Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America
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Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is a life-threatening infection for immunocompromised patients. Improvement in IA outcome has been hampered by lack of early prognostic factors, namely, those available before starting chemotherapy (baseline) or early in the course of IA (nonbaseline). We hypothesized that prognostic factors can be identified before chemotherapy, ≤7 days from the first positive serum Aspergillus galactomannan index (s-GMI). ⋯ Two simple, inexpensive to measure, widely available, and routinely collected prechemotherapy values, platelet count and creatinine clearance rate, predict IA outcome and stratify patients into low-, intermediate-, and high-risk categories, while early evaluation of s-GMI allows timely treatment modification. These findings may improve patient outcomes by optimizing management strategies for this serious infection and may prove valuable in designing clinical trials of interventions to improve IA outcomes.
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In 2011 Jain et al reported a 62% reduction of healthcare-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections that resulted from an intervention bundle. Here we present a mathematical model and prove, using parameters from the study by Jain et al, that the universal screen and isolate strategy can have contributed only marginally to the reduction in infections.
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Gram-negative bacteria susceptible only to colistin (COS) are emerging causes of severe nosocomial infections, reviving interest in the use of colistin. However, consensus on the most effective way to administer colistin has not yet been reached. ⋯ Our study shows that in severe infections due to COS gram-negative bacteria, the high-dose, extended-interval CMS regimen has a high efficacy, without significant renal toxicity.
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Delayed treatment of candidemia has previously been shown to be an important determinant of patient outcome. However, septic shock attributed to Candida infection and its determinants of outcome have not been previously evaluated in a large patient population. ⋯ The risk of death is exceptionally high among patients with septic shock attributed to Candida infection. Efforts aimed at timely source control and antifungal treatment are likely to be associated with improved clinical outcomes.