Fungal infection testing in pediatric intensive care units - a single center experience

Mycoses are diseases caused by fungi that involve different parts of the body and can generate dangerous treatment complications. This study aims to analyze fungal infection epidemiology in intensive care units (Pediatric and Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Units—PCICU) and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in one large pediatric center in the period 2015–2020 compared with 2005. The year 2005 was randomly selected as a historical time reference to notice possible changes. In 2005 and 2015–2020, 23,334 mycological tests were performed in intensive care units. A total of 4628 tests (19.8%) were performed in the intensive care units. Microbiological diagnostics involved mycological and serological testing. Of the 458 children hospitalized in the NICU, positive results in the mycological tests in the studied years were found in 21–27% of the children and out of 1056 PCICU patients, positive results were noticed in 18–29%. In both departments, the main detected pathogen was Candida albicans which is comparable with data published in other centers. Our experience indicates that blood cultures as well as the detection of antifungal antibodies do not add important information to mycological diagnostics. For the years of observation, only a few positive results were detected, even in patients with invasive fungal diseases. To our knowledge, this is one of a few similar studies over recent years and it provides contemporary reports of mycoses in pediatric ICU patient

Epidemiology of fungal colonization in children treated at the Department of Oncology and Hematology : single-center experience

Oncological patients are especially predisposed to fungal infections due to multiple risk factors and immunocompromising treatment. Epidemiological research regarding pediatric oncologic patients is still insufficient, and existing data are difficult to generalize on different populations. Therefore, we aimed to analyze fungal infections and fungal epidemiology in the Department of Oncology and Hematology of the University Children’s Hospital in Krakow with help from the Clinical Microbiology Department. During the chosen period of 2005 and 2015–2020, 2342 tests were performed in our ward on 847 patients. Analyzed samples were divided into five source groups. The amount of patients with positive test results was 62.5%. The year with the highest detection level was 2005. The most frequent pathogen was Candida albicans, with a significant decrease in tendency. An increase in non-albicans species was observed. Candida parapsilosis was not frequently observed compared to similar studies. We noticed an increase in positive results from the urinary tract material. Our results confirmed that fungal infections are still an issue, and they may indicate the efficacy of prophylaxis. The majority of our results are consistent with the literature, yet we managed to emphasize data unique to our patients’ population. Our findings are helpful in clinical work and for further studies in our center

F52 Acoustic voice features in Huntington's disease in native English, Spanish and Polish speakers

Background Changes in voice are a characteristic symptom of Huntington’s disease (HD), and can be associated with lack of motor control (dysarthria) or cognitive impairment. Objective quantitative measures of voice that can be performed within the clinic or home may provide a method to monitor disease progression and help target interventions. Aims This study aimed to compare acoustic voice features from voice recordings in English, Spanish and Polish-speaking in people with HD and controls. Methods Voice was recorded using mobile devices (Samsung Tablets Tab A and S6 Lite, and Smartphone Huawei Mate Lite 10) in participants with HD and matched control groups across three cohorts: English- (n=29), Spanish- (n=36) and Polish- (n=25) speaking. Voice was recorded during sustained vowel phonation (/a:/), syllable repetitions (/pa/,/ta/,/ka/,/pataka/,/pati/), and reading of a language-specific passage (English,1 Spanish,2 Polish3). Acoustic voice features were estimated and compared across cohorts and biological sex. Statistical analysis was performed using linear mixed models. Results Significant differences between HD and control participants were observed for the standard deviation of fundamental frequency, harmonics-to-noise ratio, jitter and shimmer (Figure 1). Effect of biological sex was observed on all features examined

Language-independent acoustic biomarkers for quantifying speech impairment in Huntington's Disease

Purpose: Changes in voice and speech are characteristic symptoms of Huntington's disease (HD). Objective methods for quantifying speech impairment that can be used across languages could facilitate assessment of disease progression and intervention strategies. The aim of this study was to analyze acoustic features to identify language-independent features that could be used to quantify speech dysfunction in English-, Spanish-, and Polish-speaking participants with HD. Method: Ninety participants with HD and 83 control participants performed sustained vowel, syllable repetition, and reading passage tasks recorded with previously validated methods using mobile devices. Language-independent features that differed between HD and controls were identified. Principal component analysis (PCA) and unsupervised clustering were applied to the language-independent features of the HD data set to identify subgroups within the HD data. Results: Forty-six language-independent acoustic features that were significantly different between control participants and participants with HD were identified. Following dimensionality reduction using PCA, four speech clusters were identified in the HD data set. Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale (UHDRS) total motor score, total functional capacity, and composite UHDRS were significantly different for pairwise comparisons of subgroups. The percentage of HD participants with higher dysarthria score and disease stage also increased across clusters. Conclusion: The results support the application of acoustic features to objectively quantify speech impairment and disease severity in HD in multilanguage studies