[Is there a role for prophylactic antibiotic treatment with macrolides in bronchiectasis?].

Prophylactic antibiotherapy with macrolides is commonly used to prevent bronchiectasis exacerbations. Indeed, there is evidence that macrolides possess immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties, which explains their possible efficacy in this condition despite the presence of resistant germs. This treatment seems to improve the clinical evolution of bronchectasis and to reduce the frequency and intensity of the exacerbations.

Community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections in two scuba divers returning from the Philippines.

We describe two patients who had skin infection due to identical strains of community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) after returning from the Philippines. Both patients did not share risk factors for CA-MRSA acquisition besides scuba diving. Scuba diving equipment may represent a possible new mode of acquisition of CA-MRSA.

Pegylated interferon alpha 2b and ribavirin in HIV/hepatitis C virus-co-infected non-responders and relapsers to IFN-based therapy.

Background: Pegylated interferon alpha (PEG-IFN-alpha) and ribavirin is the most effective available treatment for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Its role in HIV/HCV-co-infected patients who have failed IFN-based therapy is unclear.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the safety and efficacy of this therapy in HIV/HCV-co-infected non-responders and relapsers.

Serum biochemical markers accurately predict liver fibrosis in HIV and hepatitis C virus co-infected patients.

Objective: Liver biopsy, the gold standard for assessing hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related fibrosis, is invasive and prone to complications. Our aim was to determine the operating characteristics of a non-invasive index of biochemical markers for the prediction of fibrosis in patients with HIV/HCV co-infection.

Design: In a cross-sectional, cohort study in a French tertiary-care hospital 130 HIV/HCV-co-infected patients with a liver biopsy and serum were tested for markers of liver fibrosis.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) Type 1 reverse transcriptase resistance mutations in hepatitis B virus (HBV)-HIV-coinfected patients treated for HBV chronic infection once daily with 10 milligrams of adefovir dipivoxil combined with lamivudine.

Adefovir dipivoxil (ADV) at a suboptimal concentration for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) (10 mg once daily) can be used to treat hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in HIV-1-HBV-coinfected patients and does not, even in the case of uncontrolled HIV-1 replication, select for either ADV mutations at codons 65 and 70 or any other particular HIV-1 reverse transcriptase resistance profile.

Safety and efficacy of adefovir dipivoxil in patients co-infected with HIV-1 and lamivudine-resistant hepatitis B virus: an open-label pilot study.

Background: Lamivudine-resistant hepatitis B virus (HBV) is found in about 15-32% of infected patients with or without co-infection with HIV-1 after 1 year of lamivudine therapy. Adefovir dipivoxil is active in vivo and in vitro against wild-type and lamivudine-resistant HBV. We assessed the safety and efficacy of a once daily dose of adefovir dipivoxil in an open-label trial for the treatment of lamivudine-resistant HBV infection in HIV-1-infected patients.

Factors affecting liver fibrosis in human immunodeficiency virus-and hepatitis C virus-coinfected patients: impact of protease inhibitor therapy.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related liver fibrosis progression is accelerated in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients. The effect of protease inhibitor (PI) therapy on liver fibrosis is unknown. The aim of this work was to analyze the impact of PI therapy on HCV-related liver fibrosis in HIV/HCV coinfected patients.

Safety and efficacy of interferon-ribavirin combination therapy in HCV-HIV coinfected subjects: an early report.

Background: More severe liver disease together with a poor response rate to alpha interferon argue for the use of more potent anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) therapies in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-HCV coinfected patients, but the efficacy and safety of interferon-ribavirin combination therapy in HIV infected subjects are unknown.

Aim: To retrospectively evaluate the efficacy and safety of anti-HCV combination therapy in 21 HCV-HIV coinfected patients receiving antiretroviral therapy, and to access the clinical relevance of in vitro inhibition of phosphorylation by ribavirin of potent inhibitors of HIV-that is, zidovudine, stavudine, and zalcitabine.

Patients: Twenty one patients were treated with combined antiretroviral therapy including zidovudine (n=8) or stavudine (n=13) (in association with protease inhibitors in 12).

Long-term incidence of hepatitis B virus resistance to lamivudine in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) resistance to lamivudine has not been extensively documented in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients. We studied the long-term incidence of HBV resistance to lamivudine in HIV-positive patients. Sixty-six HIV-HBV-coinfected patients were studied while receiving lamivudine (150 mg twice daily) as a part of antiretroviral therapy.

Liver fibrosis progression in human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis C virus coinfected patients. The Multivirc Group.

The natural history of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients has never been studied according to the concept of liver fibrosis progression. The aim of this work was to assess the fibrosis progression rate in HIV-HCV coinfected patients and in patients infected by HCV only. A cohort of 122 HIV-HCV coinfected patients was compared with a control group of 122 HIV-negative HCV-infected patients.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) mutations associated with resistance to lamivudine in patients coinfected with HBV and human immunodeficiency virus.

Mutations associated with hepatitis B virus (HBV) resistance to lamivudine have not been extensively addressed in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-HBV coinfection. We have studied the HBV polymerase sequences from nine coinfected patients who experienced HBV recurrence while under lamivudine treatment. In seven of these nine patients, Met(550), belonging to the highly conserved YMDD motif, was mutated to Val and was associated with a substitution of Met for Leu(526) in each case.

[Nephrotoxicity of ritonavir].

A RECOGNIZED COMPLICATION: Ritonavir is an antiprotease used in the treatment of HIV-positive patients. Among the known side effects, nephrotoxicity can be severe. We have observed acute renal failure in 8 patients.

Mycobacterium avium complex common-source or cross-infection in AIDS patients attending the same day-care facility.

To delineate the epidemiology of Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infection in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome patients, we studied 32 case patients with disseminated MAC infection who attended the same daycare facility during a period of 13 months. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analysis showed very low similarity between MAC strains, suggesting that, despite close contacts between the patients, nosocomial cross-transmission or exposure to a common source of MAC did not occur.

Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea in HIV-infected patients: epidemiology and risk factors.

A retrospective analysis of all the cases of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD) in hospitalized patients infected with HIV was performed over a 52-month period to assess the incidence, epidemiology, and risk factors of CDAD. A case of CDAD was defined as a patient with diarrhea and a positive stool cytotoxin B assay. Sixty-seven cases of CDAD were recorded in HIV-infected patients between January 1991 and April 1995.

[Prospective study of pathogenic agents isolated from feces of patients with HIV infections].

Objective: Determine the frequency of enteropathogenic agents isolated in diarrheic feces of patients with HIV infection and to compare findings with a control group (HIV + without diarrhea) in order to identify risk factors.

Patients And Methods: All HIV seropositive inpatients and outpatients seropositive for HIV, with or without diarrhea, seen between 1 November 1994 and 30 April 1995 were included. Samples of feces were obtained for culture, virology examination, parasite examination and search for Clostridium difficile.