The number of stool specimens evaluated in the first two weeks of each eight week period between January 1 and December 31,1997 ranged from 187 to 265. A total of 1408 stool specimens were tested. Sixty-seven of the 1408 (4.8%) hospitalized patients evaluated had VRE colonization of their lower GIT. Three of the 67 (4.5%) [...]
Enterococcus species isolate collection: Seven Winnipeg hospitals (Health Sciences Centre, St Boniface General Hospital, Misericordia General Hospital, Concordia General Hospital, Victoria General Hospital, Grace General Hospital, and Seven Oaks General Hospital) as well as hospitals in the rural Manitoba communities of Brandon, Thompson and Portage la Prairie participated. The Health Sciences Centre and St Boniface [...]
Low prevalence of VRE gastrointestinal colonization of hospitalized patients in Manitoba tertiary care and community hospitals Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREF) accounts for up to 65% of Efaecium isolates in hospitalized patients across the United States and is endemic in many North American tertiary care institutions. The management of these infections presents a significant clinical challenge [...]
While the use of standard QCT has been based on two-dimensional characterization of vertebral trabecular bone, three-dimensional, or volumetric QCT, are new techniques that allow to improve spinal measurements and to extend QCT assessments to the proximal femur. They encompass the entire object of interest with stacked slices, or spiral CT scans, and can use [...]
QCT can be performed in single-energy (SEQCT) or dual-energy (DEQCT) modes. These two techniques differ in accuracy, precision, and radiation. Variable marrow fat composition in the vertebrae, accuracy of the calibration standard and beam hardening errors and scatter, among other factors, contribute to the accuracy of SEQCT for spinal bone mineral determination. Marrow fat is [...]
QCT is a X-ray absorptiometric technique such as SXA, and DXA (Single and Dual X-ray Absorptiometry), but it is different from these methods of measurement because it provides separate estimates of trabecular and cortical bone BMD as a true volumetric mineral density in mg/cm3. It measures high-turnover trabecular bone in consecutive vertebrae of the spine [...]
In a separate calculation differences in prediction of hip fracture were studied (O. Johnell and J.A. Kanis, personal communication), whether lumbar spine BMD measurement had the same predictive ability as femoral neck BMD measurement and if the combination of femoral neck BMD and lumbar spine BMD could increase the predictive ability. The data show that [...]
