Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis Associated with Anaplasmosis.

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a hyperinflammatory syndrome characterized by unregulated macrophage and T-lymphocyte activation resulting in cytokine overproduction and subsequent histiocytic phagocytosis. Variant infections, particularly viruses have been postulated as the inciting factor for this potentially fatal disease. Herein, we will report a case of HLH associated with anaplasmosis.

Clinical experience with dolutegravir/abacavir/lamivudine in HIV-HCV co-infected patients treated with a sofosbuvir-based regimen-safety and efficacy.

BACKGROUND: There is no known reason to suspect an adverse drug interaction between dolutegravir-based antiretroviral therapy and sofosbuvir, simeprevir, or ledipasvir. There is a paucity of clinical data for this combination. METHODS: Prospective, open-label study of patients with HIV well controlled on dolutegravir, abacavir, and lamivudine, who were co-infected with HCV genotype 1, and required therapy with simeprevir plus sofosbuvir or sofosbuvir/ledipasvir single-tablet regimen (STR) for 12 weeks. The two primary endpoints were percentage of patients achieving sustained virologic response (SVR) at 12 weeks post-treatment and percentage of patients with a HIV-1 viral load <50 copies/ml at end of the combination therapy. RESULTS: Twenty-eight subjects were enrolled from August 2014 to September 2015. Thirteen patients were treated with simprevir plus sofosbuvir, and 15 subjects were treated with sofosbuvir/ledipasvir. 23 genotype 1a, and 5 genotype 1b were included. Nineteen were treatment naïve, and 2 patients had compensated cirrhosis. The mean age was 59 years (95% CI 58.21-59.78 years). The mean age was 59 years (95% CI: 58.21-59.78 years), and 25 patients were black. Out of the 28 patients who completed this study, SVR 12 was achieved in 27 of 28 patients (96%, 95% CI 89.6-100.0%), and all patients had an HIV virus load <50 copies/ml at week 12 of therapy, for an intent-to-treat rate of 100%. No patients ended therapy secondary to adverse events. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests a good safety and efficacy for the combination of a dolutegravir, abacavir, and lamivudine with sofosbuvir-based DAA therapy.

Pneumococcal Vertebral Osteomyelitis after Epidural Injection: A Rare Event.

Streptococcus pneumoniae vertebral infections have rarely been reported. Herein, we report a case of pneumococcal vertebral osteomyelitis with paraspinal and epidural abscesses as well as concomitant bacteremia following epidural injection. This will be the second case in the literature reporting pneumococcal vertebral osteomyelitis related to epidural manipulation.

Methods for measuring the infrared spectra of biological cells.

Infrared (IR) spectroscopy of biological cells is a growing area of research, with many papers focusing on differences between the spectra of cancerous and noncancerous cells. Much of this research has been performed using a monolayer of dehydrated cells. We posit that the use of monolayers can introduce artefacts that lead to an apparent but inaccurate measurement of differences between cancerous and noncancerous cells. Additionally, the use of dried cells complicates the extraction of biochemical information from the IR spectra. We demonstrate that using suspensions of viable cells in aqueous suspension reduces measurement artefacts and facilitates determining the concentration of the major biochemical components via a linear least-squares fit of the component spectra to the spectrum of the cells.