Infectious Disease

NEW YORK -- Motor symptoms of advanced Parkinson's disease were significantly improved in a small investigational gene-therapy trial, according to investigators here.

DUBLIN -- When alcohol turns fighting into biting, it's a problem for the emergency department.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S., yet health care professionals don't always offer immunization to their most vulnerable patients.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- For smoldering multiple myeloma, the risk of progression to active disease may be predicted by a pair of factors at diagnosis, according to researchers here.

TORONTO -- An investigational oil-and-water adjuvant for flu vaccines -- tested in conjunction with a vaccine against avian flu -- is safe, a researcher said here.

BALTIMORE -- When treating hepatitis B and HIV co-infection, physicians should use caution with the antiviral drug entecavir (Baraclude), researchers here said.

TORONTO -- The trivalent inactivated flu vaccine appeared to outperform the newer live attenuated vaccine in a large study of military personnel, a U.S. Army researcher reported here.

HOUSTON -- Myocardial infarction and other acute cardiac events closely track pneumococcal pneumonia, which suggests a need for multiple admitting diagnoses.

TORONTO -- Highly pathogenic avian flu is rarely transmitted to people and apparently never in a mild or asymptomatic form, a Thai researcher said here.

TORONTO -- The tests used to evaluate influenza vaccines are so unreliable they can vary up to 700-fold from one lab to another, according to a British researcher.

LONDON, Ontario, June 18 -- Although sudden sensorineural hearing loss is typically treated with systemic steroids, little evidence exists to support this or any other treatment, researchers said.

HOUSTON -- Psoriasis patients who had extended exposure to high-dose etanercept (Enbrel) responded without increased infections or other serious adverse effects, researchers reported.

ATLANTA -- Borrelia burgdorferi are winning the Lyme disease war, at least in 10 endemic states that were targeted for a sharp reduction. Instead, with a vaccine no longer available, Lyme rates worsened, said the CDC.

DENVER -- Andrew Speaker, the focus of the storm over extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, will have surgery next month to remove part of his lung, doctors here announced.

CAMDEN, N.J. -- In a head-to-head trial, anidulafungin (Eraxis) was at least as effective in treating invasive candidiasis as fluconazole (Diflucan), researchers here said.

GUELPH, Ontario -- A visit to a petting zoo can expose youngsters to creatures that aren't so cute and cuddly -- Escherichia coli, Cryptosporidium, and Salmonella, among others.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Fewer hours in residency training do not appear to have led to substandard care, as some had predicted, according to a pair of studies.

BALTIMORE -- The old system of targeting high-risk persons for HIV testing is more efficient than screening all patients routinely, according to a researcher here.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- Children who are given antibiotics during the first year of life may be at significantly greater risk of developing asthma, researchers here found.

MUNSTER, Germany -- Children who have a cerebral venous thrombosis before the age of two are unlikely to have another, found researchers here.

MINNEAPOLIS -- For children with leukemia who need a transplant, five-year disease-free survival rates from allogeneic cord blood appear to equal those from allele-matched marrow or peripheral blood stem cells.

CHICAGO -- A new regimen that includes both a targeted agent and cytotoxic drugs appears to be at least as effective as standard regimens for the treatment of unresectable metastatic colorectal cancer.

SAN FRANCISCO -- After a 43-year-old woman returned from Peru with fever and an enlarged spleen, researchers here have identified a previously unknown pathogen related to those that cause trench fever and cat-scratch fever.

CHICAGO -- Bevacizumab (Avastin) given before surgery for curative resection of liver metastases from colorectal cancer did not increase the risk of bleeding, researchers reported here.

CHICAGO, June 5 -- Docetaxel (Taxotere) added to both concurrent radiation and platinum-based chemotherapy did not significantly improve survival in patients with non-resectable phase III non-small cell lung cancer.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A standard six-month course of treatment for tuberculosis may not be sufficient to cure patients co-infected with HIV, researchers here say.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Veterans Affairs hospitals are more likely than non-VA facilities to follow recommendations for preventing bloodstream infections from central venous lines.

We present a case of a 35-year-old man with fever and pancytopenia, who had rapid progression to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), multiorgan failure, and disseminated intravascular coagulopathy secondary to disseminated tuberculosis (TB). Although both sputum and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid smears were negative for acid-fast bacilli, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay on the BAL fluid was positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This case emphasizes the need to include TB in the differential for ARDS and the value of PCR testing of BAL fluid, especially in high-risk patients.

abstract: The use of fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FOB) in HIV- infected patients has sharply declined since the availability of highly active antiretroviral therapy and the resulting decrease in the incidence of opportunistic infections. Nevertheless, FOB continues to be an important diagnostic tool in this patient population. For example, FOB is useful in evaluating for Pneumocystis jiroveci (formerly carinii) pneumonia (PCP) in patients with CD4+ cell counts of less than 200/µL who have diffuse pulmonary infiltrates and in whom sputum induction has not been performed or is nondiagnostic. It is also useful for evaluating patients who have not responded adequately to empiric therapy for bacterial pneumonia or PCP. Other applications include the visual diagnosis of endobronchial Kaposi sarcoma or the assessment of suspected lung cancer. (J Respir Dis. 2007;28(6): 244-252)

Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States. The prevalence of marijuana use has remained stable over the past several years, with 14.6 million persons older than 12 years reporting past-month use in 2005. Given the prevalence of illicit use and interest in the medicinal use of marijuana, an understanding of the potential negative health consequences of marijuana smoking is needed. While tobacco smoking is clearly associated with numerous adverse respiratory complications, including increased cough and wheeze, the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, and an increased incidence of infections,1-3 the relationship between marijuana and pulmonary disease is controversial, despite similarities in many compounds found in marijuana and tobacco smoke.