Rashes and skin lesions are a common reason for patient visits to emergency departments and physicians' offices. The differential diagnosis includes a variety of infectious and non-infectious diseases, some of which can be life-threatening. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the quantity and type of skin lesions among outpatients and inpatients at a tertiary care university-affiliated teaching hospital for infectious diseases over a three-year period to assess disease burden and physicians' experience in diagnosing skin lesions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: To review unusual actinomycosis cases that appeared as a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge at our institution and to present a literature review on the usual clinical presentations.
Methodology: This retrospective review included all patients hospitalized for actinomycosis in a 10-year period at the University Hospital for Infectious Diseases "Dr. Fran Mihaljević", Zagreb, Croatia.
We present a 40-year-old woman with a history of relapsing echinococcosis who had undergone a number of surgical procedures for cyst removal (right pulmectomy, cardiac surgery and 6 subsequent brain surgeries and two gamma knife procedures) and was admitted to University Hospital for Infectious Diseases "Fran Mihaljeviæ", Zagreb, Croatia in 2014 for pre-operative medical treatment of brain hydatidosis in the right parietal region. We aimed to attain a high cyst albendazole sulphoxide (ASO) concentration in order to achieve a more pronounced protoscolex inactivation and a high serum ASO concentration (reflecting the tissue concentrations) to reduce the risk of disease recurrence. The patient was treated with a higher dose of albendazole (15 mg/kg/day for 4 wk) that we had found effective in patients with liver hydatidosis, and combined with praziquantel over the last 14 d at a dose that is typically used to treat neurocysticercosis with an intention to improve ASO bioavailability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBecause of mostly asymptomatic cyst growth and often-neglected nonspecific low-grade symptoms, many cases of cystic echinococcosis (CE) caused by in the pediatric population are diagnosed at school age, in an advanced and even complicated stage. In 2003, after 5 months of intermittent dull upper-right abdominal pain and nausea, a 13-year-old boy was diagnosed with massive liver CE, with ∼20 round-shaped double-walled medium-sized infective cysts, which permeated the whole liver. Because of their wide distribution across the liver tissue and the risky superficial position of some cysts, liver transplantation emerged as the optimal therapeutic option.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Antimicrob Agents
November 2015
Cadazolid is under development as an oral treatment for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), which is the most common infectious cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea. Low systemic cadazolid exposures were previously reported in healthy subjects following both single and multiple oral dosing. The main objective of this study was to investigate systemic cadazolid exposure in patients with severe CDI with potential disrupted lining of the gastrointestinal tract.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA 20-year-old female patient, 14 weeks pregnant, was admitted to hospital with anamnestic and clinical features of acute pyelonephritis. Clinical signs of septic abortion developed and after obstetric examination the therapy was changed to ampicillin, gentamicin and clindamycin. Campylobacter jejuni was isolated from blood cultures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: To investigate the relationship between plasma and cyst concentrations of albendazolesulphoxide (ASO) and their effects on parasitological findings and disease recurrence in patients with liver hydatidosis.
Methods: The study was conducted at the University Hospital for Infectious Diseases Dr. Fran Mihaljević, Zagreb, Croatia, between August 2006 and January 2011.
Visceral leishmaniasis or kala-azar is a systemic infectious vector-borne disease caused by protozoa Leishmania donovani and Leishmania infantum that are transmitted to mammalian hosts by sand flies. It occurrs sporadically in endemic areas, including Mediterranean basin. Southern coastal territories of Croatia have been recognized as the foci of the disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe describe a case of an abrupt onset of polymicrobial Actinomyces naeslundii/Pseudomonas aeruginosa sepsis in a patient with a previously silent abdominal actinomycosis, developed 2 months after colonoscopy when the diagnosis of a left-sided ulcerative colitis was established. Prolonged high-dose ceftriaxone therapy was clinically effective, albeit accompanied by the development of a reversible pseudocholelithiasis that persisted for 5 months.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of conservative therapy of polymicrobial anaerobic sepsis and appendiceal mass.
Case Report: We report on an 18-year-old patient admitted for fever (38.8 degrees C), abdominal pain and vomiting.
In a one-year study at the University Hospital of Infectious Diseases in Zagreb, Croatia the rate of asymptomatic throat carriage of beta-haemolytic streptococci was investigated. Throat carriage was investigated in 1796 patients, none of whom had a sore throat nor signs and/or symptoms of a respiratory tract infection. The carrier rate of beta-haemolytic streptococci was 8.
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