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Statins defend against fungus-caused sepsis.


When a blood infection causes an inflammatory reaction that attacks the entire circulatory system circulatory system, group of organs that transport blood and the substances it carries to and from all parts of the body. The circulatory system can be considered as composed of two parts: the systemic circulation, which serves the body as a whole except for the lungs, and the pulmonary circulation, which carries the blood to and from the lungs., the result is a condition called sepsis
1. presence in the blood or other tissues of pathogenic microorganisms or their toxins.
2. septicemia.

catheter sepsis  sepsis occurring as a complication of intravenous catheterization.
puerperal sepsis  that occurring after childbirth.
 that's fatal about 40 percent of the time. A new study suggests that sepsis brought on by a fungal infection fungal infection, infection caused by a fungus (see Fungi), some affecting animals, others plants.

Fungal Infections of Human and Animals



Many fungal infections, or mycoses, of humans and animals affect only the outer layers of skin, and although they are sometimes difficult to cure, they are not considered dangerous. Athlete's foot and ringworm are among the common superficial fungal infections.
 is less lethal in people taking cholesterol-lowering pills called statins than in those not getting the drugs.

Physician Graeme Forrest of the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore says that he noticed reports suggesting that statins improve the survival chances of people who had sepsis triggered by bacterial infections.

To see whether there was a similar effect for fungus-triggered sepsis, Forrest and his Maryland colleague Angela Kopack examined the records of 35 patients with fungal-induced sepsis treated at the medical center between 2003 and 2005. Of these people, 12 were taking statins upon admission to the hospital and 23 were not. Patients in both groups had similar rates of heart and kidney disease and tended to be elderly.

After 30 days of treatment, people who had been taking statins were three times as likely to have survived their attacks of sepsis as were those not getting the drugs. That benefit held up 100 days after sepsis was diagnosed, the researchers report. The preliminary finding suggests the need for further study of whether statins were indeed responsible for the survival advantage, Forrest says.
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Publication:Science News
Article Type:Brief article
Geographic Code:1USA
Date:Oct 14, 2006
Words:224
Previous Article:Meetings.
Next Article:Many infections tied to medical settings.(Brief article)
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