505 research outputs found
Why are we seeing an increasing incidence of infective endocarditis in the UK?
The increasing incidence of infective endocarditis in England is real, and education is critical to ensure swift diagnosis and best clinical outcomes. Factors responsible remain speculative, but multiple explanations are likely
Why we need continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing and how to make it happen : a summary of thoughts from the international symposium on continuous manufacturing
We make the case for why continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing is essential, what the barriers are, and how to overcome them. To overcome them, government action is needed in terms of tax incentives or regulatory incentives that affect time
Management and Outcome of Permanent Pacemaker and Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator Infections
ObjectivesWe describe the management and outcome of permanent pacemaker (PPM) and implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) infections in a large cohort of patients seen at a tertiary care facility with expertise in device lead extraction.BackgroundInfection is a serious complication of PPM and ICD implantation. Optimal care of patients with these cardiac device infections (CDI) is not well defined.MethodsA retrospective review of all patients with CDI admitted to Mayo Clinic Rochester between January 1, 1991, and December 31, 2003, was conducted. Demographic and clinical data were collected, and descriptive analysis was performed.ResultsA total of 189 patients met the criteria for CDI (138 PPM, 51 ICD). The median age of the patients was 71.2 years. Generator pocket infection (69%) and device-related endocarditis (23%) were the most common clinical presentations. Coagulase-negative staphylococci and Staphylococcus aureus, in 42% and 29% of cases, respectively, were the leading pathogens for CDI. Most patients (98%) underwent complete device removal. Duration of antibiotic therapy after device removal was based on clinical presentation and causative organism (median duration of 18 days for pocket infection vs. 28 days for endocarditis; 28 days for S. aureusinfection vs. 14 days for coagulase-negative staphylococci infection [p < 0.001]). Median follow-up after hospital discharge was 175 days. Ninety-six percent of patients were cured with both complete device removal and antibiotic administration.ConclusionsCure of CDI is achievable in the large majority of patients treated with an aggressive approach of combined antimicrobial treatment and complete device removal. Based on findings of our large retrospective institutional survey and previously published data, we submit proposed management guidelines of CDI
3DEX: a code for fast spherical Fourier-Bessel decomposition of 3D surveys
High-precision cosmology requires the analysis of large-scale surveys in 3D
spherical coordinates, i.e. spherical Fourier-Bessel decomposition. Current
methods are insufficient for future data-sets from wide-field cosmology
surveys. The aim of this paper is to present a public code for fast spherical
Fourier-Bessel decomposition that can be applied to cosmological data or 3D
data in spherical coordinates in other scientific fields. We present an
equivalent formulation of the spherical Fourier-Bessel decomposition that
separates radial and tangential calculations. We propose the use of the
existing pixelisation scheme HEALPix for a rapid calculation of the tangential
modes. 3DEX (3D EXpansions) is a public code for fast spherical Fourier-Bessel
decomposition of 3D all-sky surveys that takes advantage of HEALPix for the
calculation of tangential modes. We perform tests on very large simulations and
we compare the precision and computation time of our method with an optimised
implementation of the spherical Fourier-Bessel original formulation. For
surveys with millions of galaxies, computation time is reduced by a factor 4-12
depending on the desired scales and accuracy. The formulation is also suitable
for pre-calculations and external storage of the spherical harmonics, which
allows for additional speed improvements. The 3DEX code can accommodate data
with masked regions of missing data. 3DEX can also be used in other
disciplines, where 3D data are to be analysed in spherical coordinates. The
code and documentation can be downloaded at http://ixkael.com/blog/3dex.Comment: 6 pages plus appendices. Revised version accepted by A&A. The code
and documentation can be downloaded at http://ixkael.com/blog/3de
Antibiotic prophylaxis and incidence of endocarditis before and after the 2007 AHA recommendations
Background The American Heart Association updated its recommendations for antibiotic prophylaxis (AP) to prevent infective endocarditis (IE) in 2007, advising that AP cease for those at moderate risk of IE, but continue for those at high risk.
Objectives The authors sought to quantify any change in AP prescribing and IE incidence.
Methods High-risk, moderate-risk, and unknown/low-risk individuals with linked prescription and Medicare or commercial health care data were identified in the Truven Health MarketScan databases from May 2003 through August 2015 (198,522,665 enrollee-years of data). AP prescribing and IE incidence were evaluated by Poisson model analysis.
Results By August 2015, the 2007 recommendation change was associated with a significant 64% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 59% to 68%) estimated fall in AP prescribing for moderate-risk individuals and a 20% (95% CI: 4% to 32%) estimated fall for those at high risk. Over the same period, there was a barely significant 75% (95% CI: 3% to 200%) estimated increase in IE incidence among moderate-risk individuals and a significant 177% estimated increase (95% CI: 66% to 361%) among those at high risk. In unknown/low-risk individuals, there was a significant 52% (95% CI: 46% to 58%) estimated fall in AP prescribing, but no significant increase in IE incidence.
Conclusions AP prescribing fell among all IE risk groups, particularly those at moderate risk. Concurrently, there was a significant increase in IE incidence among high-risk individuals, a borderline significant increase in moderate-risk individuals, and no change for those at low/unknown risk. Although these data do not establish a cause–effect relationship between AP reduction and IE increase, the fall in AP prescribing in those at high risk is of concern and, coupled with the borderline increase in IE incidence among those at moderate risk, warrants further investigation
Spherical 3D Isotropic Wavelets
Future cosmological surveys will provide 3D large scale structure maps with
large sky coverage, for which a 3D Spherical Fourier-Bessel (SFB) analysis in
spherical coordinates is natural. Wavelets are particularly well-suited to the
analysis and denoising of cosmological data, but a spherical 3D isotropic
wavelet transform does not currently exist to analyse spherical 3D data. The
aim of this paper is to present a new formalism for a spherical 3D isotropic
wavelet, i.e. one based on the SFB decomposition of a 3D field and accompany
the formalism with a public code to perform wavelet transforms. We describe a
new 3D isotropic spherical wavelet decomposition based on the undecimated
wavelet transform (UWT) described in Starck et al. 2006. We also present a new
fast Discrete Spherical Fourier-Bessel Transform (DSFBT) based on both a
discrete Bessel Transform and the HEALPIX angular pixelisation scheme. We test
the 3D wavelet transform and as a toy-application, apply a denoising algorithm
in wavelet space to the Virgo large box cosmological simulations and find we
can successfully remove noise without much loss to the large scale structure.
We have described a new spherical 3D isotropic wavelet transform, ideally
suited to analyse and denoise future 3D spherical cosmological surveys, which
uses a novel Discrete Spherical Fourier-Bessel Transform. We illustrate its
potential use for denoising using a toy model. All the algorithms presented in
this paper are available for download as a public code called MRS3D at
http://jstarck.free.fr/mrs3d.htmlComment: 9 pages + appendices. Public code can be downloaded at
http://jstarck.free.fr/mrs3d.html Corrected typos and updated references.
Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic
The association between histamine 2 receptor antagonist use and Clostridium difficile infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Background
Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a major health problem. Epidemiological evidence suggests that there is an association between acid suppression therapy and development of CDI.
Purpose
We sought to systematically review the literature that examined the association between histamine 2 receptor antagonists (H2RAs) and CDI.
Data source
We searched Medline, Current Contents, Embase, ISI Web of Science and Elsevier Scopus from 1990 to 2012 for all analytical studies that examined the association between H2RAs and CDI.
Study selection
Two authors independently reviewed the studies for eligibility.
Data extraction
Data about studies characteristics, adjusted effect estimates and quality were extracted.
Data synthesis
Thirty-five observations from 33 eligible studies that included 201834 participants were analyzed. Studies were performed in 6 countries and nine of them were multicenter. Most studies did not specify the type or duration of H2RAs therapy. The pooled effect estimate was 1.44, 95% CI (1.22–1.7), I2 = 70.5%. This association was consistent across different subgroups (by study design and country) and there was no evidence of publication bias. The pooled effect estimate for high quality studies was 1.39 (1.15–1.68), I2 = 72.3%. Meta-regression analysis of 10 study-level variables did not identify sources of heterogeneity. In a speculative analysis, the number needed to harm (NNH) with H2RAs at 14 days after hospital admission in patients receiving antibiotics or not was 58, 95% CI (37, 115) and 425, 95% CI (267, 848), respectively. For the general population, the NNH at 1 year was 4549, 95% CI (2860, 9097).
Conclusion
In this rigorous systematic review and meta-analysis, we observed an association between H2RAs and CDI. The absolute risk of CDI associated with H2RAs is highest in hospitalized patients receiving antibiotics
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