SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online

 
vol.22 issue2Usefulness of lactate in cerebrospinal fluid as a biomarker of bacterial meningitisSystematic review: The potency of Zataria multiflora Boiss in treatment of vaginal infections author indexsubject indexarticles search
Home Pagealphabetic serial listing  

Services on Demand

Journal

Article

Indicators

Related links

  • On index processCited by Google
  • Have no similar articlesSimilars in SciELO
  • On index processSimilars in Google

Share


Infectio

Print version ISSN 0123-9392

Abstract

RODRIGUEZ-VELASQUEZ, Javier et al. Fractal behavior of infections associated with health care at Meissen Hospital ESE II Level, for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013. Infect. [online]. 2018, vol.22, n.2, pp.70-75. ISSN 0123-9392.  https://doi.org/10.22354/in.v22i2.711.

Introduction:

The statistical fractal dimension has been useful for the characterization of diverse phenomena, including the fetal and adult cardiac dynamics, as well as the behaviors associated with the immune system. Health Care Associated Infections are a major health problem worldwide.

Objective:

to establish the statistical fractal behavior of the frequency of occurrence of Health Care Associated Infections.

Material and methods:

The Zipf-Mandelbrot law was applied to the frequency distribution of occurrences grouped by Health Care Associated Infections in II level at Meissen ESE Hospital for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013. The statistical fractal dimension was calculated for each year, finding the ranges in which the dynamics develops in these years and later simulations of these annual dynamics were carried out.

Results:

Scale behavior of the dynamics of occurrence of Health Care Associated Infections by specialty was observed; the values of fractal dimension were 0.6104, 0.7560 and 0.4332 for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively.

Conclusion:

The law of Zipf / Mandelbrot allows to characterize objectively and reproducibly the behavior of the frequency of occurrence of Health Care Associated Infections over time; the consecutive bounded fractal dimensions over time would allow predictions to be generated, constituting an aid tool for epidemiological and clinical surveillance.

Keywords : Fractals; Infection; Health.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )