Introduction: Mitochondrial encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) can involve multiple systems and cause stroke-like episodes and status epilepticus. Case Presentation: A 48-year-old female with history of early fatigability, migraine-type headaches, and bilateral sensory-neural hearing loss presented 3 episodes of serial seizures. On admission she was affected by W...

Mechanisms underlying coronary spasm are still poorly understood. The aim of the study was to assess the hypothesis that fluctuations in the development of coronary spasm might reflect inputs from the adjacent esophageal system. We enrolled patients admitted to the coronary care unit for episodes of nocturnal angina. Seven patients with variant angina and five with coronary artery disease (CAD)...

OBJECTIVE To determine if caregiver report of the pediatric quality of life inventory (PedsQL) is responsive to changes in health-related quality of life (HRQL) associated with pain episodes in pediatric sickle cell disease (SCD). METHODS 81 caregivers of children ages 2-19 years with SCD completed the PedsQL as part of routine psychosocial screenings at 2 time points, ranging from 6 to 18 mo...

1. Periodic breathing is known to be associated with cyclic fluctuations in heart rate. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the capability of spectral analysis of heart rate variability to identify episodes with periodic breathing in patients suspected of having sleep apnoea syndrome. 2. Forty-eight subjects complaining of chronic day-time sleepiness were studied using polysomnography and...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to analyze the expenditures related to the use of antifungal drugs in patients with hematological malignancies. METHODS In this retrospective study, the expenditures related to use of antifungal drugs for treatment of invasive fungal infections in patients with hematological malignancies between November 2010 and November 2012 were analyzed. Expenditures of ...

BACKGROUND Breast cancer is treated with many different modalities, including chemotherapy that can be given as a single agent or in combination. Patients often experience adverse events from chemotherapy during the cycles of treatment which can lead to economic burden. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to evaluate costs related to chemotherapy-related adverse events in patients with ...

The aim of this study was to determine the incidence and causes of fever as a major problem contributing to transplantation related mortality among patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and evaluation of antibiotic use, according to reliable guidelines.We retrospectively reviewed hospital records of 195 adult patients who underwent HSCT between 2009-2011 at hematolo...

OBJECTIVES Species-specific clinical breakpoints (CBPs) for Candida spp. were established following consideration of clinical outcomes in patients with oesophageal candidiasis. We sought to further determine the validity of the current CBPs based on data from a prospective candidaemia study. PATIENTS AND METHODS All Candida albicans candidaemia episodes in patients enrolled in the Australian ...