Evidence-Based Guidelines for Empirical Therapy of Neutropenic Fever in Korea

Neutrophils play an important role in immunological function. Neutropenic patients are vulnerable to infection, and except fever is present, inflammatory reactions are scarce in many cases. Additionally, because infections can worsen rapidly, early evaluation and treatments are especially important in febrile neutropenic patients. In cases in which febrile neutropenia is anticipated due to anticancer chemotherapy, antibiotic prophylaxis can be used, based on the risk of infection. Antifungal prophylaxis may also be considered if long-term neutropenia or mucosal damage is expected. When fever is observed in patients suspected to have neutropenia, an adequate physical examination and blood and sputum cultures should be performed. Initial antibiotics should be chosen by considering the risk of complications following the infection; if the risk is low, oral antibiotics can be used. For initial intravenous antibiotics, monotherapy with a broad-spectrum antibiotic or combination therapy with two antibiotics is recommended. At 3-5 days after beginning the initial antibiotic therapy, the condition of the patient is assessed again to determine whether the fever has subsided or symptoms have worsened. If the patient's condition has improved, intravenous antibiotics can be replaced with oral antibiotics; if the condition has deteriorated, a change of antibiotics or addition of antifungal agents should be considered. If the causative microorganism is identified, initial antimicrobial or antifungal agents should be changed accordingly. When the cause is not detected, the initial agents should continue to be used until the neutrophil count recovers

An optical image correlator for robotic applications

The goal of cost effective, high performance optical systems capable of pattern matching tasks has fuelled research for over two decades. It is only recently with the introduction of novel optical/electronic architectures that such systems are becoming viable. Although conceptually elegant, the single output from an optical correlator is of restricted application due to its sensitivity to image distortions. A multichannel hybrid optical/electronic architecture has therefore been devised, exhibiting greatly enhanced flexibility and performance. This hybrid processor is being used in conjunction with a robotic handling system as part of an ESPRIT programme. The video signal from a robot's TV camera is relayed to an electrically addressed spatial light modulator in the processor. This input image is then replicated optically and fed into each of the system's parallel channels where it is cross-correlated with a set of differing reference patterns. The multiple correlation signals are detected and compiled into an electronic descriptor code. A 'Euclidean' search through a look-up table of codes then extracts object identification and rotation. Scale information and out-of-class recognition is also possible since the system can be taught to memorise new codes in real time. © 1989 SPIE.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe