Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 experiencing respiratory symptoms have different complications (inflammatory, co-infection and thrombotic) that are identifiable by analytics patterns. ...Personalized treatment decisions decreased early mortality (OR 0.144, CI 0.03–0.686; p=0.015). Increasing age (OR 1.06; p=0.038) and therapeutic effort limitation (OR 9.684; p<0.001) were associated with higher mortality.
Invasive fungal infection often complicates patients with severe viral infection, especially those admitted to critical care units. Severe SARS-CoV-2 infection has been no exception and a significant ...association with Aspergillus spp. has been documented, resulting in high patient mortality. In this summary we describe the clinical presentation, the underlying diseases most commonly linked with this association, radiological manifestations and therapeutic management of CAPA.
Ceftolozane/tazobactam, ceftazidime/avibactam and cefiderocol belong to a novel generation of antibiotics that correspond with the β-lactam family. It is necessary to having new options in treating ...infections caused by Gram-negative, non-fermenting multidrug-resistant bacilli due to the significant increase in multidrug resistance in the last decades. Knowing the main characteristics of each drug is key for correct use.
Purpose
We aimed to evaluate the performance of the FilmArray (FA) meningitis/encephalitis (ME) panel. Secondarily, we analyzed the false positive (FP) and false negative (FN) results, as well as the ...predictive values of the technique, regarding the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) characteristics.
Methods
FA is a multiplex real-time PCR detecting 14 of the most common ME pathogens in CSF. All FA performed at our hospital (2018–2022) were retrospectively reviewed. FA was compared to conventional techniques and its performance was assessed based on the final diagnosis of the episode.
Results
FA was performed in 313 patients with suspicion of ME. Most patients had altered mental status (65.2%) and fever (61%). Regarding CSF characteristics, 49.8% and 53.7% presented high CSF proteins and pleocytosis, respectively. There were 84 (26.8%) positive FA results, mainly for HSV-1 (10.9%), VZV (5.1%), Enterovirus (2.6%), and
S. pneumoniae
(1.9%). In the 136 cases where both FA and routine methods were performed, there was a 25.7% lack of agreement. We identified 6.6% FN results, but 28.6% FP, mainly due to HSV-1. This resulted in a high negative predictive value (NPV) of 93.4%, but a positive predictive value (PPV) of 73%. Remarkably, PPV as low as 36.9%, and 70.2%, were found in cases without pleocytosis, or lack of high CSF protein levels, respectively.
Conclusion
FA was associated with high NPV, but frequent FP results and low PPV, particularly for HSV-1, and especially in patients without high CSF protein levels or pleocytosis.
The aim of this study was to describe the etiology and outcome of short-term peripheral venous catheter (PVC)-related bloodstream infections (PVCRBSI) in a 25-year period (1992 to 2016) and to ...identify predictive factors of Gram-negative PVCRBSI. This was a prospective observational study including all episodes of PVCRBSI. A multivariate logistic regression model adjusted for calendar year was built to explore factors associated with a Gram-negative bacterial etiology. Over the study period, 711 episodes of PVCRBSI were identified. Incidence rate of PVCRBSI increased from 0.06 to 0.13 episodes/1,000 patient-days. A Gram-negative bacterial etiology was demonstrated in 162 (22.8%) episodes. There was a significant increase in the proportion of Gram-negative infections (22.6% in 1992 to 1996 versus 33.2% in 2012 to 2016). Independent predictive factors of Gram-negative PVCRBSI were the following: being in the hospital for more than 7 days with a catheter
for more than 3 days (adjusted odds ratio aOR, 1.80; 95% confidence interval CI, 1.20 to 2.69), surgery in the previous month (aOR, 2.39; 95% CI, 1.40 to 4.09), and antimicrobial treatment with beta-lactams (aOR, 1.80; 95% CI, 1.16 to 2.78). In conclusion, we reported an increase in the prevalence of Gram-negative PVCRBSI over the last 25 years. Factors associated with a Gram-negative bacterial etiology were being in the hospital for more than 7 days with a catheter
for more than 3 days, having undergone surgery, and having received antimicrobial treatment with beta-lactams.
We aimed to describe the current epidemiology of both hosts with invasive fungal infections (IFIs) and causative fungi. And, detail outcomes of these infections at 12 weeks in a real-life cohort of ...hospitalized patients. The study was retrospective and observational to describe IFI diagnosed in a tertiary hospital (February 2017-December 2021). We included all consecutive patients meeting criteria for proven or probable IFI according to EORTC-MSG and other criteria. A total of 367 IFIs were diagnosed. 11.7% were breakthrough infections, and 56.4% were diagnosed in the intensive care unit. Corticosteroid use (41.4%) and prior viral infection (31.3%) were the most common risk factors for IFI. Lymphoma and pneumocystis pneumonia were the most common baseline and fungal diseases. Only 12% of IFI occurred in patients with neutropenia. Fungal cultures were the most important diagnostic tests (85.8%). The most frequent IFIs were candidemia (42.2%) and invasive aspergillosis (26.7%). Azole-resistant Candida strains and non-fumigatus Aspergillus infections represented 36.1% and 44.5% of the cases, respectively. Pneumocystosis (16.9%), cryptococcosis (4.6%), and mucormycosis (2.7%) were also frequent, as well as mixed infections (3.4%). Rare fungi accounted for 9.5% of infections. Overall, IFI mortality at 12 weeks was 32.2%; higher rates were observed for Mucorales (55.6%), Fusarium (50%), and mixed infections (60%). We documented emerging changes in both hosts and real-life IFI epidemiology. Physicians should be aware of these changes to suspect infections and be aggressive in diagnoses and treatments. Currently, outcomes for such clinical scenarios remain extremely poor.
Clinical data on which artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms are trained and tested provide the basis to improve diagnosis or treatment of infectious diseases (ID). We aimed to identify important ...data for ID research to prioritise efforts being undertaken in AI programmes.
We searched for 1,000 articlesfrom high-impact ID journals on PubMed, selecting 288 of the latest articles from 10 top journals. We classified them into structured or unstructured data. Variables were homogenised and grouped into the following categories: epidemiology, admission, demographics, comorbidities, clinical manifestations, laboratory, microbiology, other diagnoses, treatment, outcomes and other non-categorizable variables.
4,488 individual variables were collected, from the 288 articles. 3,670 (81.8%) variables were classified as structured data whilst 818 (18.2%) as unstructured data. From the structured data, 2,319 (63.2%) variables were classified as direct-retrievable from electronic health records-whilst 1,351 (36.8%) were indirect. The most frequent unstructured data were related to clinical manifestations and were repeated across articles. Data on demographics, comorbidities and microbiology constituted the most frequent group of variables.
This article identified that structured variables have comprised the most important data in research to generate knowledge in the field of ID. Extracting these data should be a priority when a medical centre intends to start an AI programme for ID. We also documented that the most important unstructured data in this field are those related to clinical manifestations. Such data could easily undergo some structuring with the use of semi-structured medical records focusing on a few symptoms.
Controversial results on remdesivir efficacy have been reported. We aimed to report our real-life experience with the use of remdesivir from its availability in Spain.
We performed a descriptive ...study of all patients admitted for ≥48 hours with confirmed COVID-19 who received remdesivir between the 1st of July and the 30th of September 2020.
A total of 123 patients out of 242 admitted with COVID-19 at our hospital (50.8%) received remdesivir. Median age was 58 years, 61% were males and 56.9 % received at least one anti-inflammatory treatment. No adverse events requiring remdesivir discontinuation were reported. The need of intensive care unit admission, mechanical ventilation and 30-days mortality were 19.5%, 7.3% and 4.1%, respectively.
In our real-life experience, the use of remdesivir in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 was associated with a low mortality rate and good safety profile.
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