Publications by authors named "Grupper M"

Understanding human use of public lands is essential for management of natural and cultural resources. However, compiling consistently reliable visitation data across large spatial and temporal scales and across different land managing entities is challenging. Cellular device locations have been demonstrated as a source to map human activity patterns and may offer a viable solution to overcome some of the challenges that traditional on-the-ground visitation counts face on public lands.

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Objectives: To assess the performance of a test (called BV), integrating the blood levels of three immune proteins into a score, to differentiate bacterial from viral infection among adults with suspected lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI).

Methods: Prospective diagnostic accuracy study, enrolling febrile adults >18 years with LRTI signs or symptoms for less than 7 days presenting to several hospitals' emergency departments in Israel. The main exclusion criterion was immunodeficiency.

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Background: The World Stroke Academy (WSA) (www.world-stroke-academy.org) is the educational platform of the World Stroke Organization (WSO).

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A novel antibiotic combination of the oral cephalosporin ceftibuten (CTB) and the β-lactamase inhibitor clavulanate (CLA) is currently in development for urinary tract infections, including those caused by extended-spectrum-β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing organisms. This study aimed to identify the pharmacodynamic index and magnitude of this index for CLA, when combined with a fixed CTB exposure (∼59% free time above the CTB-CLA MIC) against ESBL-producing and (CTB-CLA MICs of 0.25/0.

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Bacterial and viral lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) are often clinically indistinguishable, leading to antibiotic overuse. We compared the diagnostic accuracy of a new assay that combines 3 host-biomarkers (TRAIL, IP-10, CRP) with parameters in routine use to distinguish bacterial from viral LRTIs. Study cohort included 184 potentially eligible pediatric and adult patients.

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Objectives: To evaluate the pharmacodynamic exposure of piperacillin/tazobactam across the renal function range using 4.5 or 3.375 g dosing regimens.

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The effectiveness of antimicrobial binding resins present in blood culture (BC) bottles in removing meropenem, ceftolozane-tazobactam, and ceftazidime-avibactam is unknown. We assessed the time to detection (TTD) and growth of 2 isolates in the presence of clinically meaningful concentrations of these antibiotics. Bactec Plus Aerobic/F and BacT/Alert FA Plus BC bottles were inoculated with one of two isolates (1 meropenem susceptible and 1 resistant), followed by fresh whole blood containing the peak, midpoint, or trough plasma concentrations for meropenem, ceftolozane-tazobactam, and ceftazidime-avibactam.

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Background: Acinetobacter baumannii(ACBN) is a MDR organism causing pneumonia in ventilated patients. High MICs often result in insufficient lung exposures, thus poor outcomes have been observed with parenteral antimicrobials. Amikacin Inhale(AMK-I), is a drug-device combination of amikacin and a Pulmonary Drug Delivery System device.

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The recent escalation of occurrences of carbapenem-resistant has been recognized globally and threatens to erode the widespread clinical utility of the carbapenem class of compounds for this prevalent health care-associated pathogen. Here, we compared the inhibitory activity of ceftazidime-avibactam and ceftolozane-tazobactam against 290 meropenem-nonsusceptible nonduplicate clinical isolates from 34 U.S.

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Purpose Of Review: Skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) are prevalent in the obese population, with rising trend expected. Although numerous antibiotics are available for the prevention and treatment of SSTIs, their characterization in obese patients is not a regulatory mandate. Consequently, information that carries importance for optimizing the dosing regimen in the obese population may not be readily available.

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Background: Amikacin inhale (BAY41-6551), a unique drug-device combination of a specially formulated drug solution and a pulmonary drug delivery system device (AMK-I) is currently under phase III study as an adjunctive therapy to IV antibiotics for the treatment of Gram-negative pneumonia in mechanically ventilated patients. While the epidemiology of nosocomial pneumonia is predominated by Gram-negative pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the Enterobacteriaceae, Staphylococcus aureus is increasingly recognized as a pathogen of concern for these pulmonary based infections. Since the aminoglycosides are historically quite active against S.

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The optimal antibiotic prophylaxis dosing regimen of cefazolin for cesarean delivery (CD) in overweight and obese women is unknown. This study was done to compare the duration that cefazolin concentrations remain above the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) in adipose tissue (AT). Serum and AT concentrations from 3 previous studies in CD patients were comodeled using the nonparametric adaptive grid algorithm in Pmetrics.

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Beta-lactam antibiotics serve as a cornerstone in the management of bacterial infections because of their wide spectrum of activity and low toxicity. Since resistance rates among bacteria are continuously on the rise and the pipeline for new antibiotics does not meet this trend, an optimization of current beta-lactam treatment is needed. This review provides an overview of optimization through use of prolonged- and continuous-infusion dosing strategies compared with more traditional intermittent infusions.

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Bacterial and viral infections are often clinically indistinguishable, leading to inappropriate patient management and antibiotic misuse. Bacterial-induced host proteins such as procalcitonin, C-reactive protein (CRP), and Interleukin-6, are routinely used to support diagnosis of infection. However, their performance is negatively affected by inter-patient variability, including time from symptom onset, clinical syndrome, and pathogens.

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Background: The prognosis of patients with leukemoid reaction (LR) depends mainly on their underlying illness. Our aim was to investigate the etiologies and prognosis of a mixed group of patients with LR.

Methods: We identified 173 patients who had ≥30.

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Tungiasis is a skin disease caused by the ectoparasite sand flea Tunga penetrans. Although tungiasis is an important health problem in endemic areas, mainly South America and sub-Saharan Africa, it is reported uncommonly in travelers. We describe an outbreak of tungiasis in a group of travelers to Ethiopia.

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Background: Overuse and abuse of antibiotics is a major cause of microbial resistance. Within the hospital setting such overuse necessitates real-time supervision by infectious diseases (ID) specialists.

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of a recently introduced computerized antibiotic authorization system on the pharmacy budget.

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Background: The issue of travel to developing countries during pregnancy has not been sufficiently studied. The aim of this study is to investigate the rate, course, and outcome of pregnancies in women who traveled to developing countries while pregnant, or became pregnant during such travel.

Methods: Women visiting two major travel clinics in Israel for consultation within the years 2004 to 2009, who were pregnant or declared an intention of becoming pregnant during travel were contacted.

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Tuberculosis confined to the mucus membranes is a rare presentation in the era of effective chemotherapy. We describe a case of mucosal tuberculosis in a "medical tourist" from Burundi that went undiagnosed for 6 years. Starting as conjunctivitis, the disease has spread to involve the nose and larynx as well.

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Pasteurella multocida is the commonest organism infecting pet bites. Anecdotal reports tend to overemphasize dramatic outcomes. We aimed to study a large database of P.

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Background: The field of outpatient infectious disease (ID) consultations is expanding. Surprisingly, limited data are available regarding the scope of formal, adult, outpatient ID consultations.

Methods: The computerized records of all adult outpatient ID consultations conducted by a single ID expert over the years 2001-2007 were retrospectively analyzed.

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