising

Human-Induced Geo-Hazards in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Distribution, Investigation, Causes and Impacts

Different types of geological hazards are induced by human activities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). These geological hazards include land subsidence and earth fissures, sinkholes, expansive soils, and flash floods. A wide variety of recent geological hazards have been reported in several areas, causing significant human and property losses. Human activities, most notably groundwater extraction, infrastructure development, and agricultural activities, have induced unstable conditions. This chapter provides an overview of the human-induced geological hazard in the KSA, mainly earth fissures and sinkhole, which represent a scarcely explored topic. This work identifies the main types of human-induced geological-hazard formations, distribution, causes, and impacts, illustrated through several case studies in the KSA

Digestive Malacoplakia in Children: Case Report

Malacoplakia is a form of chronic granulomatous inflammatory reaction that rarely affects the pediatric age group. The gastrointestinal system is the second most common site for the occurrence of malacoplakia. We report the case of a 9-year-old girl who was hospitalized for abdominal pain, chronic diarrhea, and rectal hemorrhage. The endoscopic examinations and histopathology confirmed the diagnosis of intestinal malacoplakia. We successfully treated her with oral levofloxacin. This disease does not have any specific clinical or biological signs, and the diagnosis is exclusively based on histology

The role of nicotinamide in acne treatment

Safe and effective treatment options for acne vulgaris are needed to address side effects and increasing rates of antibiotic resistance from current treatments. Nicotinamide is a vitamin with potent antiâ inflammatory properties that could offer a potential treatment option. We aim to summarize the relevant literature on the role of nicotinamide in acne vulgaris and discuss the next steps necessary to move this approach into clinical practice. We searched PubMed for clinical studies using nicotinamide for treatment of acne vulgaris. We summarized the 10 studies that met our search criteria. Six of eight studies using topical nicotinamide led to a significant reduction in acne compared with the patient’s baseline or performed similarly to another standardâ ofâ care acne treatment. Both studies using an oral supplement containing nicotinamide resulted in a significant reduction in acne compared with baseline. No major adverse side effects were noted. Our review suggests that topical and oral nicotinamide has an unclear effect on acne vulgaris due to the limited nature of the available literature. Additional studies are needed comparing nicotinamide to other firstâ line acne treatments and evaluating the efficacy and side effect profile of nicotinamide over an extended period of time.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138875/1/dth12481_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138875/2/dth12481.pd