BACKGROUND More than 90 immunologically distinct serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae exist, and it is not fully elucidated whether the serotype is a risk factor for severity of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). Our hypothesis is that serotypes differ in their capacity to cause septic shock. METHODS We performed a retrospective study in Southern Sweden based upon 513 patients with IPD in ...

Inflammation and infection have been noted to increase stroke risk. However, the association between septicaemia and increased risk of stroke remains unclear. This population-based cohort study, using a National Health Insurance database, aimed to investigate whether patients with septicaemia are predisposed to increased stroke risk. The study included all patients hospitalised for septicaemia ...

The aim of this study was to analyze the association between waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in the elderly (considering their most prevalent morbidities and lifestyles), to investigate the relationship between this anthropometric index and the presence of the most prevalent morbidities (isolated or combined), and to identify which morbidities (analyzed individually) w...

BACKGROUND Bariatric surgery can provide efficient weight loss and improvement in obesity-related co-morbidities in adults. Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) comprised 30.3% of all bariatric procedures between 2009 and 2010 in the UK. This review evaluates the level 1 evidence for change in co-morbidities, quality of life (QoL) and weight provided by LAGB compared with other bariat...

INTRODUCTION Access to hepatitis C (hereafter HCV) antiviral therapy has commonly excluded populations with mental health and substance use disorders because they were considered as having contraindications to treatment, particularly due to the neuropsychiatric effects of interferon that can occur in some patients. In this review we examined access to HCV interferon antiviral therapy by populat...

BACKGROUND Since 2008 the Pietermaritzburg Metropolitan Trauma Service (PMTS) has run a structured, self-reporting, metropolitan morbidity and mortality conference (MMC). In 2012 a hybrid electronic medical registry (HEMR) was introduced to capture routine data and to generate reports on morbidity and mortality. This paper reviews our experience in setting up a metropolitan MMC and compares the...