152 research outputs found

    Culture of per-wound bone specimens: a simplified approach for the medical management of diabetic foot osteomyelitis

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    AbstractSurgical percutaneous bone biopsy specimen after a 14-day antibiotic-free period represents the gold standard of care for diabetic foot osteomyelitis but may be difficult to implement in many institutions. We evaluate a simplified strategy based on the results of per-wound bone specimen culture. For that purpose, we retrospectively reviewed the charts of 80 consecutive patients with diabetic osteomyelitis and bone sample obtained via the wound after a careful debridement. The outcome was defined as favourable if there was a complete healing of the wound with no sign of infection and stable or improved bone X-ray 6 months after antibiotic therapy completion. Culture of bone specimens was positive in 96% of patients, although half of the patients did receive a course of antimicrobials within 14 days of the bone specimen being obtained. A total of 129 bacterial isolates were obtained from bone cultures with a mean of 1.6 ± 1 isolates per patient (Staphylococcus aureus: 33%; coagulase-negative staphylococci: 14%; streptococci: 9%; enterococci: 12%; corynebacteria: 4%; Gram-negative bacilli: 20%; anaerobes: 4%). Forty-six percent of cultures were monomicrobial. The mean duration of follow-up from diagnosis was 17 ± 1 months. Six months after discontinuation of antibiotics, six patients (7.5%) had died, nine were considered as therapeutic failures and 65 were considered as cured. Fifty-four of these 65 patients had follow-up data available at 1 year and remained in remission. In conclusion, a simplified procedure based on the culture of bone sample obtained via the ulcer after a careful debridement of the wound is effective in the medical management of diabetic foot osteomyelitis

    Time to positivity in blood cultures of adults with Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteremia

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    BACKGROUND: previous studies have established that bacterial blood concentration is related with clinical outcome. Time to positivity of blood cultures (TTP) has relationship with bacterial blood concentration and could be related with prognosis. As there is scarce information about the usefulness of TTP, we study the relationship of TTP with clinical parameters in patients with Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteremia. METHODS: TTP of all cases of Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteremia, detected between January 1995 and December 2004 using the BacT/Alert automated blood culture system in a teaching community hospital was analyzed. When multiple cultures were positive only the shortest TTP was selected for the analysis. RESULTS: in the study period 105 patients with Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteremia were detected. Median TTP was 14.1 hours (range 1.2 h to 127 h). Immunosuppressed patients (n = 5), patients with confusion (n = 19), severe sepsis or shock at the time of blood culture extraction (n = 12), those with a diagnosis of meningitis (n = 7) and those admitted to the ICU (n = 14) had lower TTP. Patients with TTP in the first quartile were more frequently hospitalized, admitted to the ICU, had meningitis, a non-pneumonic origin of the bacteremia, and a higher number of positive blood cultures than patients with TTP in the fourth quartile. None of the patients with TTP in the 90(th )decile had any of these factors associated with shorter TTP, and eight out of ten patients with TTP in the 10(th )decile had at least one of these factors. The number of positive blood cultures had an inverse correlation with TTP, suggesting a relationship of TTP with bacterial blood concentration. CONCLUSION: Our data support the relationship of TTP with several clinical parameters in patients with Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteremia, and its potential usefulness as a surrogate marker of outcome

    Review of code and phase biases in multi-GNSS positioning

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    A review of the research conducted until present on the subject of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) hardware-induced phase and code biases is here provided. Biases in GNSS positioning occur because of imperfections and/or physical limitations in the GNSS hardware. The biases are a result of small delays between events that ideally should be simultaneous in the transmission of the signal from a satellite or in the reception of the signal in a GNSS receiver. Consequently, these biases will also be present in the GNSS code and phase measurements and may there affect the accuracy of positions and other quantities derived from the observations. For instance, biases affect the ability to resolve the integer ambiguities in Precise Point Positioning (PPP), and in relative carrier phase positioning when measurements from multiple GNSSs are used. In addition, code biases affect ionospheric modeling when the Total Electron Content is estimated from GNSS measurements. The paper illustrates how satellite phase biases inhibit the resolution of the phase ambiguity to an integer in PPP, while receiver phase biases affect multi-GNSS positioning. It is also discussed how biases in the receiver channels affect relative GLONASS positioning with baselines of mixed receiver types. In addition, the importance of code biases between signals modulated onto different carriers as is required for modeling the ionosphere from GNSS measurements is discussed. The origin of biases is discussed along with their effect on GNSS positioning, and descriptions of how biases can be estimated or in other ways handled in the positioning process are provided.QC 20170922</p

    Are the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccines effective? Meta-analysis of the prospective trials

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    The objective was to review the evidence of effectiveness of the polyvalent polysaccharide pneumococcal vaccine from prospective properly randomised controlled trials comparing pneumococcal vaccines with placebo in subjects who are immunocompetent and those likely to have an impaired immune system. Databases searched included the Cochrane Library, (issue 2, 2000), MEDLINE (1966-August 2000), PubMed (to August 2000) and EMBASE ( to August 2000). Reference lists of reports and reviews were also searched. To be included in the analysis, a study had to have been a prospective randomised comparison of a polysaccharide pneumococcal vaccine (any valency) and to have a placebo or no treatment comparison group. Papers had to report important clinical outcomes, such as rates of pneumonia, pneumococcal pneumonia, lower respiratory tract infections, pneumonia deaths or bacteraemia. Serological outcomes were not sought. Thirteen randomised comparisons with over 45,000 subjects were identified in an extensive literature review. Eight studies had a quality score of 3 or more on a scale of 1 to 5. In three comparisons with 21,152 immunocompetent subjects (South African gold miners, New Guinea highlanders) pneumococcal vaccination was effective in reducing the incidence of all-cause pneumonia (relative risk 0.56, 95% confidence interval 0.47 to 0.66), pneumococcal pneumonia (0.16; 0.11 to 0.23), pneumonia deaths (0.70; 0.50 to 0.96) and bacteraemia (0.18; 0.09 to 0.34). In ten comparisons in over 24,000 people who were elderly or likely to have impaired immune systems, pneumococcal vaccination was without effect for any outcome. Present guidelines recommend pneumococcal vaccination for "high-risk" groups. There is no evidence from randomised trials that this is of any benefit

    CD4saurus Rex &HIVelociraptor vs. development of clinically useful immunological markers: a Jurassic tale of frozen evolution

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    One of the most neglected areas of everyday clinical practice for HIV physicians is unexpectedly represented by CD4 T cell counts when used as an aid to clinical decisions. All who care for HIV patients believe that CD4+ T cell counts are a reliable method to evaluate a patient immune status. There is however a fatalistic acceptance that besides its general usefulness, CD4+ T cell counts have relevant clincal and immunological limits. Shortcomings of CD4 counts appear in certain clinical scenarios including identification of immunological nonresponders, subsequent development of cancer on antiretroviral teatment, failure on tretment simplification. Historical and recently described parameters might be better suited to advise management of patients at certain times during their disease history. Immunogenotypic parameters and innate immune parameters that define progression as well as immune parameters associated with immune recovery are available and have not been introduced into validation processes in larger trials. The scientific and clinical community needs an effort in stimulating clinical evolution of immunological tests beyond "CD4saurus Rex" introducing new parameters in the clinical arena after appropriate validatio

    Ten Years of Surveillance for Invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae during the Era of Antiretroviral Scale-Up and Cotrimoxazole Prophylaxis in Malawi

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    OBJECTIVE: To document trends in invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) in a central hospital in Malawi during the period of national scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) and cotrimoxazole prophylaxis. METHODS: Between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2009 almost 100,000 blood cultures and 40,000 cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cultures were obtained from adults and children admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Blantyre, Malawi with suspected severe bacterial infection. RESULTS: 4,445 pneumococcal isolates were obtained over the 10 year period. 1,837 were from children: 885 (19.9%) from blood and 952 (21.4%) from CSF. 2,608 were from adults: 1,813 (40.8%) from blood and 795 (17.9%) from CSF. At the start of the surveillance period cotrimoxazole resistance was 73.8% and at the end was 92.6%. Multidrug resistance (MDR) was present in almost one third of isolates and was constant over time. Free ART was introduced in Malawi in 2004. From 2005 onwards there was a decline in invasive pneumococcal infections with a negative correlation between ART scale-up and the decline in IPD (Pearson's correlation r = -0.91; p<0.001). CONCLUSION: During 2004-2009, national ART scale-up in Malawi was associated with a downward trend in IPD at QECH. The introduction of cotrimoxazole prophylaxis in HIV-infected groups has not coincided with a further increase in pneumococcal cotrimoxazole or multidrug resistance. These data highlight the importance of surveillance for high disease burden infections such as IPD in the region, which will be vital for monitoring pneumococcal conjugate vaccine introduction into national immunisation programmes

    Review on catalytic cleavage of C-C inter-unit linkages in lignin model compounds: Towards lignin depolymerisation

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    Lignin depolymerisation has received considerable attention recently due to the pressing need to find sustainable alternatives to fossil fuel feedstock to produce chemicals and fuels. Two types of interunit linkages (C–C and C–O linkages) link several aromatic units in the structure of lignin. Between these two inter-unit linkages, the bond energies of C–C linkages are higher than that of C–O linkages, making them harder to break. However, for an efficient lignin depolymerisation, both types of inter-unit linkages have to be broken. This is more relevant because of the fact that many delignification processes tend to result in the formation of additional C–C inter-unit bonds. Here we review the strategies reported for the cleavage of C–C inter-unit linkages in lignin model compounds and lignin. Although a number of articles are available on the cleavage of C–O inter-unit linkages, reports on the selective cleavage of C–C inter-unit linkages are relatively less. Oxidative cleavage, hydrogenolysis, two-step redox-neutral process, microwave assisted cleavage, biocatalytic and photocatalytic methods have been reported for the breaking of C–C inter-unit linkages in lignin. Here we review all these methods in detail, focused only on the breaking of C–C linkages. The objective of this review is to motivate researchers to design new strategies to break this strong C–C inter-unit bonds to valorise lignins, technical lignins in particular
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