Comprehensive treatment in severe dengue during preterm and term labor: could tocolysis be useful?

Objective: There is lack of data on the management of severe dengue infection during labor. The objective of this study was to describe our experience in the management of preterm and term labor of pregnant patients with severe dengue infection and thrombocytopenia.Materials and methods: We describe patients with dengue infection confirmed by dengue serology or NS1 antigen in Cali, Colombia. All of the patients had warning or severity signs for dengue and initiated labor, either term or preterm, during their hospital stay. All had thrombocytopenia at the moment labor started. Therefore, we treated them with support management, including intravenous fluids and a tocolytic agent (either atosiban, magnesium sulfate or nifedipine). Tocolytics aimed to stop contractions until platelets were in a safe range previous to delivery. Platelets transfusions were performed if the count was less than 10,000 cells/ml and active bleeding was present. The primary outcome we evaluated was postpartum hemorrhage (defined as a loss of >500 ml following a vaginal delivery or >1000 ml after cesarean section) or maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality.Results: We present a total of six pregnant women. The median platelet count 24 h previous to delivery was 94,000 cells/ml and after tocolysis was 132,500 cells/ml. Two patients suffered postpartum hemorrhage despite the management. Only one woman required platelet transfusion. No maternal or newborn mortality were present. Three patients were diagnosed with preeclampsia. Four patients had delivery via cesarean section. Five out of six newborns required hospitalization, three of them due to neonatal respiratory distress syndrome.Conclusion: Comprehensive treatment including fluids resuscitation and uterine inhibition in pregnant women with severe dengue in preterm or term labor could be useful. More clinical studies are required to evaluate the benefit of this intervention in tropical countries.Brief rationale: We present an original research article and literature review entitled "Comprehensive treatment in severe dengue during preterm and term labor: could tocolysis be useful?". Our article describes the clinical manifestation, laboratory findings, complications and management provided to a group of six patients that presented to the hospital with acute dengue virus infection and initiated labor while viremic and thrombocytopenic in this study.In the present study, we found that most of our patients (5 out of 6), presented with signs of severe dengue fever and all of the patients had warning signs. In this population, we decided to provide support treatment and tocolytic agents to these patients with the aim of delaying labor to allow platelet count to rise, thus reducing the odds of hemorrhagic complications. We concluded that although tocolysis is not regularly used in patients with dengue fever, our results suggest that our protocol could benefit pregnant patients with thrombocytopenia due to dengue; however, prospective studies which determine the safety and effectiveness of our intervention are needed.

Invasive fungal infection by Aspergillus flavus in immunocompetent hosts: A case series and literature review.

Invasive aspergillosis usually affects immunocompromised hosts with variable manifestations depending on the site of infection. In this article, we present two cases of invasive Aspergillosis in two non-immunocompromised patients; both cases had a paranasal sinuses infection, with intraorbital and intracranial extension, requiring surgery and antifungal treatment with Voriconazole. These cases were initially diagnosed as paranasal sinus neoplasms. However, the pathology and microbiology studies revealed invasive fungal infection by Aspergillus flavus.

A scoping review of transmission of dengue virus from donors to recipients after solid organ transplantation.

Dengue virus can infect humans through vectorial and non-vectorial transmission. Classically, non-vectorial transmission has been related to vertical transmission and health care-associated infections, but recently transmission to solid organ and bone marrow recipients has been reported. We performed a scoping review of the available literature searching for evidence on screening for dengue in potential organ donors and the use of these infected organs. From 372 unique records identified, 17 were eligible to be included in our scoping study. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, three studies were included. These studies described a total of six patients from India (two case reports; n=2) and Colombia (one case series; n=4). Three patients received a liver, two received a kidney and one had a heart transplant. The onset of symptoms occurred in the first week after transplant in all cases and all experienced fever as the primary symptom. All patients presented thrombocytopenia with a platelet count <50 000. None of the patients developed graft rejection. However, four patients presented graft complications. No recipient deaths occurred. There is not a strong recommendation for dengue screening of donors in transplantation guidelines, but in endemic areas, physicians should be aware of this type of transmission before transplantation.

Ileostomía y lavado colónico anterógrado con Vancomicina en el manejo de infección por Clostridium difficile / Anterograde colonic lavage with Vancomycin via ileostomy for the management of Clostridium difficile infection. A case report

La infección por Clostridium difficile es la principal causa de diarrea asociada al cuidado de la salud. Durante los últimos años se ha incrementado la morbilidad y mortalidad por esta infección. Las recientes investigaciones se orientan a la búsqueda de tratamientos alternativos a la colectomía subtotal para los pacientes con infecciones severas por Clostridium difficile, es por esto que el presente artículo tiene como objetivo hacer la revisión del caso clínico de una paciente con colitis severa por Clostridium difficile refractaria al manejo de primera línea, que respondió satisfactoriamente al tratamiento con lavado colónico anterógrado con vancomicina vía ileostomía en asa.

Clostridium difficile infection is the main cause of diarrhea in health care settings. Such infections have led to an increase in morbidity and mortality in recent years. Alternative treatments to subtotal colectomy have been sought for patients with severe infections caused by Clostridium difficile. The objective of this article is to present a clinical case report of a patient with severe colitis caused by Clostridium difficile that was refractory to first-line management, which responded satisfac torily to treatment with anterograde colonic lavages with vancomycin via loop ileostomy.