Nasopharyngeal bacterial burden and antibiotics: Influence on inflammatory markers and disease severity in infants with respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis.

OBJECTIVES: Animal studies suggest that RSV increases nasopharyngeal (NP) bacterial colonization facilitating bacterial infections. We investigated the influence of antibiotic treatment and colonization with potentially pathogenic bacteria on inflammatory markers and disease severity in RSV-infected in infants. METHODS: Healthy young infants hospitalized with RSV bronchiolitis (n = 136) and age-matched healthy controls (n = 23) were enrolled and NP samples cultured for potentially pathogenic bacteria including: Gram-positive bacteria (GPB): Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, ß-hemolytic Streptococcus; and Gram-negative bacteria (GNB): Moraxella catarrhalis and Haemophilus influenzae. Clinical parameters and plasma IL-8, IL-6 and TNF-α concentrations were compared according to the bacterial class and antibiotic treatment. RESULTS: Antibiotic treatment decreased by 10-fold NP bacterial recovery. Eighty-one percent of RSV infants who did not receive antibiotics before sample collection were colonized with pathogenic bacteria. Overall, GNB were identified in 21% of patients versus 4% of controls who were mostly colonized with GPB. Additionally, in RSV patients NP white blood cell counts (p = 0.026), and blood neutrophils (p = 0.02) were higher in those colonized with potentially pathogenic bacteria versus respiratory flora. RSV patients colonized with GNB had higher plasma IL-8 (p = 0.01) and IL-6 (p < 0.01) concentrations than controls, and required longer duration of oxygen (p = 0.049). CONCLUSIONS: Infants with RSV bronchiolitis colonized with potentially pathogenic bacteria had increased numbers of mucosal and systemic inflammatory cells. Specifically, colonization with GNB was associated with higher concentrations of proinflammatory cytokines and a trend towards increased disease severity.

Innate immune dysfunction is associated with enhanced disease severity in infants with severe respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis.

BACKGROUND: Most patients with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) bronchiolitis requiring admission to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) have no risk factors for severe disease. We sought to investigate the relationship between serum cytokine concentrations, innate immune responsiveness, and RSV disease severity. METHODS: Previously healthy infants (median age, 2.6 months) with RSV bronchiolitis (PICU, n = 20; floor, n = 46) and healthy matched controls (n = 14) were enrolled, and blood samples were obtained within 24 hours of admission to measure plasma tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), interleukin 6 (IL-6), interleukin 8 (IL-8), and interleukin 10 (IL-10) concentrations and, whole blood lipopolysaccharide-stimulated cytokine production capacity. RESULTS: Plasma IL-6, IL-8, and IL-10 concentrations were comparable between PICU and floor patients, but higher than in healthy controls (P < .05). In contrast, TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-8 production capacity was significantly decreased in PICU compared with both floor patients and healthy controls. In adjusted analyses, only impaired TNF-α and IL-8 production capacity were associated with longer length of stay (P = .035) and greater disease severity scores (P = .001). CONCLUSIONS: Infants with severe RSV bronchiolitis had increased plasma cytokine concentrations and yet impaired innate immunity cytokine production capacity, which predicted worse disease outcomes. Immune monitoring of otherwise healthy infants with RSV lower respiratory tract infection could help identify patients at risk for severe disease at the time of hospitalization.

Brain tissue oxygenation-guided management of diabetic ketoacidosis induced cerebral edema*.

OBJECTIVE: Type 1 diabetes mellitus is the most common chronic disease of childhood. Diabetic ketoacidosis is a well-known complication of diabetes mellitus and can be associated with devastating cerebral edema resulting in severe long-term neurologic disability. Despite the significant morbidity and mortality associated with this condition, relatively few treatments are recommended for these patients. The authors present two patients in which they used both intracranial pressure and brain tissue oxygenation monitoring to manage diabetic ketoacidosis-associated cerebral edema with favorable neurologic outcomes. SETTING: Pediatric intensive care unit in a tertiary care teaching hospital. INTERVENTIONS: Two children presented to the emergency room with vague complaints and were found to have diabetic ketoacidosis. During treatment, both patients became comatose with head computed tomography scans revealing diffuse cerebral edema and herniation syndrome. Intracranial pressure and brain tissue oxygenation monitors were placed to guide therapy. RESULTS: Multiple episodes of brain tissue hypoxia were noted in both patients. Intracranial pressure control with intubation, sedation, and hyperosmolar therapy improved episodes of decreased brain tissue oxygenation associated with intracranial hypertension. Brain tissue oxygenation was also noted to be significantly less than the target value on several occasions even when intracranial pressure was controlled and an age-appropriate cerebral perfusion pressure goal was met. Augmentation of cerebral perfusion pressure above age-appropriate goal with fluid boluses and inotropic agents increased brain tissue oxygenation in these instances. Both children had very low Glasgow Coma Scale scores at admission, but ultimately had favorable neurologic outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Multimodal neuromonitoring of both intracranial pressure and brain tissue oxygenation during episodes of clinically apparent diabetic ketoacidosis-associated cerebral edema allows for the detection and treatment of episodes of elevated intracranial pressure and/or brain tissue hypoxia that may be of clinical significance.

Current challenges and future perspectives of the role of governments in the psychiatric/mental health systems of Latin America.

The practices and systems of mental health in Latin America and the Caribbean are heterogeneous and are connected to dissociation between national macro systems and the complex quotidian that occurs in the daily attention of mental pathologies. The health care experiences in mental health are diverse and go back to the 1960s; these took a boost with the Caracas Declaration of 1990. The Health Care Reform has had several stages, lately focused in the strength that derives from a growing psychiatric epidemiology "base". In addition, it notes that the majority of countries have a National Plan of Mental Health, but they do not seem purposely deployed in local developmental plans or in other sectors. It is proposed the existence of a willing to discuss psychiatry, critical and bold; trans and intrasectoral face to the national and communal developments. Governments need to prioritize strategies in mental health as an integral part of another national project with regard for quality of life and productivity of citizens. The communication poses challenges for the next 15 years, with what is complete the first quarter of this century, proposing a series of measures even basic, but valid for this part of the continent.

Comportamiento de la mortalidad por suicidio en la República Dominicana durante el período 1982-1988 / Behaviour of mortality by suicide in Republica Dominicana during 1982-1988

Mediante un estudio retrospectivo por recolección de información acerca del comportamiento del suicidio en el país, fueron analizadas las fichas policiales que registran el evento para el período 1982-1988. Los datos de 1988 se presentan incompletos. La presentación de este estudio se hizo durante el mes de junio de 1988. El objetivo consistió en dar seguimiento a las fichas policiales consideradas como la mejor fuente secundaria que registró el evento, para compararla con un estudio similar citado en el texto. Los hallazgos parecen seguir la misma tendencia que el estudio que refiere el período 1977 - 1988. Sin embargo, se connotan variaciones significativas en relación a los métodos utilizados y al aumento de las cifras absolutas por el sexo masculino. Se insiste en dar seguimiento a esta investigación y en ofrecer sugerencias al Departamento de Cartografía y Estadística de la Policía paa mejorar el dato que se capta y procesa

Algunas reflexiones en torno a la formación de médicos en la República Dominicana / Some ideas about medical education in Republica Dominicana

Los autores ubican la práctica médica en el marco de la formación económico-social dominicana, tratando de corelacionarla con la formación de recursos humanos en el país. La ponencia sitúa la demanda y oferta de estudiantes extranjeros para estudiar medicina en República Dominicana, a la luz de la crisis de la Educación Médica Internacional y sus repercusiones en el país. El documento concluye proponiendo algunas recomendaciones al CONES, a la UASD y al Estado, para normalizar y regularizar la formación de Médicos en República Dominicana