Scandinavian journal of infectious diseases
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Scand. J. Infect. Dis. · Jan 2002
Review Case ReportsPichia ohmeri prosthetic valve endocarditis and review of the literature.
Fungal prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) is a serious complication of valve replacement surgery. We report the first case of documented Pichia ohmeri PVE in an immunocompetent man who was successfully treated with valve replacement and antifungal therapy with amphotericin B.
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Scand. J. Infect. Dis. · Jan 2002
Case ReportsNeonatal nosocomial pneumococcal infections acquired by patient-to-patient transmission.
A case of neonatal nosocomial pneumococcal sepsis acquired by patient-to-patient transmission and confirmed by phenotypic and genotypic typing is documented. To the best of our knowledge this is the first documented case of neonatal nosocomial person-to-person transmission.
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Scand. J. Infect. Dis. · Jan 2002
Case ReportsStreptococcus bovis meningitis in a neonate with Ivemark syndrome.
Although Streptococcus bovis infections in adults are associated with endocarditis and bowel neoplasms, S. bovis-associated meningitis is rare in neonates. We describe the case of a neonate with Ivemark syndrome, which possibly predisposed her to infection with this bacterium.
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Scand. J. Infect. Dis. · Jan 2002
Comparative StudyAntibiotic prescription rates vary markedly between 13 European countries.
There is a lack of data on antibiotic utilization in most European countries. In this study, information about the number of antibiotic prescriptions was obtained for Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK from the Institute for Medical Statistics Health Global Services in the UK. For Denmark and Sweden the information was obtained from the Danish Medicines Agency (Laegemiddelstyrelsen) and the National Corporation of Swedish Pharmacies (Apoteket AB), respectively. ⋯ In 1997, Greece (1,350), Spain (1,320) and Belgium (1,070) had the highest numbers of antibiotic prescriptions per 1,000 inhabitants in the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification system for drugs group J01 while The Netherlands (390), Sweden (460) and Austria (480) had the lowest. The most common antibiotic drug was extended-spectrum penicillin in 6/13 countries, macrolides in Austria, Finland, Germany and Italy, phenoxymethylpenicillin in Denmark and Sweden and cephalosporins in Greece. The variation in the number of antibiotic prescriptions per 1,000 inhabitants between the 13 European countries was substantial in terms of both total use and use of different antibiotics.
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Scand. J. Infect. Dis. · Jan 2002
Comparative StudyComparison of procalcitonin with CRP and differential white blood cell count for diagnosis of culture-proven neonatal sepsis.
We analysed the utility of procalcitonin (PCT) assay, either alone or in combination with 2 simple blood assays, for the diagnosis of culture-proven neonatal septicaemia. Tests for serum PCT concentration, serum CRP concentration and blood immature to total neutrophil leucocyte ratio all had reasonable (58-77%) sensitivity, reasonable (62-84%) specificity, good (94-97%) negative predictive value and poor (16-24%) positive predictive value for the diagnosis of sepsis. Algorithms combining various tests produced slight improvements in sensitivity or specificity. Although the PCT test appeared to be useful for the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis in this small study, it did not offer any significant advantages over traditional tests for the diagnosis of infection.