Management of Urinary Tract Infections: Problems and Possible Solutions

In clinically suspected urinary tract infections (UTIs), empirical antibiotic treatment is usually started long before the laboratory results of urine culture and antibiogram are available. Although molecular diagnostic approaches are being applied to the diagnosis of many infections, UTIs are generally diagnosed by traditional culture methods. Patient care could greatly benefit from the development of a rapid, accurate, inexpensive test that could be done at patient’s bedside, allowing the practitioner to plan targeted, more effective therapy. Such a test would potentially reduce incorrect or unnecessary use of antibacterial drugs and reduce the emergence of bacterial resistance. In response to this pressing and unmet clinical need, several methods have been developed in the last few years. Among these, the new point-of-care test (POCT) for detecting UTIs named Micro Biological Survey (MBS) UTI CHECK holds promise, as it allows semi-quantitative determination of bacterial load in urine leading to a fast detection of UTIs and to evaluation of bacterial antibiotic susceptibility. This new technology operates through a colorimetric survey performed in low-cost, ready-to-use, disposable vials, in which 1 ml of urine is inoculated without any preliminary treatment and requiring neither specialized personnel nor a specialized equipment

A new point-of-care test for the rapid antimicrobial susceptibility assessment of uropathogens.

Bacterial resistance to antimicrobials is considered a major issue worldwide. This condition may account for treatment failure of urinary tract infections, which are among the most common infections both in community and healthcare settings. Therapy against uropathogens is generally administered empirically, possibly leading to unsuccessful therapy, recurrence and development of antibiotic resistance. The reduction in analytical time to obtain antimicrobial susceptibility test (AST) results could play a key role in reducing the cost of healthcare, providing information about antibiotic efficacy and thus preventing from either exploiting new and expensive antibiotics unnecessarily or using obsolete and ineffective ones. A more rational choice among treatment options would hence lead to more effective treatment and faster resolution. In this paper we evaluated the performance of a new Point Of Care Test (POCT) for the rapid prediction of antimicrobial susceptibility in urine samples performed without the need of a laboratory or specialized technicians. 349 patients were enrolled in two open-label, monocentric, non-interventional clinical trials in partnership with an Emergency Medicine ward and the Day Hospital of two large healthcare facilities in Rome. Antibiogram was carried out on 97 patients. Results from analysis of urine samples with the POCT were compared with those from routine AST performed on culture-positive samples, displaying high accuracy (>90%) for all tested antimicrobial drugs and yielding reliable results in less than 12 hours from urine collection thus reducing analytical and management costs

Comparison of Uncertainty Between Traditional and Alternative Methods for Food Microbiological Analysis.

The objectives highlighted in the present study were to determine the estimates of measurement uncertainty associated with microbiological analysis in food samples performing a gage repeatability and reproducibility study on three different microbiological methods of analysis for the detection and quantification oftotal coliforms; Plate count method, 3M Petrifilm™ count plates method and the MBS method. For all three methods the contribution the total gage R and R is less than 1 0%, demonstrating the ability to accurately evaluate the concentration of total coliforms in food samples. Flowever, the repeatability and reproducibility follows the tendency; Plate count method<3M Petrifilm™ count plates method<MBS method. The study also highlights that a significant variation is due to the interaction between the operators and the analyzed samples for plate count and 3M Petrifilm™ count plates methods while for the MBS method it does not significantly affect the measure. Together these results demonstrate that greater repeatability and reproducibility are connected to a more simple analytical procedure demonstrating that uncertainty is certainly related to the amount of manual work and the individual interpretation ofresults. Results confirm thatit is importantto diminish these sources oferror reducing laborand simplifying procedures and increasing automation

A Simplified and Affordable Trend Analysis to Improve Microbiological Quality of Ready-to-Eat Food Products

“Ready-to-eat” is defined as the status of the food being ready for immediate consumption. For some ready-toeat foods, legal microbiological criteria exist, and in addition different national guidelines are available to complement legally enforceable standards. Control charts are used to statistically study results of a manufacturing process over a period of time with the aim to demonstrate if the process is under control. The current research examined the microbiological quality of 177 ready-to-eat food samples in the catering cooperative group “La Cascina,” in Latium, Italy, during a period of one year (2014–2015). Contamination trends were reported as individual control charts that were used to identify out-of-control data, address appropriate corrective actions, and finally promote quality improvements by setting customized dynamic control limits. Meals were individually analyzed using the alternative Micro Biological Survey method, in parallel with the conventional plating method, in order to propose an efficient, simplified, and suitable approach that could be useful for small industries to monitor constantly food quality

Field application of the micro biological survey method for the assessment of the microbiological safety of different water sources in horn of africa and the evaluation of the effectiveness of moringa oleifera in drinking water purification

Water monitoring requires expensive instrumentations and skilled technicians. In developing Countries as Africa, the severe economic restrictions and lack of technology make water safety monitoring approaches applied in developed Countries, still not sustainable. The need to develop new methods that are suitable, affordable, and sustainable in the African context is urgent. The simple, economic and rapid Micro Biological Survey (MBS) method does not require an equipped laboratory nor special instruments and skilled technicians, but it can be very useful for routine water analysis. The aim of this work was the application of the MBS method to evaluate the microbiological safety of different water sources and the effectiveness of different drinking water treatments in the Horn of Africa. The obtained results have proved that this method could be very helpful to monitor water safety before and after various purification treatments, with the aim to control waterborne diseases especially in developing Countries, whose population is the most exposed to these diseases. In addition, it has been proved that Moringa oleifera water treatment is ineffective in decreasing bacterial load of Eritrea water samples

Integrating running water monitoring tools with the Micro Biological Survey (MBS) method to improve water quality assessment

<div><p>Running water habitats are among the most altered aquatic systems by human activities driving an increase in the organic components and the associated bacterial load as well. To contribute in improving the monitoring activities in running waters, here we tested the validity of the new Micro Biological Survey (MBS) method to specifically assess the bacterial load in running waters focusing on Total Viable Counts (at 22°C and 37°C) and <i>Escherichia coli</i> (at 44°C) in order to propose a new prognostic tool for watercourses. MBS method is an alternative colorimetric method for counting bacterial load in water and food samples that is easy to use and leads to a reliable and simple interpretation of results, being also faster and less expensive than traditional methods. Then, we compared MBS with the traditionally used reference method for the bacterial load, and with the most used biotic index for Italian watercourses based on the benthic invertebrates: the Extended Biotic Index (EBI). The last comparison was performed to validate the use of MBS in biomonitoring activities since the benthic invertebrate multi-species assemblage (and then EBI) alter own structure mainly depending on the organic component variation. During the first part of the study, the assessment of both linearity (regressions among bacterial concentrations) and accuracy (significant correlation between a measured value and a value used as reference) confirmed the validity of the MBS method. Second, the linear regressions between the three investigated microbial parameters vs. both physical-chemical descriptors and EBI, revealed the usefulness of MBS as a valid tool for routine microbiological analyses involved in rapid and easy field monitoring activities. This represents the first attempt to evaluate the river microbial status by exploiting the innovative MBS on running waters to propose it as new valuable monitoring tool in the biomonitoring field.</p></div

How to Warrant Microbiological Food Safety in Food Companies: Problems and a Possible Solution

Traditional methods for food microbiological analysis are mainly culture-based, but also combine biochemical, molecular, and immunological principles in order to provide specific and unequivocal identification of contaminants. They are considered as gold standards by international regulations and are the most popular and widely used. These methods, however, received several criticisms, which led to the development of new alternative analytical methods. Their main focus is to provide accurate and reliable results, also aiming to reduce the time of analysis and facilitate procedures and interpretation of data. Despite these strengths, every method, both traditional and alternative, has intrinsic weaknesses that may affect results and stem from various factors, such as specific food matrices’ characteristics, operating procedures, and sample treatment. In this work, we review and compare the analytical performances of several methods for microbiological analysis of food that are currently available on the market. We take into account their relative features (e.g. user-friendliness, costs, reliability) in order to highlight which ones may fit best in daily monitoring of food safety and quality. Among these alternative methods, the Micro Biological Survey (MBS) method is based on a colorimetric system that can easily analyze liquids and solids via selective counting bacteria in food samples, allowing even the smallest food companies to carry out all microbiological tests required by regulations “in house.

Geographic coordinates and name of locations and sampled rivers.

<p>The use of numbers 1 or 2 in marks depend on the part of river that was sampled: 1 –sampling site into the first 5 km from the source; 2—sampling site into the last 5 km till the mouth or access into another water course. The only exception is represented by the River Aniene where site ANI1 is located into the last 5 km till the access into the River Tiber.</p

Correlation coefficients values (R2) between all the selected physical-chemical descriptors and Total Viable Count (that is heterotrophic bacteria count) at 22 and 37°C, and <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> at 44°C (significant correlations at p<0.05 are in bold).

<p>Marks: COD = chemical oxygen demand (mg/l); C = conductivity (μS/cm); P = total phosphorus (mg/l); T = temperature (°C); VEL = velocity (cm/s).</p

Linear regressions between the Extended Biotic Index (EBI) and the three analysed microbiological parameters, expressed as Total Viable Count (TVC) at 22°, 37°, and 44° C (the latter for <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i>).

<p>Dotted lines correspond to the 95% confident intervals.</p