To study the association of malnutrition with nosocomial infection in a general medical and surgical inpatient population, we retrospectively compared 45 patients with nosocomial infection to 45 uninfected control patients, matched using several nonnutritional variables known to predispose to nosocomial infection. Univariate and multivariate analyses were done. Poor nutritional score (derived from serum albumin, total lymphocyte count, and unintentional body weight loss), unintentional body weight loss, low serum albumin level at both time of admission and the first nosocomial infection, and worsening in the nutritional score and serum albumin from admission to the first nosocomial infection were associated with the development of nosocomial infection. Nutritional factors were more abnormal in subgroups of patients with nosocomial pneumonia, urinary tract infection, wound infection, and bacteremia than in controls. The findings suggest that further study of correlations between nutritional factors and nosocomial infections is needed.

Six employees of the emergency department at Parkland Memorial Hospital developed active tuberculosis in 1983-1984. Five of the cases occurred four to 12 months after exposure to the index case, a patient with severe cavitary tuberculosis seen in the emergency department in April 1983. One resident physician developed cavitary disease after exposure to this patient. An additional employee case may have resulted from transmission from one of the initial employee cases. One immunocompromised patient may have acquired tuberculosis as a result of exposure to the index case. In addition, the tuberculin skin tests of at least 47 employees exposed to the index case converted from negative to positive. Of 112 previously tuberculin-negative emergency department employees who were tested in October 1983, 16 developed positive skin tests, including the 5 employees with active disease. Fifteen of these new positives had worked on April 7, 1983, while the index case was in the emergency department (x2 = 20.6, P <0.00l). Factors related to the genesis of the epidemic included the disease characteristics in the index case and the recirculation of air in the emergency department. This investigation indicates that city-county hospital emergency department employees should be screened at least twice a year for evidence of tuberculosis and that the employee health services of such hospitals should regard the surveillance of tuberculous infection among personnel at a high-priority level.

To ascertain the incidence of infections in intravenous users of illicit drugs, we performed a retrospective study of 270 intravenous drug users (IVDUs) and 562 controls who did not use drugs over a seven-year period from 1978-1985. IVDUs had an increased overall incidence of infections (P <0.00l) compared to controls, which was explained to a large degree by an increased incidence of hepatitis. Endocarditis and disseminated gonococcal infection were seen with increased frequency in IVDUs (P <0.05), but abscess and cellulitis were not. Neither acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), tuberculosis, Pneumocystis pneumonia, nor disseminated viral or fungal infection were seen in IVDUs or controls. Heroin users, but not other IVDUs, had an increased incidence of infections not thought to be associated with needle use, suggesting impaired immunity. This study demonstrates that IVDUs have an increased incidence of infection compared to control subjects, but the kinds of infections have changed substantially over the past two decades. The presence of opportunistic pathogens in these patients should suggest concurrent infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

A retrospective cohort study of patients with multiple nosocomial bloodstream infections (BSIs) compared with patients suffering only one BSI was conducted to assess morbidity and mortality. Three hundred forty-one patients with BSIs were identified, including 33 with multiple BSIs (9.7%). No significant differences existed between patients experiencing one BSI compared to those experiencing multiple BSIs in age, sex, race, severity of underlying disease, hypothermia, hypoxemia, oliguria, metabolic acidosis, or hypotension. Sixteen of 33 (49%) with multiple BSIs died compared with 124 of 308 (40%) with only one BSI (P =0.36), leading to a relative risk of 1.23 for death and an attributable mortality of 9% in those with multiple BSIs.

Personnel concerned with instrument processing have searched for decades for the ultimate machine to effectively decontaminate dirty instruments, a machine that could take heavily soiled instruments— even instruments with dried debris—and turn them out spotlessly clean. The machines previously available simply do not tit this bill.

Our earliest memories include the games played with friends and parents, sometimes for fun, sometimes for education. Similarly, the roots of decision analysis can be traced to game theory. Game theory is the study of probabilities and outcomes that occur when two or more players interact in a fixed setting. Although not widely applied to health care, an understanding of game theory is fundamental to decision analysis.

We have all attempted game theory at an informal level. In a game of chess, players try not only to see which move is best, but also to predict how an opponent will react to the move. In Monopoly, a player might have to decide if it is profitable to buy Boardwalk if he or she does not own Park Place. In the latter situation, the player must estimate the probability that the random role of the dice will enable him or her to land on Park Place before his or her opponents or that an opponent would not elect to buy the property if given the opportunity.