A single-day point-prevalence study of faecal carriers in long-term care hospitals in Madrid (Spain) depicts a complex clonal and polyclonal dissemination of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to describe the prevalence and microbiological characteristics of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) colonizing patients in long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) in Madrid, Spain.

Methods: Three LTCHs were included in a single-day point-prevalence survey (September 2013). Rectal swabs, collected from all hospitalized patients (137 in LTCH-A, 121 in LTCH-B and 83 in LTCH-C), were plated onto chromogenic media.

Limitations of a simplification antiretroviral strategy for HIV-infected patients with decreasing adherence to a protease inhibitor regimen.

Purpose: To determine the long-term efficacy of a simplification strategy in the clinical setting when used to improve adherence.

Method: Prospective study of 70 patients included in a regimen with ddI plus 3TC plus an NNRTI, after viral suppression with a PI-containing regimen, due to decreasing adherence. Adherence to PI was calculated as the percentage of doses taken last week before inclusion, and patients were stratified as high and low adherence (95% and <95% of doses).

Validation of a specific questionnaire on psychological and social repercussions of the lipodystrophy syndrome in HIV-infected patients.

Objective: To validate a questionnaire to identify psychosocial repercussions of the lipodystrophy syndrome (LD) in HIV-infected patients.

Methods: A questionnaire containing 35 items in 6 subscales [body image, anxiety, depression, social support, social distress, quality of life (QoL)] was consecutively administered to 128 patients with LD, 25 naive patients or on therapy without LD, and to 15 HIV negative patients from January to July '04. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).

Influence of liver fibrosis on highly active antiretroviral therapy-associated hepatotoxicity in patients with HIV and hepatitis C virus coinfection.

Background: Coinfection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a known risk factor for hepatotoxicity in patients receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of HCV-related liver fibrosis in HAART-associated hepatotoxicity.

Methods: In a prospective study involving 107 patients who underwent liver biopsy, fibrosis was graded according 5 stages, from F0 (no fibrosis) to F4 (cirrhosis).