Diagnostic microbiology and infectious disease
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Diagn. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. · Aug 2017
Review Meta AnalysisIs frozen fecal microbiota transplantation as effective as fresh fecal microbiota transplantation in patients with recurrent or refractory Clostridium difficile infection: A meta-analysis?
Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a remarkably efficacious therapy for recurrent or refractory Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), but not standardized. This work is to determine whether frozen FMT is as effective as fresh FMT. ⋯ In conclusion, among patients with recurrent or refractory CDI, frozen FMT is as effective as fresh FMT. Considering potential advantages of performing frozen FMT, it is a reasonable option to select frozen FMT.
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Diagn. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. · Sep 2014
Review Meta AnalysisSerum procalcitonin and C-reactive protein levels as markers of bacterial infection in patients with liver cirrhosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
The diagnostic value of procalcitonin (PCT) for patients with liver cirrhosis is unclear. We searched the PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases for studies published through December 2013 that evaluated the diagnostic performance of PCT for patients with acute or chronic liver disease with suspected systemic infection. We summarized the test performance characteristics by using forest plots, hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic curves, and bivariate random effects models. ⋯ The positive likelihood ratio for PCT (LR+, 7.38, 95% CI: 4.70-11.58) was sufficiently high to qualify PCT as a rule-in diagnostic tool, and the negative likelihood ratio for CRP was sufficiently low to qualify CRP as an acceptable rule-out diagnostic tool (LR- 0.23, 95% CI: 0.13-0.41) in patients with no signs of infection. Available clinical evidence showed that PCT has comparable accuracy to CRP for the diagnosis of systemic infection in patients with liver cirrhosis. Compared with patients with normal liver function, both PCT and CRP tests have acceptable accuracy for diagnosing bacterial infection among patients with liver cirrhosis.