Epidemiology, Species Distribution, Antifungal Susceptibility and Outcome of Nosocomial Candidemia in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Italy

Candida is an important cause of bloodstream infections (BSI), causing significant mortality and morbidity in health care settings. From January 2008 to December 2010 all consecutive patients who developed candidemia at San Martino University Hospital, Italy were enrolled in the study. A total of 348 episodes of candidaemia were identified during the study period (January 2008–December 2010), with an incidence of 1,73 episodes/1000 admissions. Globally, albicans and non-albicans species caused around 50% of the cases each. Non-albicans included Candida parapsilosis (28.4%), Candida glabrata (9.5%), Candida tropicalis (6.6%), and Candida krusei (2.6%). Out of 324 evaluable patients, 141 (43.5%) died within 30 days from the onset of candidemia. C. parapsilosis candidemia was associated with the lowest mortality rate (36.2%). In contrast, patients with C. krusei BSI had the highest mortality rate (55.5%) in this cohort. Regarding the crude mortality in the different units, patients in Internal Medicine wards had the highest mortality rate (54.1%), followed by patients in ICU and Hemato-Oncology wards (47.6%)

Tratamiento de la enfermedad de Parkinson con palidotomía y palido-talamotomía estereotáctica guiada por microelectrodos

Objetivo. Los autores valoraron el efecto terapéutico de palidotomía y palido-talamotomía combinada guiada por MR y microelectrodos en 33 pacientes con enfermedad de Parkinson, cuyos síntomas fueron resistentes al tratamiento farmacológico. Material y métodos. Los pacientes fueron evaluados en base a los test estandarizados a nivel internacional que se efectuaron antes y después de la operación: al 2º día, así como a lo largo de 12 meses, con un intervalo de 3 meses entre ellos. Los pacientes fueron divididos en dos grupos; en los del grupo "A", los síntomas parkinsonianos, incluso el temblor, disminuyeron después de una palidotomía. En los pacientes del grupo "B", el temblor no disminuyó tras la palidotomía, razón por la cual ésta se complementó con una talamotomía. Resultados. Con la ayuda de la escala UPDRS III se obtuvieron los siguientes resultados: después de la palidotomía en ¿fase on¿ el promedio preoperatorio de 51,2 disminuyó a 29,5 al 2º día, a 26 a los 3, 6 y 9 meses, y a 28,7 a los 12 meses después de la operación; en ¿fase off¿ el promedio preoperatorio de 64,3 declinó a 31,6 al 2º día, a 26 a los 3, 6 y 9 meses, y a 30,5 a los 12 meses después de la operación. Después de la palidotalamotomía en ¿fase on¿ el promedio preoperatorio de 43,5 disminuyó a 27,9 al 2º día, a 22,9 a los 3 meses, a 22,8 a los 6 meses, y a 24,5 a los 9 y 12 meses después de la operación. De igual manera, en ¿fase off¿ el promedio preoperatorio de 62,6 declinó a 38 al 2º día, a 30 a los 3 meses, a 31,8 a los 6 meses, y a 33,8 a los 9 y 12 meses después de la operación. Conclusión. Para aquellos pacientes, en quienes la palidotomía no fue suficiente en el control del temblor, la palido-talamotomía fue efectiva. Los síntomas clínicos, de acuerdo con las escalas utilizadas, mejoraron significativamente en los dos grupos (student t: P<0,0001); sin embargo, las lesiones bilaterales conllevan un alto riesgo de morbilidad

Use of the BIOMIC Video System to Evaluate the Susceptibility of Clinical Yeast Isolates to Fluconazole and Voriconazole by a Disk Diffusion Method

The ARTEMIS Global Antifungal Susceptibility Program provides the collection of epidemiological data and the results of the fluconazole and voriconazole susceptibility testing of yeast isolates. Participating in this study, a total of 7318 clinical yeast isolates were tested from different geographical areas in Hungary in the period 2001 to 2003. The species isolated most frequently was C. albicans (68.8%), followed by C. glabrata (11.8%), C. tropicalis (5.7%) and C. krusei (4.6%). Isolates of C. albicans, C. kefyr, C. lusitaniae, C. tropicalis and C. parapsilosis were highly susceptible to fluconazole (78.9-100%). The rates of isolation of fluconazole-resistant C. glabrata and C. krusei were higher in our study than the global mean in 2001 (28.2% and 87.5% vs. 18.3% and 70.2%, respectively). Differences were detected in the distribution of fluconazole-susceptibility data of C. glabrata isolates in the different counties of Hungary: most of the resistant isolates were observed in the eastern part of the country

Invasive Candida infections in surgical patients in intensive care units: A prospective, multicentre survey initiated by the European Confederation of Medical Mycology (ECMM) (2006-2008)

A prospective, observational, multicentre study of invasive candidosis (IC) in surgical patients in intensive care units (ICUs) was conducted from 2006 to 2008 in 72 ICUs in 14 European countries. A total of 779 patients (62.5% males, median age 63 years) with IC were included. The median rate of candidaemia was 9 per 1000 admissions. In 10.8% the infection was already present at the time of admission to ICU. Candida albicans accounted for 54% of the isolates, followed by Candida parapsilosis 18.5%, Candida glabrata 13.8%, Candida tropicalis 6%, Candida krusei 2.5%, and other species 5.3%. Infections due to C.krusei (57.9%) and C.glabrata (43.6%) had the highest crude mortality rate. The most common preceding surgery was abdominal (51.5%), followed by thoracic (20%) and neurosurgery (8.2%). Candida glabrata was more often isolated after abdominal surgery in patients ≥60 years, and C.parapsilosis was more often isolated in neurosurgery and multiple trauma patients as well as children ≤1 year of age. The most common first-line treatment was fluconazole (60%), followed by caspofungin (18.7%), liposomal amphotericin B (13%), voriconazole (4.8%) and other drugs (3.5%). Mortality in surgical patients with IC in ICU was 38.8%. Multivariate analysis showed that factors independently associated with mortality were: patient age ≥60 years (hazard ratio (HR) 1.9, p 0.001), central venous catheter (HR 1.8, p 0.05), corticosteroids (HR 1.5, p 0.03), not receiving systemic antifungal treatment for IC (HR 2.8, p &lt;0.0001), and not removing intravascular lines (HR 1.6, p 0.02). © 2014 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases