Brucella Endocarditis Caused By Brucella Melitensis

Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease endemically seen in Turkey, which occurs with various clinical findings. It can lead to complications affecting many systems. Endocarditis is an infrequent, but serious complication of brucellosis.The aim of this case presentation is to remind that endocarditis can be a complication of brucellosis and if is undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, progresses fatal in a high rate

Successful treatment of multidrug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii meningitis.

Acinetobacter baumannii is a major cause of nosocomial infections in many hospitals and appears to have a propensity for developing multiple antimicrobial resistance rapidly. We report two cases with post-surgical meningitis due to multidrug resistant A. baumannii which were successfully treated with high-dose intravenous meropenem therapy. Multidrug resistant Acinetobacter spp. in intensive care units are a growing concern. High-dose meropenem is used in the treatment of these infections

International nosocomial infection control consortium (INICC) report, data summary of 36 countries, for 2004-2009

The results of a surveillance study conducted by the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) from January 2004 through December 2009 in 422 intensive care units (ICUs) of 36 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe are reported. During the 6-year study period, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN; formerly the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance system [NNIS]) definitions for device-associated health care-associated infections, we gathered prospective data from 313,008 patients hospitalized in the consortium's ICUs for an aggregate of 2,194,897 ICU bed-days. Despite the fact that the use of devices in the developing countries' ICUs was remarkably similar to that reported in US ICUs in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were significantly higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals; the pooled rate of central line-associated bloodstream infection in the INICC ICUs of 6.8 per 1,000 central line-days was more than 3-fold higher than the 2.0 per 1,000 central line-days reported in comparable US ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia also was far higher (15.8 vs 3.3 per 1,000 ventilator-days), as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (6.3 vs. 3.3 per 1,000 catheter-days). Notably, the frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates to imipenem (47.2% vs 23.0%), Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (76.3% vs 27.1%), Escherichia coli isolates to ceftazidime (66.7% vs 8.1%), Staphylococcus aureus isolates to methicillin (84.4% vs 56.8%), were also higher in the consortium's ICUs, and the crude unadjusted excess mortalities of device-related infections ranged from 7.3% (for catheter-associated urinary tract infection) to 15.2% (for ventilator-associated pneumonia). Copyright © 2012 by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Are Fetuin-A levels beneficial for estimating timing of sepsis occurrence?

WOS: 000452509700005PubMed ID: 29968890Objectives: To evaluated Fetuin-A levels of patients admitted in the intensive care unit with a diagnosis of sepsis. Methods: This study was conducted at the Faculty of Medicine, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University Hospital, Canakkal, Turkey, between February 2015 and October 2015. Forty septic patients were included in the study. Subsequent to clinical suspicion of sepsis, serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin; and white blood cell (WBC) counts were evaluated at 3 time-points: 0 (basal), 24, and 72 hours. Results: The mean Fetuin-A levels at the 3 time-points were 58.5 +/- 29.2 ng/mL, 40.9 +/- 23.6 ng/mL, and 47.8 +/- 25.7 ng/mL, respectively. Fetuin-A levels at 24 hours were significantly lower than the basal level (p0.05). Correlation between the temporal changes in Fetuin-A levels and the changes in other inflammatory markers (CRP, procalcitonin and WBC) was examined. Fetuin A was found to have only a negative correlation with serum procalcitonin level (p<0.05). Conclusion: In this study, serum Fetuin-A levels in septic patients decreased significantly in the first 24 hours, followed by an insignificant increase at 72 hours. These findings suggest that monitoring of Fetuin-A levels may help predict the time of occurrence of sepsis and prognosis of sepsis.Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Canakkale, TurkeyThis study was supported by the Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Canakkale, Turkey. We would like to thank Enago for English language editing

Linezolid Alone and in Combination with Rifampicin Prevents Experimental Vascular Graft Infection Due to Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis

Background: In this report we describe the in vivo antibacterial activity of linezolid in an experimental graft infection model in rats and compare it with teicoplanin. The objective of this study was also to determine the effects of the interaction of linezolid when it was combined with rifampicin and test this effect against strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis. Materials and methods: Graft infections were established in the subcutaneous tissue of 130 Wistar rats by implantation of Dacron grafts followed by a topical inoculation with 2 × 107 CFU of clinical isolates of MRSA and MRSE. The study included a control group and six groups for each of the staphylococcal strains: an inoculated group that did not receive any antibiotic prophylaxis, two inoculated groups that received intraperitoneal prophylaxis with teicoplanin or linezolid alone, an inoculated group that received rifampicin-soaked grafts, and two inoculated groups that received a combination prophylaxis consisting of intraperitoneal teicoplanin or linezolid and rifampicin-soaked grafts. Results: There was a reduction in the quantitative bacterial graft cultures in all prophylaxis groups when compared with inoculated control groups. There was not a statistically significant difference between linezolid and teicoplanin prophylaxis groups. The best results were obtained by a combination of rifampicin-soaked grafts with linezolid or teicoplanin. Conclusions: We found no evidence to suggest that linezolid differs from teicoplanin regarding effectiveness in the prevention of prosthetic vascular graft infection. Linezolid plus rifampicin and teicoplanin plus rifampicin are demonstrated to be valuable prophylactic regimens. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Aerococcus viridans Meningitis in a Patient with Hematological Malignancy: A Case Report

Aerococcus viridans, is commonly present in the environment as water, air, dust, soil and it can be rarely found in the flora of upper respiratory tract and skin. A. viridans, which has low virulence and pathogenity, may rarely cause endocarditis, bacteremia, meningitis, urinary tract infection, osteomyelitis, septic arthritis and wound infection. We report a case of meningitis caused by A. viridans in a 52 year-old male with chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Cervical Spondylitis and Epidural Abscess Caused by Brucellosis: a Case Report and Literature Review

Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease widely seen in endemic regions and that can lead to systemic involvement. The musculoskeletal system is frequently affected, and the disease can exhibit clinical involvements such as arthritis, spondylitis, spondylodiscitis, osteomyelitis, tenosynovitis and bursitis. Spondylitis and spondylodiscitis, common complications of brucellosis, predominantly affect the lumbar and thoracic vertebrae

Various Specialist Approaches for the Management of Candiduria: A Questionnaire Study

Introduction: Management of candiduria remains controversial, mainly due to uncertainties of clinicians about diagnosis and treatment. In this study, we aimed to investigate diagnostic and therapeutic approaches of different specialists for candiduria. Materials and Methods: An interview survey composed of 10 questions on candiduria was applied interactively to 429 randomly selected clinicians in six different tertiary care hospitals. We compared the answers of infectious diseases (ID) specialists with the others. Data were evaluated by Statistical package for Social Sciences version 11. In Independent samples, t-test and chi square test were performed for data analysis. Results: Out of the 429 participants, 91 (21.2%) were ID and 338 (78.8%) were specialists from other fi elds. For asymptomatic patients with candiduria, 213 (49.6%) participants stated that a second culture was required. Compared to others, a higher number of ID specialists [76 (83.5%)] asked for a second culture. It was determined that ID specialists joining this study, whose mean length of experience after specialization was longer than the others, encountered a signifi cantly higher number of candiduria cases and referred current guidelines to use frequently compared to others. Conclusion: Clinicians can treat candiduria largely, but have diffi culty in diagnosing. The fact that only 49.6% of all specialists included into the study order a second urine culture test shows that without differentiating colonization and contamination, half of them start therapies, which are likely to be unnecessary