30 research outputs found
Concomitant vancomycin and piperacillin/tazobactam treatment is associated with an increased risk of acute kidney injury in Japanese patients
Introduction
Recent studies have corroborated that the co-administration of vancomycin (VCM) and piperacillin/tazobactam (PT) is correlated with an increased incidence of acute kidney injury (AKI). However, evidence directed at the Japanese population is scarce. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective study to compare the occurrence of AKI among Japanese patients who received VCM with PT (VP therapy) and VCM with another β-lactams (VA therapy).
Methods
The present study, performed at Tsuyama Chuo Hospital between June 2012 and December 2018, included adult patients who received VCM and β-lactam antibiotics for ≥48 h. We defined the primary outcome as the incidence of AKI based on the risk, injury, failure, loss, and end-stage kidney disease criteria. Patients' clinical characteristics and outcomes were reviewed and compared between the two groups with univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Subgroup analysis was conducted by stratifying the patients’ baseline hospital admittance status, as intensive care unit or general wards.
Results
We analyzed 272 patients (92 V P therapy and 180 VA therapy). Univariate analysis revealed a significant difference in AKI development between VP and VA therapy (25.0% vs 12.2%; p
Conclusion
VP therapy was associated with an increased risk of AKI compared to that with VA therapy among the Japanese population
A Case of Vascular Graft Infection Caused by Staphylococcus lugdunensis after Femoropopliteal Bypass Operation
A 79-year-old man who had undergone a right femoropopliteal (FP) bypass operation 6 weeks previously was diagnosed with vascular graft infection caused by Staphylococcus lugdunensis. Another FP bypass operation was performed, with long-term administration of antibiotics, and the patient eventually recovered well without any recurrences for over 2 years. Although S. lugdunens is classified as coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, its pathogenicity has been reported to be equal to that of S. aureus. Based on the literature review, the organism characteristically colonizes the inguinal area of human skin;thus, operations such as FP bypass grafting may place patients at a relatively high risk for infection by S. lugdunensis, a potentially high-pathogenicity organism
Antimicrobial prescription practices for outpatients with uncomplicated cystitis in Japan
To promote antimicrobial stewardship, we studied antimicrobial prescription rates for uncomplicated cystitis, a common outpatient disease requiring antibiotic treatment. This multicenter retrospective study was performed from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2020, in Japan, targeting outpatients aged >= 20 years whose medical records revealed International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) codes suggesting uncomplicated cystitis (N300). The data of 1445 patients were collected and that of 902 patients were analyzed. The overall median patient age was 71 years and a proportion of those aged less than 50 years was 18.8% with a female dominance (82.6%). Antimicrobials were prescribed for 884 patients (98.0%) and a total of 623 patients (69.1%) were treated with broad-spectrum drugs, including fluoroquinolones (36.0%), third-generation cephalosporins (29.9%) and faropenem (3.1%). A logistic regression model revealed that the broad-spectrum agents were significantly prescribed for the older patients, male patients, and those who visited internists. Recurrence was observed in 37 (4.1%) cases, and the multivariate analysis suggested any of age, sex, or antimicrobial types were not associated with the recurrence. Collectively, approximately two-thirds of antimicrobials prescribed for uncomplicated cystitis were broad-spectrum agents. The present data would be an indicator for antimicrobial prescriptions in uncomplicated cystitis in Japan
Impact of the day of the week on the discontinuation of broad-spectrum antibiotic prescriptions; a multi-centered observational study
To encourage and guide antimicrobial stewardship team (AST) activity and promote appropriate antibiotic use, we studied the impact of day of the week on the initiation and discontinuation of antibiotic administration. This was a multicenter observational study conducted at 8 Japanese hospitals from April 1 to September 30, 2019, targeting patients who underwent treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics, such as anti-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus agents and anti-pseudomonal agents. We compared the weekly numbers of initiations and discontinuations of antibiotic prescription on each day of the week or on the days after a holiday. There was no statistical difference in the number of antibiotic initiations on both weekdays and the day after a holiday. However, antibiotic discontinuation was significantly higher from Tuesday onward than Monday and from the second day than the first day after a holiday. Similar trends were observed regardless of the categories of antibiotics, hospital and admission ward, and AST activity. This study suggests that broad-spectrum antibiotics tend to be continued during weekends and holidays and are most likely to be discontinued on Tuesday or the second day after a holiday. This was probably due to behavioral factors beyond medical indications, requiring further antimicrobial stewardship efforts in the future
Regular-Triangle Trimer and Charge Order Preserving the Anderson Condition in the Pyrochlore Structure of CsWO
Since the discovery of the Verwey transition in magnetite, transition metal
compounds with pyrochlore structures have been intensively studied as a
platform for realizing remarkable electronic phase transitions. We report the
discovery of a unique phase transition that preserves the cubic symmetry of the
beta-pyrochlore oxide CsWO, where each of W 5d electrons are confined
in regular-triangle W3 trimers. This trimer formation is an unprecedented
self-organization of d electrons, which can be resolved into a charge order
satisfying the Anderson condition in a nontrivial way, orbital order caused by
the distortion of WO6 octahedra, and the formation of a spin-singlet pair in a
regular-triangle trimer. Electronic instability due to the unusual
three-dimensional nesting of Fermi surfaces and the localized nature of the 5d
electrons characteristic of the pyrochlore oxides were found to play important
roles in this unique charge-orbital-spin coupled phenomenon.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Constraints on axion-like polarization oscillations in the cosmic microwave background with POLARBEAR
Very light pseudoscalar fields, often referred to as axions, are compelling
dark matter candidates and can potentially be detected through their coupling
to the electromagnetic field. Recently a novel detection technique using the
cosmic microwave background (CMB) was proposed, which relies on the fact that
the axion field oscillates at a frequency equal to its mass in appropriate
units, leading to a time-dependent birefringence. For appropriate oscillation
periods this allows the axion field at the telescope to be detected via the
induced sinusoidal oscillation of the CMB linear polarization. We search for
this effect in two years of POLARBEAR data. We do not detect a signal, and
place a median upper limit of on the sinusoid amplitude
for oscillation frequencies between and
, which corresponds to axion masses between and . Under the
assumptions that 1) the axion constitutes all the dark matter and 2) the axion
field amplitude is a Rayleigh-distributed stochastic variable, this translates
to a limit on the axion-photon coupling .Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. Published in Physical Review