Update in Respiratory Infections 2011

Respiratory infections and immunostimulants in childhood: an update

Respiratory tract infections are one of the most common childhood illnesses, especially in pre-school children. These infections impose an enormous burden on both the healthcare system (frequent medical consultations and hospitalizations), and on society (parental absenteeism and loss of productivity). Their recurrence still poses a diagnostic challenge in pediatrics due to the difficulty in di...

update on zika virus infections

Erythropoietin update 2011

Traditionally, erythropoietin (EPO) is described as a hematopoietic cytokine, regulating proliferation and differentiation and survival of the erythroid progenitors. The recent finding of new sites of EPO production and the wide spread distribution of EPO receptors (EPO-R) on endothelial cells, cardiomyocytes, renal cells as well as the central and peripheral nervous system raised the possibili...

Fungal Infections of Respiratory Tract-Final Section

Histoplasma capsulatum var. capsulatum, Blastomyces dermatitidis, Coccidioides immitis, Paracoccidioides brasiliensis, and Penicillium marneffei are endemic dimorphic fungi that may infect the respiratory tract. Sporothrix schenkeii, which manifests the typical thermal dimorphism of the endemic dimorphic organisms, does not seem to follow a geographically defined endemic pattern of distribution...

Tenofovir Nephrotoxicity: 2011 Update

Tenofovir is an acyclic nucleotide analogue reverse-transcriptase inhibitor structurally similar to the nephrotoxic drugs adefovir and cidofovir. Tenofovir is widely used to treat HIV infection and approved for treatment of hepatitis B virus. Despite initial cell culture and clinical trials results supporting the renal safety of tenofovir, its clinical use is associated with a low, albeit signi...