Effect of azithromycin maintenance treatment on infectious exacerbations among patients with non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis: the BAT randomized controlled trial.

Importance: Macrolide antibiotics have been shown beneficial in cystic fibrosis (CF) and diffuse panbronchiolitis, and earlier findings also suggest a benefit in non-CF bronchiectasis.

Objective: To determine the efficacy of macrolide maintenance treatment for adults with non-CF bronchiectasis.

Design, Setting, And Participants: The BAT (Bronchiectasis and Long-term Azithromycin Treatment) study, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial conducted between April 2008 and September 2010 in 14 hospitals in The Netherlands among 83 outpatients with non-CF bronchiectasis and 3 or more lower respiratory tract infections in the preceding year.

A multi-center blinded study on the efficiency of phenotypic screening methods to detect glycopeptide intermediately susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (GISA) and heterogeneous GISA (h-GISA).

Background: To determine the true incidence of hGISA/GISA and its consequent clinical impact, methods must be defined that will reliably and reproducibly discriminate these resistant phenotypes from vancomycin susceptible S. aureus (VSSA).

Methods: This study assessed and compared the ability of eight Dutch laboratories under blinded conditions to discriminate VSSA from hGISA/GISA phenotypes and the intra- and inter-laboratory reproducibility of agar screening plates and the Etest method.

The treatment of acute infectious conjunctivitis with fusidic acid: a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Acute infectious conjunctivitis is a common disorder in primary care. Despite a lack of evidence regarding the effectiveness of topical antibiotics for the treatment of acute infectious conjunctivitis, most patients presenting in primary care with the condition receive topical antibiotics. In The Netherlands, fusidic acid is most frequently prescribed.

Predicting bacterial cause in infectious conjunctivitis: cohort study on informativeness of combinations of signs and symptoms.

Objective: To find an efficient set of diagnostic indicators that are optimally informative in the diagnosis of a bacterial origin of acute infectious conjunctivitis.

Design: Cohort study involving consecutive patients. Results of index tests and reference standard were collected independently from each other.

Multiresistant Staphylococcus epidermidis in a neonatal care unit.

OBJECTIVE: To study the presence and diversity of types of Staphylococcus epidermidis in the neonatal intensive care unit of a university hospital. METHODS: During a period of 6 weeks, samples were taken from nose, external auditory canal, axilla, groin and umbilicus from consecutively admitted patients. Patients were sampled two times a week for up to 2 weeks.