Cath Lab Digest

Although noroviruses are a leading cause of epidemic acute gastroenteritis and sporadic cases of acute gastroenteritis, a reliable vaccine for these types of viruses has not yet been developed, nor has any specific therapy been developed to treat these viruses. Norwalk virus, the prototypical human norovirus, is the most extensively studied human norovirus. Susceptibility to Norwalk virus infection is dependent on expression of a functional fucosyltransferase 2 (FUT2) gene; persons who have a nonfunctional FUT2 gene are genetically resistant to Norwalk virus infection.

Although methicillin resistance is common in Staphylococcus aureus in hospitals, the presence of such resistance in the community is also increasingly reported. It is commonly referred to as community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (Ca-MRSA). This emergent resistant organism is more likely to affect younger, healthier individuals, such as children, compared with the hospital-based version. In this population-based case-control study [Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med.

Results of a study that assessed diarrhea-associated healthcare use between children vaccinated with the pentavalent rotavirus vaccine (RV5) and those unvaccinated [N Engl J Med. 2011;365(12):1108-1117] found a decline in rates of diarrhea-associated hospitalizations and ambulatory visits as well as medical expenditures among children <5 years of age vaccinated with RV5.

In the past 10 years, researchers have found links between autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriasis, and Crohn’s disease with chronic systemic inflammation. Links have also emerged between autoimmune diseases and increases in occlusive vascular disease and cardiovascular risk.

Studies are increasingly linking biomarkers to disease risk, treatment response, and disease progression. A recent literature review in the Journal of the American Medical Association [2011;305(21):2200-2207] indicates that some associations might be less robust than the initial studies suggest.