Strongyloides stercoralis hyperinfection syndrome: a known entity in an unknown provenance.

A 49-year-old man was admitted with altered mental status, high-grade fevers, tachycardia and leucocytosis. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was purulent with a markedly elevated nucleated cell count with neutrophilic predominance, elevated protein and low glucose. CSF gram stain was negative. Patient received vancomycin, cefepime, ampicillin and acyclovir for presumed meningitis. He was intubated for protection of airway and underwent bronchoscopy. Microscopic examination of the bronchoalveolar lavage noted Strongyloides filariform larvae. Ivermectin was prescribed. Other laboratory tests showed a positive HIV test associated with a low CD4 count. Stool ova and parasite also revealed Strongyloides and repeat lumbar puncture identified larvae in the CSF. Albendazole was added for adjunctive therapy. However, the patient suffered a large intraparenchymal haemorrhage extending into the ventricles and he expired 36 days after admission.

Reliever-Triggered Inhaled Glucocorticoid in Black and Latinx Adults with Asthma.

BACKGROUND: Black and Latinx patients bear a disproportionate burden of asthma. Efforts to reduce the disproportionate morbidity have been mostly unsuccessful, and guideline recommendations have not been based on studies in these populations. METHODS: In this pragmatic, open-label trial, we randomly assigned Black and Latinx adults with moderate-to-severe asthma to use a patient-activated, reliever-triggered inhaled glucocorticoid strategy (beclomethasone dipropionate, 80 µg) plus usual care (intervention) or to continue usual care. Participants had one instructional visit followed by 15 monthly questionnaires. The primary end point was the annualized rate of severe asthma exacerbations. Secondary end points included monthly asthma control as measured with the Asthma Control Test (ACT; range, 5 [poor] to 25 [complete control]), quality of life as measured with the Asthma Symptom Utility Index (ASUI; range, 0 to 1, with lower scores indicating greater impairment), and participant-reported missed days of work, school, or usual activities. Safety was also assessed. RESULTS: Of 1201 adults (603 Black and 598 Latinx), 600 were assigned to the intervention group and 601 to the usual-care group. The annualized rate of severe asthma exacerbations was 0.69 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.61 to 0.78) in the intervention group and 0.82 (95% CI, 0.73 to 0.92) in the usual-care group (hazard ratio, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.72 to 0.999; P = 0.048). ACT scores increased by 3.4 points (95% CI, 3.1 to 3.6) in the intervention group and by 2.5 points (95% CI, 2.3 to 2.8) in the usual-care group (difference, 0.9; 95% CI, 0.5 to 1.2); ASUI scores increased by 0.12 points (95% CI, 0.11 to 0.13) and 0.08 points (95% CI, 0.07 to 0.09), respectively (difference, 0.04; 95% CI, 0.02 to 0.05). The annualized rate of missed days was 13.4 in the intervention group and 16.8 in the usual-care group (rate ratio, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.95). Serious adverse events occurred in 12.2% of the participants, with an even distribution between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: Among Black and Latinx adults with moderate-to-severe asthma, provision of an inhaled glucocorticoid and one-time instruction on its use, added to usual care, led to a lower rate of severe asthma exacerbations. (Funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and others; PREPARE ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02995733.).

A randomized, open-label, pragmatic study to assess reliever-triggered inhaled corticosteroid in African American/Black and Hispanic/Latinx adults with asthma: Design and methods of the PREPARE trial.

BACKGROUND: Asthma prevalence, morbidity, and mortality disproportionately impact African American/Black (AA/B) and Hispanic/Latinx (H/L) communities. Adherence to daily inhaled corticosteroid (ICS), recommended by asthma guidelines in all but the mildest cases of asthma, is generally poor. As-needed ICS has shown promise as a patient-empowering asthma management strategy, but it has not been rigorously studied in AA/B or H/L patients or in a real-world setting. Design and Aim The PeRson EmPowered Asthma RElief (PREPARE) Study is a randomized, open-label, pragmatic study which aims to assess whether a patient-guided, reliever-triggered ICS strategy called PARTICS (Patient-Activated Reliever-Triggered Inhaled CorticoSteroid) can improve asthma outcomes in AA/B and H/L adult patient populations. In designing and implementing the study, the PREPARE research team has relied heavily on advice from AA/B and H/L Patient Partners and other stakeholders. Methods PREPARE is enrolling 1200 adult participants (600 AA/Bs, 600H/Ls) with asthma. Participants are randomized to PARTICS + Usual Care (intervention) versus Usual Care (control). Following a single in-person enrollment visit, participants complete monthly questionnaires for 15 months. The primary endpoint is annualized asthma exacerbation rate. Secondary endpoints include asthma control; preference-based quality of life; and days lost from work, school, or usual activities. Discussion The PREPARE study features a pragmatic design allowing for the real-world assessment of a patient-centered, reliever-triggered ICS strategy in AA/B and H/L patients. Outcomes of this study have the potential to offer powerful evidence supporting PARTICS as an effective asthma management strategy in patient populations that suffer disproportionately from asthma morbidity and mortality.

State-Level Disparity in Lung Cancer Survival in the United States.

Rationale: The cancer mortality-to-incidence ratio (MIR) can serve as a population-based indicator for cancer care outcomes. In the US, evaluation of lung cancer survival by individual states has not been evaluated. Objective: To assess the association between lung cancer survival by using MIRs and state-level health disparities in the United States. Methods: We calculated 5-year lung cancer MIR averages from 2011 to 2015 using the United States Cancer Statistics (USCS) data. America's Health Rankings (AHR) is a platform using weighted measures in five different categories to calculate annual state health rankings. Five-year averages from 2011 to 2015 of the health uninsured rate and 4-year averages from 2011 to 2014 of health spending per capita were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Linear regression analyses were performed to determine the associations between cancer survival value (CSV) = (1 - MIR) × 100% and state health variables. Results: During the study period, the 5-year averages of age-adjusted incidence, mortality rates, and CSVs were 60.3 ± 2.1 per 100,000 population, 43.4 ± 2.1 per 100,000, and 27.9 ± 3.9%, respectively. Among the 50 states, Connecticut had the highest CSV (38.6 ± 1.7%) whereas Nevada had the lowest CSV (18.7 ± 6.5%). Hawaii had the highest health ranking and Mississippi had the lowest ranking in 2016. States with better health rankings, lower health uninsured rates, and higher health spending were significantly associated with higher CSVs (R 2 = 0.418, P < 0.001; R 2 = 0.352, P < 0.001; R 2 = 0.142, P = 0.007, respectively). Conclusions: There are significant differences in lung cancer survival within the United States. Lung cancer survival by using CSV was strongly associated with state health disparities, and it can be an applicable measure to evaluate the state-level health disparities in the United States.

Reliability and validity of the test of incremental respiratory endurance measures of inspiratory muscle performance in COPD.

Purpose: The Test of Incremental Respiratory Endurance (TIRE) provides a comprehensive assessment of inspiratory muscle performance by measuring maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP) over time. The integration of MIP over inspiratory duration (ID) provides the sustained maximal inspiratory pressure (SMIP). Evidence on the reliability and validity of these measurements in COPD is not currently available. Therefore, we assessed the reliability, responsiveness and construct validity of the TIRE measures of inspiratory muscle performance in subjects with COPD. Patients and methods: Test-retest reliability, known-groups and convergent validity assessments were implemented simultaneously in 81 male subjects with mild to very severe COPD. TIRE measures were obtained using the portable PrO2 device, following standard guidelines. Results: All TIRE measures were found to be highly reliable, with SMIP demonstrating the strongest test-retest reliability with a nearly perfect intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.99, while MIP and ID clustered closely together behind SMIP with ICC values of about 0.97. Our findings also demonstrated known-groups validity of all TIRE measures, with SMIP and ID yielding larger effect sizes when compared to MIP in distinguishing between subjects of different COPD status. Finally, our analyses confirmed convergent validity for both SMIP and ID, but not MIP. Conclusion: The TIRE measures of MIP, SMIP and ID have excellent test-retest reliability and demonstrated known-groups validity in subjects with COPD. SMIP and ID also demonstrated evidence of moderate convergent validity and appear to be more stable measures in this patient population than the traditional MIP.