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After 2 months of relative quiescence, a large coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak occurred in Hong Kong in July 2020 after gradual relaxation of social distancing policy. Unique severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) phylogenetic clusters have been identified among locally acquired cases, with most genomes belonging to cluster HK1, which is phylogenetically related to SARS-CoV-2 reported overseas.

BackgroundPosterior oropharyngeal saliva is increasingly recognized as a valid respiratory specimen for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis. It is easy to collect and suitable for community-wide screening. The optimal timing of collection is currently unknown, and we speculate that an early-morning specimen before oral hygiene and breakfast would increase the diagnostic yield.MethodsPosterior oropharyngeal saliva was collected at 5 different time points within the same day from 18 patients with previously confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection by molecular testing. Cycle threshold (Ct) values were compared.ResultsThere was an overall trend of lower Ct values from specimens collected in the early morning, with a gradual decrease of viral load towards nighttime, but reaching statistical significance only when compared with the specimens collected at bedtime. Eight out of 13 subjects had a higher viral load in the early morning than the rest of the 4 time points (before lunch, before teatime at 3 pm, before dinner, before bedtime).ConclusionsThe result suggests a diurnal variation of viral shedding from the upper respiratory tract with a trend showing higher viral load in the early morning. For community screening purposes, posterior oropharyngeal saliva could be taken throughout the day, but preferably in the early morning to maximize the yield.

Background. We report the first series of Mycobacterium abscessus bacteremia after cytokine-induced killer cell therapy for body beautification and health boosting. Methods. The clinical manifestations, laboratory and radiological investigations, cytokine/chemokine profiles, and outcomes were described and analyzed. Results. Four patients were admitted, and 3 patients had septic shock. Chest radiographs showed pulmonary infiltrates in all patients. Three patients developed peripheral gangrene, and 1 patient required lower limb and finger amputations. Patient 1 also developed disseminated infection including meningitis and urinary tract infection. Postmortem examination of patient 1 showed focal areas of pulmonary hemorrhage and diffuse alveolar damage, splenic infarct, adrenal necrosis, and hemorrhage, and acid-fast bacilli (AFB) were seen in the lung, liver, kidney, and adrenal gland. Patient 2 developed inguinal granulomatous lymphadenitis about 40 days after onset of lower limb gangrene. Wedge-shaped pulmonary infarcts were found in patient 3, and retinitis and subcutaneous lesions developed in patient 4. Patients in septic shock had dysregulated cytokine/chemokine profiles. Patient 4 with relatively milder presentation had increasing levels of interleukin 17 and cytokines in the interferon-γ/interleukin 12 pathway. All survivors required prolonged intravenous antibiotics. Blood cultures grew M. abscessus for all patients, and admission peripheral blood smear revealed AFB for 3 patients. Mycobacterium abscessus was also isolated from respiratory specimens (2 patients), urine (1 patient), and cerebrospinal fluid (1 patient). Time to initial blood culture positivity (patients 1, 2, and 3: ≤52 hours; patient 4: 83 hours) appeared to correlate with disease severity. Conclusions. Empirical coverage for rapidly growing mycobacteria should be considered in patients with sepsis following cosmetic procedures.

Background. Infections caused by the pandemic H1N1 2009 influenza virus range from mild upper respiratory tract syndromes to fatal diseases. However, studies comparing virological and immunological profile of different clinical severity are lacking. Methods. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 74 patients with pandemic H1N1 infection, including 23 patients who either developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) or died (ARDS-death group), 14 patients with desaturation requiring oxygen supplementation and who survived without ARDS (survived-without-ARDS group), and 37 patients with mild disease without desaturation (mild-disease group). We compared their pattern of clinical disease, viral load, and immunological profile. Results. Patients with severe disease were older, more likely to be obese or having underlying diseases, and had lower respiratory tract symptoms, especially dyspnea at presentation. The ARDS-death group had a slower decline in nasopharyngeal viral loads, had higher plasma levels of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines, and were more likely to have bacterial coinfections (30.4%), myocarditis (21.7%), or viremia (13.0%) than patients in the survived-without-ARDS or the mild-disease groups. Reactive hemophagocytosis, thrombotic phenomena, lymphoid atrophy, diffuse alveolar damage, and multiorgan dysfunction similar to fatal avian influenza A H5N1 infection were found at postmortem examinations. Conclusions. The slower control of viral load and immunodysregulation in severe cases mandate the search for more effective antiviral and immunomodulatory regimens to stop the excessive cytokine activation resulting in ARDS and death.

Quality of life is an important area of clinical neurooncology that is increasingly relevant as survivorship increases and as patients experience potential morbidities associated with new therapies. This review of quality-of-life studies in the brain tumor population aims to summarize what is currently known about quality of life in patients with both low-grade and high-grade tumors and suggest how we may use this knowledge to direct future research. To date, reports on quality of life have been primarily qualitative and focused on specific symptoms such as fatigue, sleep disorders, and cognitive dysfunction, as well as some symptom clusters. However, the increasing interest in exploring quality of life as a primary end point for cancer therapy has established a need for prospective, controlled studies to assess baseline and serial quality-of-life parameters in brain tumor patients in order to plan and evaluate appropriate and timely interventions for their symptoms.

The purpose of this article is to determine normative values for the length of the acetabular rim and detect differences between gender, age, ethnicity, height and leg length. Six measurements were taken on the acetabular rim of 143 cadaveric skeleton specimens (286 acetabula) using a coordinate-measuring device: circumferential (excluding acetabular notch), anterior inferior iliac spine (AIIS)-anterior, AIIS-posterior, 12–3 o’clock, 12–9 o’clock and 11–5 o’clock. Museum specimen height data and leg length data from a previous study were recorded for 109 of 143 specimens. Intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated. Student t-tests compared mean values. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between acetabular rim length and gender, age, ethnicity, height and leg length. The average acetabular rim length in males for circumferential, AIIS-anterior, AIIS-posterior, 12–3, 12–9 and 11–5 o’clock were 15.8, 4.2, 11.7, 4.9, 4.7 and 9.5 cm, respectively; and for females: 13.7, 3.7, 10.0, 4.3, 4.1 and 8.3 cm, respectively. Intraclass correlation coefficients were 0.953, 0.930, 0.958, 0.857, 0.913 and 0.951, respectively, for each measurement. All six measurements were significantly larger for males (P