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Coronary artery calcium, quantified by computed tomography scanning, is one of the well-known measures of subclinical atherosclerosis. Coronary artery calcium is considered an end result from the long-term exposure to risk factors. CAC has been shown to improve risk stratification in asymptomatic individuals with intermediate-risk(e.g., an option to facilitate decision making)for primary prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in the US/western countries. Coronary artery calcium also represents a surrogate of atherosclerosis burden. However, the lack of evidence regarding issues such as costs or radiation exposure related to measuring coronary artery calcium warrants further studies.

We studied 316 adults with community-and hospital-acquired bacterial pneumonia admitted from January 1998 to July 2003. Of these, 66 (20.9%) died. Classified by age, none under 70 died, but mortality increased to 22.6% in the 70-79 age group, 31.6% in the 80-89 age group and 24.2% in the group over 90. Mortality was 3.4% (6/177) for mild pneumonia, 32.0% (24/75) for moderate pneumonia, and 56.3% (36/64) for severe pneumonia. Mortality in hospital-acquired pneumonia (69.1%) was significantly higher than that in community-acquired pneumonia (10.7%). This may result from the higher percentage of moderate by and severe by ill patients who contracted hospital-acquired pneumonia, since 80% of those with hospital-acquired pneumonia were in the moderate and severe group compared to 36.4% of those with community-acquired pneumonia. For antibiotic regimens, mortality was 18.2% to 36.4% for patients who underwent Penicillins-Cephems therapy compared with 51.6% to 66.7% for Carbapenems-Quinolones therapy. The reasons for these differences remain unclear. Our study indicates that severity of illness, age, and antibiotic therapy were factors correlated with death from pneumonia. Underlying diseases such as respiratory failure, chronic heart failure, cerebrovascular disease, renal failure, malignancy, and senile dementia may also be associated with mortality.

A 50-year-old male with left cervical lymphadenopathy visited our hospital. Infectious and lymphomatous diseases were suspected in the patient. Since the patient owned a dog, which often licked the patient's face, Bartonella infection was also suspected. Histopathological examination in the lymph node biopsy revealed the epithelioid granuloma, but B. henselae was not detected from the culture of the lymphnode. B. henselae DNA also was not detected from the lymph node. Since the antibody titer (lgG) to B. henselae showed 1:128 by immunofluorescent antibody technique (IFA), he was serdogicalg diagnosed as cat-scratch disease. 'Cat-scratch disease' is named after cat scratch, however we propose 'B. henselae infection' which is more appropriate since other animals could serve as a cause of infection.