Faculty Bibliography

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To review tactics used to prevent intensive care unit infections, particularly ventilator-associated pneumonia and catheter-related bloodstream infections. RECENT FINDINGS: Health-care-associated infections in the intensive care unit are associated with elevated mortality, morbidity, and hospital costs, and increasing antibiotic resistance. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently published guidelines for the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia and catheter-related bloodstream infections. Though not generally recommended, selective decontamination of the digestive tract, an antibiotic prophylaxis strategy, consistently demonstrates reduction in ventilator-associated pneumonia rates and mortality but its broader use is limited by concerns of increasing resistance. The continued positive results from selective decontamination of the digestive tract require that this strategy receive significant attention in future studies. Regarding catheter-related bloodstream infections, the recommendations suggest education should be used to reduce infection rates, but it is likely that the impact of these directives is undervalued. The data demonstrate marked reduction in catheter-related bloodstream infections in both Latin America and the USA by employing a very low-tech intervention of education, performance feedback, and initiating process controls. SUMMARY: By preventing infections in the intensive care unit, not only is the expected effect to reduce injury related to the disease process, but the long-term effect is to also reduce resistance by decreasing the need for antibiotics.

A 72-year-old man had a unilateral pleural effusion and multiple bilateral pulmonary nodules. Thoracoscopic biopsy revealed multiple discrete nodules in the pleura and lung. The latter consisted of tall columnar malignant cells arranged on alveolar surfaces in a lepidic growth pattern. Mucin filled the alveolar lumina, both in the nodules and surrounding lung. It stained with Alcian blue but not with periodic acid Schiff, suggesting that it was a glycosaminoglycan, which was confirmed as hyaluronic acid by complete digestion with hyaluronidase. Tumor cells were calretinin, Wilms tumor-1, and high-molecular-weight cytokeratin 5/6 positive, and were negative for thyroid transcription factor-1, cytokeratin 7, and cytokeratin 20. Ultrastructurally, they had very long and abundant, slender microvilli typical of a malignant mesothelioma. This is the first example of a mesothelioma masquerading as a bronchioloalveolar carcinoma

A microneedle array has been fabricated and applied to the measurement of transdermal skin potentials in human subjects. Potential changes were recorded in the vicinity of superficial wounds, confirming the generation of a lateral electric field in human skin. The measured electric field decays with distance from the wound edge, and is directed towards the wound. The measurement of endogenous fields in skin is a prelude to the study of the therapeutic efficacy of applied electric fields to chronic non-healing wounds

The case history is described of an elderly man with rheumatoid arthritis receiving treatment with sulfasalazine and the cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor celecoxib who presented with severe shortness of breath, cough, and decreased exercise tolerance. The chest radiograph showed unilateral alveolo-interstitial infiltrates and a biopsy specimen of the lung parenchyma showed changes consistent with acute eosinophilic pneumonia. Antibiotic treatment was unsuccessful, but treatment with steroids and discontinuation of sulfasalazine and celecoxib resulted in a marked clinical improvement confirmed by arterial blood gas analysis. The condition may have developed as an adverse reaction either to sulfasalazine or to celecoxib, although hypersensitivity to the latter has not previously been reported