Salmonella endocarditis of a ventricular aneurysm: a case report and review of the literature.

A 63-year-old man with salmonella endocarditis of a ventricular aneurysm is presented. The patient had a documented apical aneurysm with mural thrombus and left ventricular dysfunction following a previous myocardial infarction. His condition was unresponsive to maximal medical therapy and was cured by surgery. A review of the English-language literature revealed that only two other published cases of nonvalvular salmonella endocarditis resulted in patient survival. This report underscores the importance of suspecting a cardiovascular origin in cases of salmonella bacteremia to avoid delay in diagnosis and surgical intervention in this deadly condition.

[A utilization review program of cefoxitin]. / Programme de revue d'utilisation de la céfoxitine.

A drug utilization review program of cefoxitin was conducted in a 714-bed teaching hospital. Health records of all 43 in-patients who received cefoxitin during the month of November 1987 were reviewed retrospectively. The use of cefoxitin (47 courses) was evaluated on the basis of "appropriate use" criteria developed from the literature and the physician's clinical experience. Of the 47 courses evaluated, cefoxitin was prescribed for prophylaxis in 47%, and its use was considered inappropriate in 86% of these. Overall, 66% of total cefoxitin usage was deemed inappropriate in this hospital. The cost associated with inappropriate use was estimated at $2672 for the period of the study. Corrective measures were then implemented to rectify the identified problems. A second study was conducted 2 years later to assess the impact of the corrective measures. This utilization review program of cefoxitin showed that optimal use of a drug requires not only close collaboration between pharmacists and physicians but a continuous and not a sporadic process of surveillance of the prescription for the drug being studied.

Cardiobacterium hominis endocarditis.

A 53-year-old man presented with nonspecific symptoms, evidence of aortic valve regurgitation and hepatosplenomegaly. Blood cultures grew Cardiobacterium hominis after 14 days of incubation. Endocarditis is caused by fastidious organisms such as C hominis in less than 5% of cases. To date approximately 40 cases of endocarditis due to this pleomorphic facultative anaerobic Gram-negative bacillus have been reported. C hominis is part of the normal human mouth flora.

Decision making in sport: the effect of stimulus-response probability on the performance of a coincidence-anticipation task.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the quality of a motor response for different levels of expectancy and time constraint, in a two-choice coincidence-anticipation task. The probability of each of the two events likely to be presented were varied across different levels as well as the speed of the stimulus to be intercepted. The results indicated that neither the choice reaction time (CRT) and movement time, nor the performance of coincidence-anticipation were affected by the probability of the stimulus for the low and moderate stimulus speeds. However, when the stimulus traveled at a high speed a trade-off took place. The CRT decreased as the probability of the event increased, whilst the proportion of response initiation errors increased for the low probability events. This trade-off resulted in a better coincidence-anticipation as the probability of the event increased. The results obtained in the present experiment are clearly different from those obtained in a classic CRT-deadline paradigm, in that the trade-off observed between CRT and response initiation errors was far less pronounced in the coincidence-anticipation task. This difference was attributed to the higher negative consequences associated with a response initiation error in a coincidence-anticipation task. It is thus concluded that the tasks used to study the nature of the decision processes taking place in sports and sports-like situations must have some ecological validity to be of some help for the practitioner.

[Decision strategy: effect of the proportion of total response time taken by choice reaction time]. / Stratégie de décision: l'effet de la proportion du temps total de réponse occupée par le temps de réaction au choix.

Results from two series of studies on decision strategies suggested that subjects appeared to chose between two response modes. Subjects could use a decision strategy based either on anticipatory responses or on reaction responses. It appeared that certain characteristics specific to the task could be responsible for the discrepancy in the response mode. The aim of the present study was to ascertain whether the choice of a decision strategy could be dictated by the proportion of total response time taken up by the choice reaction time (TRC). For instance, if the TRC takes up a large proportion of the total time, reducing it in view of an anticipatory response could considerably reduce the total time. The advantage to be gained from an anticipatory response could thus be considered sufficient to warrant adoption of a decision strategy based on anticipation. On the contrary, when TRC takes up only a small portion of total time, a decision strategy based upon reactions is preferred since the cost related to an error in response would largely exceed the advantage related to anticipation. Results from the two series of experiments presented in this paper support the importance of this variable. More specifically, results revealed that the error that an individual allows himself to make depends upon the proportion of total time that is devoted to choice reaction time. An extension of the model presented by Proteau et al. is proposed in order to account for the present observations.

On the nature of the probe reaction-time task to uncover the attentional demands of movement.

McLeod (1980) reported some findings which showed that no phase of a movement was more attention-demanding than the other phases, contrary to all the results previously reported (e.g., Ells, 1973; Glencross, 1980). However, McLeod used a paradigm in which the two tasks were serial. Each task consisted of a series of 50 reaction time (RT) trials and/or 50 aiming movement trials. In addition to this, the interval of time between a response and the following signal within each series was constant. In order to try to replicated McLeod's findings, two experiments were conducted in which the response-signal interval was manipulated. The hypothesis was that time certainty associated with a constant interval would facilitate the allocation of time and would thus artificially reduce the interference between tasks. In Experiment 1, manual responses were used for the RT task; in Experiment II, they were vocal. Manipulation of the response-signal interval does not change one of the conclusions reached by McLeod: when the RT task involves vocal responses and the results on the RT task are analyzed in terms of response rather than stimulus arrival during the movement, then there is no phase of the movement which is more attention-demanding than the other phases. However, the results of Experiment II in which both the vocal RT task and the movement task significantly deteriorated in the dual-task condition were taken as an indication that the movement studied involved central attentional demands.

Motor programming: does the choice of the limb which is to carry out the response imply a delay?

In many activities, the human being must quickly decide on the response to be produced following a change in the environment. In some of these situations, the limb that the individual chooses to carry out a response seems to be a significant element in performance. Thus, if the individual carries out the response with the limb closest to the target, the performance can improve because it will take less time to achieve the goal. However, it seems that in these situations, the human being does not take this decrease in movement time into consideration and that the response is carried out with the dominant hand. Why is this so? It may be because the reaction is faster when there doesn't have to be a choice as to which limb will carry out the response. The goal of this study was to check this possibility. In order to do so, the subjects performed a two choice reaction-time task. For this task, some subjects knew beforehand which hand they had to use to carry out the response while other subjects were unaware of this fact. The results of two experiments indicated that the choice of the limb which is to carry out the response requires no particular delay when the movement to be produced is externally guided.

Short-course and single-dose antimicrobial therapy for chancroid in Kenya: studies with rifampin alone and in combination with trimethoprim.

Tetracyclines and sulfonamides are no longer effective for the treatment of chancroid in many parts of the world. Rifampin and trimethoprim both possess in vitro activity against Haemophilus ducreyi, the causative agent of chancroid. In a randomized, controlled study, 22 patients with H. ducreyi-positive genital ulcers received 600 mg of rifampin once daily for three days, and 32 patients received 600 mg of rifampin plus 160 mg of trimethoprim once daily for three days. Both regimens rapidly eradicated H. ducreyi from ulcers, with subsequent healing of ulcers and buboes. Two relapses of ulcers and one therapeutic failure were observed in the rifampin-trimethoprim group, whereas no relapses or failures were noted in the rifampin group. In addition, all of 16 H. ducreyi-negative ulcers responded rapidly to treatment with either regimen. In an uncontrolled, open study, 22 H. ducreyi-positive ulcers were treated with a single dose of rifampin (600 mg) plus trimethoprim (160 mg). Ulcers and buboes resolved by day 14 in all but one patient. Thus, these short-course and single-dose regimens are effective against chancroid.

[Double approach to the study of high jumping: attention demands and biomechanics]. / Double approche pour l'étude du saut en hauteur: attention exigée et biomécanique.

A double approach was used to study high jumping: attention demands and biomechanic. The main goal was to determine if the methodology used to measure the attention demands did interfere with high jumping performance. Two sub-goals were also aimed: (a) to find the main characteristics of the attention demands of high jumping; (b) to find the main kinetic characteristics of high jumping. Two members of the canadian olympic team were tested. Results showed that the methodology using to measure the attention demands did not seem to interfere with subject's performance, the later being evaluated by means of force time variations during the take-off. Results also showed that: a) high jumping seems to require considerable amount of attention even for international caliber high jumpers, and b) there were differences between Straddle and Fosbury Flop techniques as far as kinetic date were concerned.

Synergistic antibacterial activity of clavulanic acid and amoxicillin against beta-lactamase-producing strains of Haemophilus ducreyi.

The susceptibility of 47 strains of Haemophilus ducreyi to amoxicillin, clavulanic acid, and the combination of both drugs was determined by agar dilution susceptibility testing. A synergistic antibacterial activity of the combination was found for beta-lactamase-producing strains.