Enfermedades infecciosas y microbiología clínica
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Enferm. Infecc. Microbiol. Clin. · Aug 2008
Letter Review Case Reports[Streptococcus salivarius meningitis following subarachnoid anesthesia].
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Enferm. Infecc. Microbiol. Clin. · Jul 2008
Review[Automatic detection of bacterial and fungal infections in blood].
Sepsis is one of the main causes of mortality and morbidity in hospitals. Early detection of pathogens using nucleic acid-based techniques speeds diagnosis of bacteremia and/or fungemia, aids the rapid application of appropriate antibiotics, reduces the use of unnecessary antibiotics, and lowers mortality. Two commercially available techniques that help to identify different sepsisproducing bacteria and fungi in a shorter time period are: LightCycler SeptiFast Test Mgrade (Roche Diagnostic SL) and GenoType Blood Culture (Hain Lifescience). ⋯ To minimize these inhibitions, the second study used 24 samples at half the original volume (extracted DNA at 1/4 concentration). With these modifications, inhibitions were substantially reduced. SeptiFast is more effective than blood culture in discriminating between contamination by coagulase-negative staphylococci and species of streptococci.
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Enferm. Infecc. Microbiol. Clin. · Jul 2008
Review[Autochthonous acute viral and bacterial infections of the central nervous system (meningitis and encephalitis)].
Rapid diagnosis of acute viral and bacterial infections of the central nervous system (meningitis and encephalitis) is highly important for the clinical management of the patient and helps to establish early therapy that may solve life-threatening situations, to avoid unnecessary empirical treatments, to reduce hospital stay, and to facilitate appropriate interventions in the context of public health. Molecular techniques, especially real-time polymerase chain reaction, have become the fastest and most sensitive diagnostic procedures for autochthonous viral meningitis and encephalitis, and their role is becoming increasingly important for the diagnosis and control of most frequent acute bacterial meningitides. Automatic and closed systems may encourage the widespread and systematic use of molecular techniques for the diagnosis of these neurological syndromes in most laboratories.
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Lung transplantation is now considered an established therapeutic option for patients with severe respiratory failure. Nevertheless, complications are frequent and can lead to intermediate- or long-term graft dysfunction and decreased survival. According to the registry of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation, survival rates in these patients at one, two, and five years are 74%, 65%, and 47%, respectively. ⋯ Despite the use of various preventive strategies, the risk of developing CMV disease in lung transplant recipients is over 5% during the first year. This is the only type of solid organ transplant in which the etiology of fungal infection is characteristically Aspergillus spp., in contrast to others in which infection by Candida spp. is most common. The incidence of invasive aspergillosis is about 4%.
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Enferm. Infecc. Microbiol. Clin. · May 2007
Review[Microbiological procedures for diagnosing mycoses and for antifungal susceptibility testing].
Fungal infections are a diagnostic and therapeutic problem of increasing concern due to the frequency and severity of disseminated infection in immunocompromised patients. Culture-based methods are characteristically slow and have poor sensitivity; hence, other methods, based on the detection of fungus-specific genetic, antigenic and metabolic components are being developed to enable early diagnosis and specific treatment. Moreover, reproducible antifungal susceptibility methods that can be adapted for use in clinical laboratories have been standardized to allow in vitro detection of resistance, which correlates with a less favorable clinical outcome. In this paper we review the main microbiological procedures available for the diagnosis of fungal infections and for antifungal susceptibility testing.