Virulence Factor Genes in Invasive Are Associated with Clinical Outcomes and Disease Severity in Patients with Sepsis: A Prospective Observational Cohort Study.

Background: harbours virulence factors that facilitate the development of bloodstream infections. Studies determining virulence factors in clinical isolates often have limited access to clinical data and lack associations with patient outcome. The goal of this study was to correlate sepsis outcome and virulence factors of clinical isolates in a large cohort.

An observational study on lifestyle and environmental risk factors in patients with acute appendicitis.

Purpose: Acute appendicitis is a common abdominal emergency worldwide. This study aimed at characterizing environmental risk factors influencing the development and severity of acute appendicitis.

Methods: Patients from a Belgian acute appendicitis cohort (n = 374) and healthy controls from the 500 functional genomics (500FG) cohort (n = 513) were compared.

Practice testing of generic quality indicators for responsible antibiotic use in nine hospitals in the Dutch-Belgian border area.

Background: Inpatient quality indicators (IQIs) were previously developed to assess responsible antibiotic use.

Aim: Practice testing of these QIs in the hospital setting.

Method: This study was performed within a Dutch-Belgian border network of hospitals implementing the Infection Risk Scan (IRIS) point prevalence survey (PPS) as part of the i-4-1-Health project.

Causative agents of bloodstream infections in two Croatian hospitals and their resistance mechanisms.

Blood samples were collected alongside with routine blood cultures (BC) from patients with suspected sepsis, to evaluate the prevalence of different causative agents in patients with bacteraemia. Among 667 blood samples, there were 122 positive BC (18%). Haemoglobin content, platelet number, and systolic blood pressure values were significantly lower in patients with positive BC, whereas serum lactate levels, CRP, creatinine and urea content were significantly higher in patients with positive BC.