Vancomycin is used for the treatment of bone and joint infections (BJI), but scarce information is available about its pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) characteristics. We aimed to identify ...the risk factors associated with the non-achievement of an optimal PK/PD target in the first therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM). Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in a tertiary hospital from January 2020 to January 2022. Patients with BJI and TDM of vancomycin on day 2 of treatment were included. Initial vancomycin fixed doses (1 g every 8 h or 12 h) was decided by the responsible doctors. According to TDM results, dosage adjustments were performed. An AUC24h/MIC < 400 mg x h/L, between 400 and 600 mg x h/L and >600 mg x h/L, were defined as suboptimal, optimal and supratherapeutic, respectively. Patients were grouped into these three categories. Demographic, clinical and PK characteristics were compared between groups. Nephrotoxicity at the end of treatment was assessed. Results: A total of 94 patients were included: 22 (23.4%), 42 (44.7%) and 30 (31.9%) presented an infratherapeutic, optimal and supratherapeutic PK/PD targets, respectively. A younger age and initial vancomycin dose <40 mg/kg/day were predictive factors for achieving a suboptimal PK/PD target, while older age, higher serum-creatinine and dose >40 mg/kg/day were associated with overexposure. The nephrotoxicity rate was 22.7%. More than 50% of patients did not achieve an optimal PK/PD. Considering age, baseline serum-creatinine and body weight, TDM is required to readily achieve an optimal and safe exposure.
'Gemella morbillorum' is a facultative anaerobic, catalase-negative and non-spore forming Gram-positive cocci. It can be found as part of the normal oropharyngeal flora, in the gastrointestinal tract ...and the female genital tract. However, it can be a causal agent of infections such as endocarditis, meningitis or brain abscesses, and very rarely can cause osteoarticular infections. Herein, a case report of an acute hematogenous prosthetic hip infection caused by 'Gemella morbillorum', successfully treated with a DAIR and beta-lactam antibiotic therapy, is presented. We provide a literature review of the other orthopedic-related infections caused by this microorganism.
...g-HAT cases in nonendemic countries mainly occur in expatriates or refugees, who are usually diagnosed in the second stage and after a protracted diagnostic process 4. Since it is rare in ...nonendemic countries, physicians may not suspect or find it difficult to diagnose this disease, especially if fever and/or unspecific complaints are the only presenting symptoms. An accurate anamnesis, including travel history and incubation and prodromal periods, together with a thorough physical examination, is helpful to guide the diagnostic workup. r-HAT is usually easy to diagnose by blood smear examination, as parasitaemia in these patients tends to be high 8. Case description On 31 August 2015, a 49-year-old Spanish woman attended the Tropical Medicine Outpatient Clinic (OC) of the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona, Spain, presenting with fever. ...she visited Lake Enyasi and Manyara National Park before returning to Arusha; from there, she travelled back to Barcelona on 30th August. During her OC visit, she was febrile with axillar temperature of 38°C and had a 1x1 cm erythematous nodule in the left side of her neck, suggestive of arthropod bite. A blood film did not show malaria parasites, and serum was collected for Dengue and Chikungunya serology and polymerase chain reaction, together with blood cultures.
To compare clinical characteristics, outcomes, and resource consumption of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and seasonal influenza requiring supplemental oxygen.
Retrospective cohort ...study conducted at a tertiary-care hospital. Patients admitted because of seasonal influenza between 2017 and 2019, or with COVID-19 between March and May 2020 requiring supplemental oxygen were compared. Primary outcome: 30-day mortality. Secondary outcomes: 90-day mortality and hospitalization costs. Attempted sample size to detect an 11% difference in mortality was 187 patients per group.
COVID-19 cases were younger (median years of age, 67; interquartile range IQR 54-78 vs 76 IQR 64-83; P < .001) and more frequently overweight, whereas influenza cases had more hypertension, immunosuppression, and chronic heart, respiratory, and renal disease. Compared with influenza, COVID-19 cases had more pneumonia (98% vs 60%, <.001), higher Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS) and CURB-65 (confusion, blood urea nitrogen, respiratory rate, systolic blood pressure, and age >65 years) scores and were more likely to show worse progression on the World Health Organization ordinal scale (33% vs 4%; P < .001). The 30-day mortality rate was higher for COVID-19 than for influenza: 15% vs 5% (P = .001). The median age of nonsurviving cases was 81 (IQR 74-88) and 77.5 (IQR 65-84) (P = .385), respectively. COVID-19 was independently associated with 30-day (hazard ratio HR, 4.6; 95% confidence interval CI, 2-10.4) and 90-day (HR, 5.2; 95% CI, 2.4-11.4) mortality. Sensitivity and subgroup analyses, including a subgroup considering only patients with pneumonia, did not show different trends. Regarding resource consumption, COVID-19 patients had longer hospital stays and higher critical care, pharmacy, and complementary test costs.
Although influenza patients were older and had more comorbidities, COVID-19 cases requiring supplemental oxygen on admission had worse clinical and economic outcomes.
In some cases, colistin is the only treatment option for infections caused by the very drug-resistant
. However, in the past decade, there have been questions concerning its pharmacokinetics and ...concentration at the site of infection. In this scenario, its use in a difficult-to-treat infection like pneumonia is currently debatable. This is a clinical pharmacokinetic study of colistin in patients with multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa pneumonia. Our findings demonstrate that colistin exposure is associated with worse clinical outcomes rather than better clinical outcomes, implying that other therapeutic options should be explored in this clinical setting.
After two-stage exchange due to prosthetic joint infection (PJI), the new prosthesis carries a high risk of reinfection (RePJI). There isn`t solid evidence regarding the antibiotic prophylaxis in ...2nd-stage surgery. The objective of this study is to describe what antibiotic prophylaxis is used in this surgery and evaluate its impact on the risk of developing RePJI.
Retrospective multicenter case-control study in Spanish hospitals. The study included cases of PJI treated with two-stage exchange and subsequently developed a new infection. For each case, two controls were included, matched by prosthesis location, center, and year of surgery. The prophylaxis regimens were grouped based on their antibacterial spectrum, and we calculated the association between the type of regimen and the development of RePJI using conditional logistic regression, adjusted for possible confounding factors.
We included 90 cases from 12 centers, which were compared with 172 controls. The most frequent causative microorganism was Staphylococcus epidermidis with 34 cases (37.8%). Staphylococci were responsible for 50 cases (55.6%), 32 of them (64%) methicillin-resistant. Gram-negative bacilli were involved in 30 cases (33.3%), the most common Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In total, 83 different antibiotic prophylaxis regimens were used in 2nd-stage surgery, the most frequent a single preoperative dose of cefazolin (48 occasions; 18.3%); however, it was most common a combination of a glycopeptide and a beta-lactam with activity against Pseudomonas spp (99 cases, 25.2%). In the adjusted analysis, regimens that included antibiotics with activity against methicillin-resistant staphylococci AND Pseudomonas spp were associated with a significantly lower risk of RePJI (adjusted OR = 0.24; 95% IC: 0.09-0.65).
The lack of standardization in 2nd-satge surgery prophylaxis explains the wide diversity of regimens used in this procedure. The results suggest that antibiotic prophylaxis in this surgery should include an antibiotic with activity against methicillin-resistant staphylococci and Pseudomonas.
We evaluate the association between Trypanosoma cruzi infection and strongyloidiasis in a cohort of Latin American (LA) migrants screened for both infections in a non-endemic setting.
Case-control ...study including LA individuals who were systematically screened for T. cruzi infection and strongyloidiasis between January 2013 and April 2015. Individuals were included as cases if they had a positive serological result for Strongyloides stercoralis. Controls were randomly selected from the cohort of individuals screened for T. cruzi infection that tested negative for S. stercoralis serology. The association between T. cruzi infection and strongyloidiasis was evaluated by logistic regression models.
During the study period, 361 individuals were screened for both infections. 52 (14.4%) individuals had a positive serological result for strongyloidiasis (cases) and 104 participants with negative results were randomly selected as controls. 76 (48.7%) indiviuals had a positive serological result for T. cruzi. Factors associated with a positive T. cruzi serology were Bolivian origin (94.7% vs 78.7%; p = 0.003), coming from a rural area (90.8% vs 68.7%; p = 0.001), having lived in an adobe house (88.2% vs 70%; p = 0.006) and a referred contact with triatomine bugs (86.7% vs 63.3%; p = 0.001). There were more patients with a positive S. stercoralis serology among those who were infected with T. cruzi (42.1% vs 25%; p = 0.023). Epidemiological variables were not associated with a positive strongyloidiasis serology. T. cruzi infection was more frequent among those with strongyloidiasis (61.5% vs 42.3%; p = 0.023). In multivariate analysis, T. cruzi infection was associated with a two-fold increase in the odds of strongyloidiasis (OR 2.23; 95% CI 1.07-4.64; p = 0.030).
T. cruzi infection was associated with strongyloidiasis in LA migrants attending a tropical diseases unit even after adjusting for epidemiological variables. These findings should encourage physicians in non-endemic settings to implement a systematic screening for both infections in LA individuals.
Intravenous artesunate has replaced quinine as the first-line therapy for severe imported malaria, given its anti-malarial superiority shown in clinical trials conducted in endemic countries. ...Evidence for red blood cell (RBC) exchange in patients with severe malaria treated with artesunate is lacking. This retrospective cohort study describes the experience at Hospital Clinic of Barcelona with the use of artesunate for severe malaria and the joint use of RBC exchange in selected cases.
Patients treated for severe malaria at Hospital Clinic of Barcelona between August 2013 and January 2015 were included in this retrospective study. Severe malaria was defined according to WHO criteria. Data were extracted from electronic hospital records. A log-linear mixed model approach was used to estimate parasite clearance times.
Within the study period, 42 patients were diagnosed of malaria at this centre, of which 38 had Plasmodium falciparum (90.5 %). Sixteen patients (42 %) had severe malaria cases and were treated with intravenous artesunate. Four patients underwent RBC exchange within a period of 15 h after the first dose of artesunate (range 9-21 h). The procedure lasted a median of 2 h (IQR 1.8-2 h), using a median of 12 (IQR 11-14) units of packed RBCs to replace a median of 3794 ml (IQR 2977-4343). The technique was well-tolerated without haemodynamic complications. There were no deaths. The regression model showed an estimated time to 95 % decay of 21.6 h (95 % CI 17.3-28.8). When assessing effect modification by RBC exchange, there was no difference in the parasite elimination rate (p = 0.286).
In this study RBC exchange failed to show benefits in terms of parasite clearance probably due to the small number of patients analysed. The evidence for exchange transfusion remains limited.
Background and Objectives
Osteoarticular infections (OIs) caused by fluoroquinolone-resistant
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
, including multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) ...strains, have poor outcomes. We evaluated the outcomes of an optimized strategy of continuous beta-lactam infusion (BL-CI) guided by therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) for OIs caused by fluoroquinolone-resistant
P. aeruginosa
.
Methods
A prospective observational study of patients with
P. aeruginosa
OIs in a hospital-based BL-CI program (2016–2018) was carried out. TDM targeting free BL concentrations in plasma (
f
Css) of at least 3–4 × MIC was performed. We compared failure rates between patients with OIs caused by fluoroquinolone-resistant strains who were treated with BL-CI, with or without colistin, and patients with OIs caused by fluoroquinolone-susceptible strains who were treated with ciprofloxacin.
Results
Fifty-two patients were included in the study, 19 (36.5%) of whom had OIs caused by fluoroquinolone-resistant
P. aeruginosa
(13 (68.4%) MDR/XDR strains; 11 (57.9%) device-related infections). The median duration of BL-CI was 36 days; ten patients (52.6%) received BL–colistin combinations. Eighty-two samples were utilized in the TDM, and most patients were found to have a median
f
Css of 3–10 × MIC; 17 dose adjustments were performed and eight patients needed dose decreases, five of which were due to chronic kidney disease or acute kidney injury (AKI). BL-CI was well tolerated, with the most frequent adverse event being AKI. Failure occurred to 4 patients (21.1%), which was similar to the failure rate of patients with OIs caused by fluoroquinolone-susceptible
P. aeruginosa
treated with ciprofloxacin (5/30 16.7%) (
p
= 0.699). TDM was also used in the initial BL treatment of patients with OIs caused by susceptible strains before those patients were switched to treatment with ciprofloxacin alone (33 patients, 110 samples, 19 dose adjustments).
Conclusions
BL-CI used with/without colistin and supported by TDM may be an alternative and effective treatment option for OIs caused by fluoroquinolone-resistant
P. aeruginosa
, where limited available therapeutic options exist, especially in the setting of multidrug resistance. Future research should elucidate whether this strategy can produce outcomes similar to those of patients treated for OIs caused by fluoroquinolone-susceptible strains.
Delayed haemolytic anaemia is one of the more frequent events after treatment with intravenous artesunate in patients with severe malaria. Little is known about its frequency and the outcomes of ...patients with this condition.
A retrospective study was conducted to describe the incidence of delayed haemolysis in a cohort of patients with severe malaria by Plasmodium falciparum treated with artesunate between August 2013 and July 2015.
The study included 52 patients with malaria due to Plasmodium falciparum, with 21 having severe malaria. The majority were male (66.7%), and the median age was 43 years. Four patients (19%) presented post-artesunate delayed haemolysis 11•13 days from the initiation of treatment. Two patients required hospital admission and red blood cell transfusion.
Post-artesunate delayed haemolysis is frequent in patients with severe malaria treated with intravenous artemisinins. These patients should be monitored for 4 weeks after treatment is started.
La anemia hemolítica diferida es uno de los acontecimientos más frecuentes tras el tratamiento con artesunato intravenoso en pacientes con malaria grave. Se desconocen con exactitud la frecuencia y evolución de los pacientes que la presentan.
Estudio retrospectivo sobre la incidencia de hemólisis diferida en una cohorte de pacientes con malaria grave por Plasmodium falciparum tratados con artesunato intravenoso entre agosto de 2013 y julio de 2015.
De 52 pacientes con malaria por Plasmodium falciparum, 21 cumplían criterios de gravedad. La mayoría eran hombres (66,7%) y la mediana de edad era de 43 años. Cuatro pacientes (19%) presentaron hemólisis diferida post-artesunato, de 11 a 13 días tras el inicio del tratamiento. Dos pacientes requirieron hospitalización y transfusión de hematíes.
La hemólisis diferida post-artesunato es frecuente en los pacientes con malaria grave tratados con artesunato intravenoso. Estos pacientes deben ser monitorizados al menos 4 semanas tras el tratamiento.
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