Antimicrobial resistance is a major public health challenge described by the World Health Organization as one of the top 10 public health challenges worldwide. Drug-resistant microbes contribute significantly to morbidity and mortality in the hospital, especially in the critical care unit. The primary etiology of increasing antibiotic resistance is inappropriate and excessive use of antibiotics. The alarming rise of drugresistant microbes worldwide threatens to erode our ability to treat infections with our current armamentarium of antibiotics.Unfortunately, the pace of development of new antibiotics by the pharmaceutical industry has not kept up with rising resistance to expand our options to treat microbial infections. The costs of antibiotic resistance include death and disability, extended hospital stays due to prolonged sickness, need for expensive therapies, rising healthcare expenditure, reduced productivity from time out of the workforce, and rising penury. This review sums up the common mechanisms, trends, and treatment options for hospital-acquired multidrug-resistant microbes.

Inflammation of the pericardium is referred to as pericarditis, which can cause sharp chest pain and has a high chance of recurrence even after treatment. This review will explore anakinra, which is an interleukin-1 receptor antagonist, as a potential new treatment for pericarditis. The systematic review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines by searching PubMed and GoogleScholar from the years 2012 to 2022. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, thorough screening, and quality appraisal, a total of eleven studies were included in the review; eight case reports and three clinical trials. All studies showed that 100 mg/day of anakinra caused a remarkable improvement in patient outcomes. In addition, the pericarditis resolved quicker and had a lower chance of recurrence in comparison to conventional therapy.

Targeted temperature management (TTM) has been the cornerstone of post-cardiac arrest care, but even after therapy, neurological outcomes remain poor. We performed a systematic review to evaluate the influence of TTM in post-cardiac arrest treatment, its effect on the neurological outcome, survival, and the adverse events associated with it. We also aimed to examine any difference between the effect of therapy at various intensities and durations on the prognosis of the patient. A search of two databases was done to find relevant studies, followed by a thorough screening in which the inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, and a quality appraisal of clinical trials was done. In this systematic review, six randomized clinical trials with a total of 3870 participants were examined. Of these, 2,767 participants were treated with targeted hypothermia to varying degrees (between 31 and 36 degrees Celsius), 931 participants were treated with targeted normothermia (36.5 to 37.5 degrees Celsius), and 172 participants were treated with only normothermia (without any active cooling or interventions). It was concluded that TTM at a lower temperature did not have any benefit regarding the neurological outcome and mortality over targeted normothermia but was superior to no temperature management. TTM was also found to have significantly more negative effects when the intensity or duration was increased.

Breast cancer has become one of the most common cancers affecting women worldwide, and researchers have struggled to explore new avenues for managing it for decades. One of the ways was to analyze the diet and its importance concerning this disease. This review aims to study the effect dietary fat has on the risk of breast cancer incidence as well as its influence on the survival of breast cancer patients. The main population under consideration for this review is women older than the age of 18.A thorough and detailed search was conducted until July 21, 2022, using four databases: PubMed, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, and The Cochrane Library. After screening, 22 articles were selected for inclusion in this review. Of the 22 articles, 12 were from PubMed, two from ScienceDirect, one from The Cochrane Library, and seven from Google Scholar. The risk of bias was assessed, and the required information was extracted from the articles.A systematic review of all the included articles found a significant correlation between dietary fat and an increased risk of breast cancer development and worsening the prognosis for patients already diagnosed with breast cancer.Although many overlapping factors may be responsible for this development, studies show a trend that suggests that this particular factor can be a contributor. Further studies need to be conducted to highlight the role of fat in the diet and the use of dietary modification to curb breast cancer rates.

Cryptococcal meningitis is a fungal infection of the CNS, generally thought of as an opportunistic infection in those with T-cell immunodeficiencies including AIDS (usually with a CD4 count of less than 100), chronic steroid use, hematological malignancies, and transplant recipients.It can have irreversible CNS morbidity, including vision loss, intracranial hypertension, and cognitive decline. Diagnosis depends on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis, in which cultures and cryptococcal antigen are most sensitive. CSF PCR can also be done. Most patients have disseminated disease, and blood cultures are also positive. Outcomes remain guarded, with a poor prognosis (morbidity and high mortality) among survivors. This article presents a case of cryptococcal meningitis in an immunocompetent individual, where absolutely no identifiable risk factor was present.

While COVID-19 has gained popularity as a pandemic and as a cause of pulmonary-systemic disease, the condition continues to evolve our knowledge and understanding of immunology and medicine through its myriad clinical presentations. This article features a previously healthy 65-year-old female who presented with sudden features of cryptococcal meningitis, the progression of which raises questions as to what role the virus plays in the innate, adaptive, and overall host factors leading to immunosuppression.

Intraosseous basivertebral nerve ablation has shown sustained efficacy in treating chronic axial low back pain (LBP) in patients with type 1 or 2 Modic changes. This systematic review aims to determine the efficacy of intraosseous basivertebral nerve radiofrequency ablation in treating nonradiating axial chronic LBP compared to standard therapy, sham, or without contrast. The population of interest is individuals greater than or equal to 18 years old with chronic nonradiating vertebrogenic pain. The key outcome was the percentage of patients with greater than or equal to 50% pain reduction, greater than or equal to 10-point improvement in function and disability measured by the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), greater than or equal to two-point pain reduction in the visual analog scale (VAS) or numerical pain rating scale, and a decrease in opioid utilization by 10 morphine milligram equivalents. Three databases, PubMed, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar, were used to retrieve the studies for the review. Two independent reviewers assessed the studies for inclusion using the validated tools for quality appraisal. There were 286 articles in total; however, only 11 publications with extensive data on 413 participants matched the inclusion criteria and were used for this review. At three months, a majority of the participants reported greater than or equal to 10-point improvement in the ODI, a measure of functional and disability improvement on a 10-point scale, and greater than or equal to two-point improvement in the VAS. A good number of patients in the basivertebral nerve ablation (BVNA) arm reported complete pain resolution demonstrating therapy success and the superiority of BVNA over sham and standard treatment. Basivertebral nerve radiofrequency ablation, among other criteria, is a safe and minimally invasive therapy that significantly lowers pain and impairment in individuals with vertebrogenic pain with distinct Modic type 1 and 2 changes at lumbar vertebra three-sacral vertebra one (L3-S1) vertebral levels. Proper patient selection and exact procedural methods are essential to the success of basivertebral nerve neurotomy. The findings of the existing investigations require confirmation by nonindustry-funded, large-scale, high-quality trials using generalizable study participants.

Ventricular standstill is a rare cardiac event associated with a high mortality. It is considered a ventricular fibrillation equivalent. The longer the duration, the poorer the prognosis. It is therefore unusual for an individual to have recurrent episodes of standstill and survive, without morbidity and rapid mortality. Here, we report the unique case of a 67-year-old male, previously diagnosed with heart disease, requiring intervention, who lived with recurrent syncopal episodes for a decade. Though such occurrences have previously been documented, we seek to stress the importance of using clinical tools in assessing what could easily have been passed off as orthostatic in origin.