Serum and Ascitic Fluid Superoxide Dismutase and Malondialdehyde Levels in Patients with Cirrhosis

Serum and ascitic fluid superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were measured in 43 patients with cirrhosis and in a 10 healthy control group. Compensated cirrhotic patients had no clinically detectable ascites, but decompensated patients had massive ascites. Cirrhotic patients were divided into three groups: patients with compensated cirrhosis (n = 16), patients with decompensated cirrhosis with Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) (n = 14), and patients with decompensated cirrhosis without SBP (n = 13). All cirrhotic patients in the experimental group had significantly higher serum SOD (p < 0.001) and MDA levels (p < 0.01) than those in the control group. There were no significant differences with respect to serum SOD and MDA levels among the three different groups of patients. There was no remarkable difference in ascitic fluid SOD and MDA levels between decompensated cirrhotic patients with and without SBP (p > 0.05). These results suggest that the increase in serum SOD and MDA levels are not related to the presence of SBP and the status of liver cirrhosis. To sum up, clarifying the impact of increased serum SOD and MDA levels in cirrhotic patients needs further investigation

Nitric Oxide Levels in Patients with Psoriasis Treated with Methotrexate

Psoriasis is a chronic, recurrent, inflammatory, and hyperproliferative disease. Recently there have been studies regarding increases in the levels of NO in inflammatory dermatoses including psoriasis. In this study, 22 patients with psoriasis were scored with PASI (psoriasis area and severity index) and the levels of serum nitrite-nitrate were evaluated before and after therapy with methotrexate (Mtx). The results were compared with age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers. The relation of the results with the clinical severity and the cumulative Mtx dose were also evaluated. The serum levels of nitrite-nitrate of the psoriatic patients with active lesions were found to be significantly higher than the levels of the healthy volunteers and the patients after therapy. The elevated nitrite-nitrate serum levels in the inflammatory period may suggest the possible role of this mediator in the etiopathogenesis of psoriasis and the potential future use of No inhibitors in the treatment of psoriasis

Risk factors for infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales: an international matched case-control-control study (EURECA)

Cases were patients with complicated urinary tract infection (cUTI), complicated intraabdominal (cIAI), pneumonia or bacteraemia from other sources (BSI-OS) due to CRE; control groups were patients with infection caused by carbapenem-susceptible Enterobacterales (CSE), and by non-infected patients, respectively. Matching criteria included type of infection for CSE group, ward and duration of hospital admission. Conditional logistic regression was used to identify risk factors. Findings Overall, 235 CRE case patients, 235 CSE controls and 705 non-infected controls were included. The CRE infections were cUTI (133, 56.7%), pneumonia (44, 18.7%), cIAI and BSI-OS (29, 12.3% each). Carbapenemase genes were found in 228 isolates: OXA-48/like, 112 (47.6%), KPC, 84 (35.7%), and metallo-beta-lactamases, 44 (18.7%); 13 produced two. The risk factors for CRE infection in both type of controls were (adjusted OR for CSE controls; 95% CI; p value) previous colonisation/infection by CRE (6.94; 2.74-15.53; <0.001), urinary catheter (1.78; 1.03-3.07; 0.038) and exposure to broad spectrum antibiotics, as categorical (2.20; 1.25-3.88; 0.006) and time-dependent (1.04 per day; 1.00-1.07; 0.014); chronic renal failure (2.81; 1.40-5.64; 0.004) and admission from home (0.44; 0.23-0.85; 0.014) were significant only for CSE controls. Subgroup analyses provided similar results. Interpretation The main risk factors for CRE infections in hospitals with high incidence included previous coloni-zation, urinary catheter and exposure to broad spectrum antibiotics

In vitro activity of amphotericin B, fluconazole and itraconazole against Candida glabrata strains isolated from clinical samples

In recent years, the incidence of Candida albicans infections tends to decrease, at least in some centers other Candida species have emerged as opportunistic pathogens. Among non-albicans Candida species, C.glabrata is one of the most frequently isolated species. In this study, the in vitro activities of amphotericin B, itraconazole and fluconazole were tested against 134 clinical C.glabrata strains. The isolation and identification of the isolates were done by standard mycological methods. Microbroth susceptibility tests were done in accordance with CLSI microdilution method (M27A-2). MICs were read at both 24 and 48 hours. At 24 h, MIC range, MIC50 and MIC90 values for amphotericin B were 0.5-4 mu g/ml, 2 mu g/ml and 4 mu g/ml, respectively. At 48 h, MIC range, MIC50 and MIC90 values for amphotericin B were 2-4 mu g/ml, 4 mu g/ml and 4 mu g/ml respectively. At 24 h, 97% of the isolates were susceptible (S) and 3% were dose-dependent susceptible (S-DD) to fluconazole. None of the isolates were resistant (R) to fluconazole at this time point. At 48 h, 94% of the isolates were S, 5.2% were S-DD and 0.8% were R to fluconazole. At 24 h, 20.9% of the isolates were S, 73.1% were S-DD and 6% were R to itraconazole. At 48 h, 0.8% of the isolates were S, 62.7% were S-DD and 36.5% were R to itraconazole. These results suggest that although C.glabrata strains that were isolated in our hospital were rarely resistant to fluconazole, resistance rate to itraconazole is relatively high. Most of the isolates that are resistant to itraconazole remain susceptible to fluconazole

Detection of Phospholipase Activity in Candida albicans Isolates

Secretion of phospholipases is one of the major putative virulence factors of Candida albicans isolates. The present study was designed to examine the phospholipase activity in 258 C. albicans strains isolated from miscellaneous clinical sources (89 urine, 77 oral lesion swab, 40 vaginal secretion, 7 blood and 45 samples other than noted). The activity of the enzyme was measured by modified Price method. Overall, phospholipase activity was detected in 78.7% of the isolates. The enzyme was positive in 76.4%, 77.9%, 82.5%, and 82.2% of the urine, oral swab, vaginal secretion and other isolates, respectively. Five of seven blood isolates were also noted to produce phospholipase. There was no significant difference between the rates of phospholipase positivities in terms of the clinical source of the isolate. The results of the current study indicate that, phospholipase enzyme activity is encountered in majority of the clinical C. albicans isolates

Comparison of PCR- and HinfI Restriction Endonuclease-Based Methods for Typing of Candida krusei Isolates

We compared HinfI restriction endonuclease-based analysis of genomic DNA with a PCR-based method for molecular typing of 90 Candida krusei isolates from 17 geographically related patients. Strain groupings by these methods were the same for 89 of 90 isolates. Ten of 17 patients were infected with related strains of C. krusei