Although the nose, as a gateway for organism-environment interactions, may have a key role in asthmatic exacerbation, the rhinobiome of exacerbated children with asthma was widely neglected to date. The aim of this study is to understand the microbiome, the microbial immunology, and the proteome of exacerbated children and adolescents with wheeze and asthma. Considering that a certain proportion of wheezers may show a progression to asthma, the comparison of both groups provides important information regarding clinical and phenotype stratification.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRespiratory viruses play an important role in asthma exacerbation, and early exposure can be involved in recurrent bronchitis and the development of asthma. The exact mechanism is not fully clarified, and pathogen-to-host interaction studies are warranted to identify biomarkers of exacerbation in the early phase. Only a limited number of international exacerbation cohorts were studied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChildren with recurrent abdominal pain may be suffering from a (HP) infection. The gold standard for confirming HP gastritis is histological evaluation and microbiological tests performed on specimens collected by esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD). The aim of this study was to analyze HP positive cultures and antibiograms with regard to clinical and histopathological correlates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe role of empirical therapy and time to first effective treatment, including the antimicrobial stewardship program, are decisive in patients presenting with bloodstream infections (BSI). The FilmArray Blood Culture Identification Panel (FA BCID 1.0) detects 24 bacterial and fungal pathogens as well as 3 resistance genes from positive blood cultures in approximately 70 min.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the last two decades, the worldwide dissemination of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (MDR-GNB) has continued. Therapy options for such infections caused by MDR-GNB remain scarce, and only few new antimicrobial agents have been granted market approval. Cefiderocol has been approved for the treatment of infections associated with aerobic GNB with limited therapy options.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Reverse transcription of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (+)RNA genome and subgenomic RNAs (sgRNAs) and subsequent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) is the reliable diagnostic gold standard for COVID-19 diagnosis and the identification of potential spreaders. Apart from clinical relevance and containment, for specific questions, it might be of interest to (re)investigate cases with low SARS-CoV-2 load, where RT-qPCR alone can deliver conflicting results, even though these cases might neither be clinically relevant nor significant for containment measures, because they might probably not be infectious. In order to expand the diagnostic bandwidth for non-routine questions, particularly for the reliable discrimination between negative and false-negative specimens associated with high C values, we combined the RT-qPCR workflow with subsequent pyrosequencing of a S-gene amplicon.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Multidrug-resistant organisms are a growing challenge and burden to patient care. To date, there are only data concerning the prevalence of methicillin-resistant infections. Thus, numbers of other multidrug-resistant organisms can only be extrapolated and inferred from more or less comparable cohorts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNowadays, multidrug-resistant bacteria are considered as an increasing serious threat to public health worldwide. Global and local surveillance data are helpful in the application of the most efficient antimicrobial agent in bacterial infections. In the current study, we aimed to analyze the activity of the previously cleared agent ceftolozane/ tazobactam (C/T) in African and European multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground The increasing number of multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria provides enormous challenges for choosing an appropriate antibiotic therapy in the early phase of sepsis. While bacterial identification has been greatly accelerated by the introduction of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS), the antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) remains time-consuming. Here, we present a rapid susceptibility testing method for testing Gram-negative bacteria, exemplarily validated for Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAccurate detection of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and carbapenemase-producing carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter spp. (CP-CRA) constitutes a major challenge in laboratory diagnostics. We developed a bioluminescence-based carbapenem susceptibility detection assay (BCDA) which allows identification of CRE (carbapenemase-producing-CRE (CP-CRE) as well as non-carbapenemase-producing-CRE (non-CP-CRE) and CP-CRA in 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Resistant and virulent Staphylococcus aureus is a global public health challenge. Staphylococcal Bi-component leukotoxins are cytolytic to immune cells and evolve to disarm the innate immunity during infections, hence the severity of the disease.
Objective: We studied drug resistance profile and the occurrence of bi-component leukocidin in clinical and nasal S.
In the course of a hospital management takeover, a microbial outbreak took place in a tertiary neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Here, we characterize the outbreak and its management. About 4 months prior to takeover, there was a sharp increase in positive isolates for MSSA and multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Many antibiotics have no effect on Gram-positive and Gram-negative microbes, which necessitates the prescription of broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents that can lead to increased risk of antibiotic resistance. These pathogens constitute a further threat because they are also resistant to numerous beta-lactam antibiotics, as well as other antibiotic groups. This study retrospectively investigates antimicrobial resistance in hospitalized patients suffering from pneumonia triggered by Gram-negative Serratia marcescens or Proteus mirabilis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Group B Streptococcus is a primary source of pneumonia, which is a leading cause of death worldwide. During the last few decades, there has been news of growing antibiotic resistance in group B streptococci to penicillin and different antibiotic agents. This clinical study retrospectively analyzes antimicrobial resistance in inpatients who were diagnosed with group B streptococcal pneumonia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The widespread overuse of antibiotics promotes the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, which can cause severe illness and constitutes a major public health concern. Haemophilus species are a common cause of community- and nosocomial-acquired pneumonia. The antibiotic resistance of these Gram-negative bacteria can be prevented through the reduction of unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions, the correct use of antibiotics, and good hygiene and infection control.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common cause of community-acquired and nosocomial-acquired pneumonia. The development of resistance of P. aeruginosa to antibiotics is increasing globally due to the overuse of antibiotics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Staphylococci can cause wound infections and community- and nosocomial-acquired pneumonia, among a range of illnesses. Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) have been rapidly increasing as a cause of infections worldwide in recent decades.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMedicine (Baltimore)
June 2015
Background: Antibiotic resistance continues to rise due to the increased number of antibiotic prescriptions and is now a major threat to public health. In particular, there is an increase in antibiotic resistance to Escherichia coli according to the latest reports.
Trial Design: This article examines, retrospectively, antibiotic resistance in patients with community- and nosocomial-acquired pneumonia caused by E coli.
Medicine (Baltimore)
February 2015
Klebsiella species are a common cause of community- and nosocomial-acquired pneumonia. Antibiotic resistance to the class of carbapenem in patients with pneumonia caused by Klebsiella species is unusual. New studies report carbapenem resistance in patients with pneumonia caused by Klebsiella species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) has a non-clonal, epidemic population with a few widely distributed and frequently encountered sequence types (STs) called 'high-risk clusters'. Clinical P. aeruginosa (clinPA) has been studied in all inhabited continents excepted in Africa, where a very few isolates have been analyzed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Co-trimoxazole (trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole) is clinically valuable in treating skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) caused by community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The genetic basis of emerging trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole resistance in S. aureus from Africa is unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Salmonella spp. are recognized as some of the most common causes of enteritis worldwide. This study aimed to identify clinically isolated S.
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