A Comparison of Outcomes With and Without Infectious Diseases Consultation for Enterococcal Bacteraemia in a Multicenter Healthcare System.

Introduction: It is unknown whether infectious diseases consultation improves outcomes for enterococcal bacteraemia in a multicentre healthcare system.

Methods: This retrospective multicentre observational cohort study included 250 adult patients with enterococcal bacteraemia between July 2016 and December 2020. The primary endpoint was a composite of clinical failure, including persistent bacteraemia, persistent fever, and in-hospital mortality.

Early diagnosis with sequencing and successful treatment of prosthetic valve endocarditis.

We present a case of a 48-year-old man with congenital bicuspid aortic valve, history of Ross procedure, prosthetic pulmonary valve and homograft with rapid molecular diagnosis and prompt surgical and medical treatment for fungal endocarditis with excellent outcome with early valve replacement, debridement, combination antifungal therapy, ongoing suppressive therapy after treatment.

Nitrosamine Impurities in Angiotensin Receptor Blockers.

Nitrosamines are known carcinogens which have been recently discovered in several angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs). This led to the recall of valsartan in the United States in 2018, and afterward, the recall of other ARBs as well as unrelated medications (e.g.

Tafamidis: A Novel Treatment for Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy.

Transthyretin (TTR) amyloid cardiomyopathy is a life-threatening condition in which amyloid fibrils accumulate in the heart, eventually leading to cardiac symptomatology and death. To date, treatment of this condition has been directed at symptom relief due to a lack of effective treatment options which target the cause of the disease. The discovery that amyloid deposition was a result of dissociation of the TTR protein structure allowed for the development of tafamidis, which acts by stabilizing the TTR tetramer.

Review and Validation of Bayesian Dose-Optimizing Software and Equations for Calculation of the Vancomycin Area Under the Curve in Critically Ill Patients.

Background: Vancomycin area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) has been linked to efficacy and safety. An accurate method of calculating the AUC is needed.

Methods: Bayesian dose-optimizing software programs available for clinician use and first-order pharmacokinetic equations were evaluated for their ability to estimate vancomycin AUC.