Tuberculosis rarely developed among contacts, and preventive chemotherapy effectively reduced the tuberculosis risk among IGRA-positive contacts. Although the negative predictive value of IGRAs is high, the risk for the development of tuberculosis is poorly predicted by these assays.

Haemoptysis, which is a challenging symptom accounting for 10-15% of all pulmonology consultations, may be associated with life-threatening medical conditions such as lung cancer [1-7]. Its aetiology and epidemiology vary widely among studies according to geographic locations and time of publication, epidemiological design, and diagnostic tests employed [2-8]. Bronchiectasis, malignancies, post-tuberculosis sequelae, and idiopathic bleedings have been recognised as the most frequent causes of haemoptysis in Europe over the last decade [3-7]. No guidelines exist suggesting an optimal work-up of symptoms, and data on the diagnostic yield of the most commonly prescribed examinations are limited [8]. The aim of this observational, prospective, multicentre study was to investigate the haemoptysis aetiology in association with its severity in an Italian population. We also evaluated the diagnostic yield of the prescribed diagnostic tests. The study was approved by the ethical committees of five Italian participating hospitals and registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (identifier: NCT02045394). Written informed consent was signed by the recruited patients, who were followed-up for 18 months. Herein, we report the findings of the baseline assessment. From July 2013 to September 2015, consecutive adult (i.e. ⩾18 years old) patients with haemoptysis were considered eligible. The following were considered as exclusion criteria: 1) aetiology of haemoptysis already detected (e.g. proven cancer-related and/or bronchiectasis-related haemoptysis); and 2) refusal to sign the informed consent. Patients were divided into three groups on the basis of the total amount of blood expectorated in 24 h [2, 3, 9]: mild (i.e. drops of blood to 20 mL in 24 h), moderate (i.e. 20-500 mL in 24 h), and severe (i.e. >500 mL in 24 h). All enrolled patients underwent physical examination and blood analysis. Subsequent tests deemed necessary for the diagnosis (i.e. sputum cultures, chest radiography, multi-detector chest computed tomography (CT), bronchoscopy, otorhinolaryngological evaluation, angiography) were chosen by the attending clinician on the basis of the clinical hypothesis and the symptom-driven diagnostic protocols of each hospital involved in the study. Final diagnosis was established in each centre, on the basis of the clinical and imaging evidence, by a multidisciplinary consensus that involved pulmonologists, radiologists, pathologists and otorhinolaryngologists. An electronic ad hoc form was created to collect demographic, epidemiological and clinical variables. Absolute and relative frequencies were used to summarise qualitative variables. Quantitative variables, for which the non-parametric distribution was assessed with the Shapiro-Wilk test, were summarised with medians and interquartile ranges (IQRs). 95% confidence intervals were computed to provide an interval estimation. The statistical software used for all the computations was Stata13.0 (StataCorp, College Station, TX, USA). During the study period, 606 patients (median age 67...

Mastitis due to intramammary infections is one of the most detrimental diseases in dairy sheep farming, representing a major cause of reduced milk productions and quality losses. In particular, subclinical mastitis presents significant detection and control problems, and the availability of tools enabling its timely, sensitive, and specific detection is therefore crucial. We have previously demonstrated that cathelicidins, small proteins implicated in the innate immune defense of the host, are specifically released in milk of mastitic animals by both epithelial cells and neutrophils. Here, we describe the development of an ELISA for milk cathelicidin and assess its value against somatic cell counts (SCC) and bacteriological culture for detection of ewe mastitis. Evaluation of the cathelicidin ELISA was carried out on 705 half-udder milk samples from 3 sheep flocks enrolled in a project for improvement of mammary health. Cathelicidin was detected in 35.3% of milk samples (249/705), and its amount increased with rising SCC values. The cathelicidin-negative (n=456) and cathelicidin-positive (n=249) sample groups showed a clear separation in relation to SCC, with median values of 149,500 and 3,300,000 cells/mL, respectively. Upon bacteriological culture, 20.6% (145/705) of the milk samples showed microbial growth, with coagulase-negative staphylococci being by far the most frequent finding. A significant proportion of all bacteriologically positive milk samples were positive for cathelicidin (110/145, 75.9%). Given the lack of a reliable gold standard for defining the true disease status, sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp) of the cathelicidin ELISA were assessed by latent class analysis against 2 SCC thresholds and against bacteriological culture results. At an SCC threshold of 500,000 cells/mL, Se and Sp were 92.3 and 92.3% for cathelicidin ELISA, 89.0 and 94.9% for SCC, and 39.4 and 93.6% for bacteriological culture, respectively. At an SCC threshold of 1,000,000 cells/mL, Se and Sp were 93.3 and 91.9% for cathelicidin ELISA, 80.0 and 97.1% for SCC, and 39.4 and 93.5% for bacteriology, respectively. In view of the results obtained in this study, the measurement of cathelicidin in milk by ELISA can provide added Se while maintaining a high Sp and may therefore improve detection of subclinical mastitis.

Fluoroscopy-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) has long been used in the diagnosis of peripheral pulmonary lesions (PPLs), although its diagnostic performance varies considerably.We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating the accuracy of TBNA in the diagnosis of PPLs, comparing its diagnostic yield with transbronchial biopsy (TBB) and assessing the main predictors of a successful aspirate.In 18 studies, the overall TBNA yield was 0.53 (95% CI 0.44-0.61). TBNA showed a higher accuracy when directly compared to TBB (0.60 (95% CI 0.49-0.71) versus 0.45 (95% CI 0.37-0.54)). The subgroup analyses documented a higher TBNA yield when the computed tomography (CT) bronchus sign was present (0.70 (95% CI 0.63-0.77) versus 0.51 (95% CI 0.38-0.64)), when rapid on-site evaluation (ROSE) was performed (0.62 (95% CI 0.43-0.79) versus 0.51 (95% CI 0.42-0.60)), in the case of malignant lesions (0.55 (95% CI 0.44-0.66) versus 0.17 (95% CI 0.11-0.24)) and for lesions >3 cm (0.81 (95% CI 0.73-0.87) versus 0.55 (95% CI 0.47-0.63)).Conventional TBNA is a useful sampling technique for the diagnosis of PPL, with a higher diagnostic yield than TBB. The presence of CT bronchus sign, an underlying malignant process, lesion size >3 cm and ROSE employment are predictors of a higher yield.

No large study to date has ever evaluated the effectiveness, safety and tolerability of imipenem/clavulanate versus meropenem/clavulanate to treat multidrug-and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-and XDR-TB). The aim of this observational study was to compare the therapeutic contribution of imipenem/clavulanate versus meropenem/clavulanate added to background regimens to treat MDR-and XDR-TB cases.84 patients treated with imipenem/clavulanate-containing regimens showed a similar median number of antibiotic resistances (8 versus 8) but more fluoroquinolone resistance (79.0% versus 48.9%, p<0.0001) and higher XDR-TB prevalence (67.9% versus 49.0%, p=0.01) in comparison with 96 patients exposed to meropenem/clavulanate-containing regimens. Patients were treated with imipenem/clavulanate-and meropenem/clavulanate-containing regimens for a median (interquartile range) of 187 (60-428) versus 85 (49-156) days, respectively. Statistically significant differences were observed on sputum smear and culture conversion rates (79.7% versus 94.8%, p=0.02 and 71.9% versus 94.8%, p<0.0001, respectively) and on success rates (59.7% versus 77.5%, p=0.03). Adverse events to imipenem/clavulanate and meropenem/clavulanate were reported in 5.4% and 6.5% of cases only.Our study suggests that meropenem/clavulanate is more effective than imipenem/clavulanate in treating MDR/XDR-TB patients. @ERSpublications Meropenem/clavulanate is safe and more effective than imipenem/clavulanate in treating MDR and XDR-TB patients http://ow.ly/Z4S2o

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The fluid challenge (FC) aims at identifying patients in whom fluid administration improves hemodynamics. Although the FC has been extensively studied, the implementation and definition of improvement are not standardized. This systematic review of studies published between January 1, 1994 and December 31, 2014 characterizes these key components of the FC for critically ill adult patients, as described in the medical literature in the last 20 years. A literature search was performed using MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane. For each study, data were collected on study design, study size, study setting, patient population, and how the FC was administered. Eligibility criteria for FC were (1) the infusion of a definite quantity of fluid, (2) of a specific type, (3) in a fixed time period (expressed as either span or infusion rate), (4) with a defined hemodynamic variable as the target, and (5) for a predetermined threshold. One hundred fifty-seven full-text manuscripts were extracted from 870 potentially relevant studies. The inclusion criteria were met by 71 studies including 3617 patients. Sixty-six studies were from a single center and 45 were prospective observational in format. The most common amount infused was 500 cc, used by 55 (77.5%) studies. The most commonly infused fluids were colloids (62.0%). In 43 (60.5%) studies, the FC was administered between 20 and 30 minutes. A positive response to fluid administration was defined as an increase ≥15% of cardiac index or cardiac output in 44 (62.6%) studies. Static or dynamic physiologic indices were utilized in a minority of studies (16.9%) and safety limits for interrupting the FC are adopted in 4 (5.6%) studies only. This systematic review indicates that the FC most commonly consists in infusing 500 mL of crystalloids or colloids in 20-30 minutes, and considered an increase in cardiac index ≥15% as a positive response. However, definite standards for FC administration and evaluation remain undefined.