Publications by authors named "Lucinda Barrett"

Article Synopsis
  • Whole-transcriptome RNA sequencing using Oxford Nanopore Technologies shows potential for analyzing gene expression in pathogenic bacteria, including antimicrobial resistance genes.
  • The study assessed the direct cDNA and PCR-cDNA sequencing kits by analyzing four bacterial isolates from bloodstream infections, utilizing various techniques to minimize bias.
  • Results indicated that the PCR-cDNA kit provided higher yield, but users should be cautious of potential bias in genes with very high or low GC content.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study showcases a new technology, Adaptive Channel Bacterial Capture (ACBC), which effectively captures, enriches, and identifies bacterial pathogens from low-density samples with nearly perfect efficiency.
  • This method uses simple fabrication techniques and can capture various bacteria, including common pathogens, even when present in concentrations below 1000 cells per mL.
  • The ACBC device can also quickly determine antibiotic susceptibility of identified bacteria using fluorescence imaging and machine learning techniques, combining bacterial capture and rapid testing in a single tool.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Antibiotic resistance is an urgent global health challenge, necessitating rapid diagnostic tools to combat its threat. This study uses citizen science and image feature analysis to profile the cellular features associated with antibiotic resistance in Escherichia coli. Between February and April 2023, we conducted the Infection Inspection project, in which 5273 volunteers made 1,045,199 classifications of single-cell images from five E.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The BIOFIRE Joint Infection (JI) Panel uses multiplex-PCR testing to identify microorganisms in synovial fluid from patients suspected of septic arthritis and prosthetic joint infections.
  • A study over 34 clinical sites in Europe and the Middle East indicated that the JI Panel showed 88.4% agreement in diagnosing septic arthritis and 85% for prosthetic joint infections when compared to traditional synovial fluid cultures.
  • The JI Panel not only detected more positive samples, especially anaerobic bacteria, but also provided results in about one hour, improving patient management and treatment decisions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the greatest public health challenges, already causing up to 1.2 million deaths annually and rising. Current culture-based turnaround times for bacterial identification in clinical samples and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) are typically 18-24 h.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Respiratory viral infections are a major global clinical problem, and rapid, cheap, scalable and agnostic diagnostic tests that capture genome-level information on viral variation are urgently needed. Metagenomic approaches would be ideal, but remain currently limited in that much of the genetic content in respiratory samples is human, and amplifying and sequencing the viral/pathogen component in an unbiased manner is challenging. PCR-based tests, including those which detect multiple pathogens, are already widely used, but do not capture information on strain-level variation; tests with larger viral repertoires are also expensive on a per-test basis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Septic arthritis is a severe illness often diagnosed through culture, but the recently approved BioFire® Joint Infection Panel (BJIP) offers a rapid alternative using synovial fluid.
  • A study in the UK and Ireland showed that BJIP had a higher detection rate of positive results (98 vs 83) compared to routine cultures, with a positive percent agreement (PPA) of 91.6% and negative percent agreement (NPA) of 93%.
  • The multidisciplinary team (MDT) discussed the BJIP's additional benefits, such as identifying antibiotic resistance and influencing treatment choices, while noting that it should complement standard methods and may have limitations regarding untested organisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Gram-negative organisms are common causes of bloodstream infection (BSI) during the neonatal period and early childhood. Whilst several large studies have characterised these isolates in adults, equivalent data (particularly incorporating whole genome sequencing) is lacking in the paediatric population.

Methods: We perform an epidemiological and sequencing based analysis of Gram-negative bloodstream infections (327 isolates (296 successfully sequenced) from 287 patients) in children <18 years old between 2008 and 2018 in Oxfordshire, UK.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The management of complex orthopedic infections usually includes a prolonged course of intravenous antibiotic agents. We investigated whether oral antibiotic therapy is noninferior to intravenous antibiotic therapy for this indication.

Methods: We enrolled adults who were being treated for bone or joint infection at 26 U.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Current guidelines recommend collection of multiple tissue samples for diagnosis of prosthetic joint infections (PJI). Sonication of explanted devices has been proposed as a potentially simpler alternative; however, reported microbiological yield varies. We evaluated sonication for diagnosis of PJI and other orthopedic device-related infections (DRI) at the Oxford Bone Infection Unit between October 2012 and August 2016.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Brain homeostasis deteriorates in sepsis, giving rise to a mostly reversible sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE). Some survivors experience chronic cognitive dysfunction thought to be caused by permanent brain injury. In this study, we investigated neuroaxonal pathology in sepsis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Holistic Evidence and Design (HEAD) study of U.K. primary schools sought to isolate the impact of the physical design of classrooms on the learning progress of pupils aged from 5 to 11 years (U.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Fosfomycin is increasingly called upon for the treatment of multi drug-resistant (MDR) organisms causing urinary tract infection (UTI). We reviewed oral fosfomycin use for UTI treatment in a large UK hospital. The primary goal was to audit our clinical practice against current national guidelines.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Streptococci are a genus of Gram-positive bacteria which cause diverse human diseases. Many of these species have the potential to cause invasive infection resulting from the presence of bacteria in a normally sterile site.

Sources Of Data: Original articles, reviews and guidelines.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Prosthetic joint infection (PJI) complicates ∼1% of arthroplasties but accounts for considerable morbidity. Both the timing and features of PJI can vary widely. Patients may present with early (≤3 months post-operatively), delayed (3-24 months) or late disease (>24 months).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided prostate biopsy is currently considered the standard technique for obtaining tissue to make a histological diagnosis of prostatic carcinoma. Infectious complications following TRUS-guided prostate biopsy are well described, and are reportedly increasing in incidence. The role of antibiotic prophylaxis in reducing post-TRUS biopsy infections is now established, and many guidelines suggest that fluoroquinolone antimicrobials are the prophylactic agents of choice.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Context: The mechanisms of septic shock-associated adrenal insufficiency remain unclear. This study aimed at investigating the synthesis of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and vasopressin (AVP) by parvocellular neurons and the antehypophyseal expression of ACTH in human septic shock and in an experimental model of sepsis.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that ACTH secretion is decreased secondarily to alteration of CRH or AVP synthesis, we undertook a neuropathological study of the antehypophyseal system in patients who had died from septic shock and rats with experimental faecal peritonitis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Impaired arginine vasopressin (AVP) synthesis and release by the neurohypophyseal system, which includes the neurohypophysis and magnocellular neurons of the paraventricular and supraoptic nuclei, have been postulated in septic shock, but changes in this system have never been assessed in human septic shock, and only partially experimentally. We investigated AVP synthesis and release by the neurohypophyseal system in 9 patients who died from septic shock and 10 controls, and in 20 rats with fecal peritonitis-induced sepsis and 8 sham-operation controls. Ten rats died spontaneously from septic shock, and the others were sacrificed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: There is escalating interest in the therapeutic use of vasopressin in septic shock. However, little attention has focused on mechanisms underlying its pressor hypersensitivity, which contrasts with the vascular hyporesponsiveness to catecholamines. We investigated whether a long-term rodent model of sepsis would produce changes in endogenous levels and pressor reactivity to exogenous norepinephrine and vasopressin comparable with those seen in septic patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Vasopressin is essential for cardiovascular homeostasis, acting via the kidney to regulate water resorption, on the vasculature to regulate smooth muscle tone, and as a central neurotransmitter, modulating brainstem autonomic function. Although it is released in response to stress or shock states, a relative deficiency of vasopressin has been found in prolonged vasodilatory shock, such as is seen in severe sepsis. In this circumstance, exogenous vasopressin has marked vasopressor effects, even at doses that would not affect blood pressure in healthy individuals.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_sessiontc827623ds9bm8uucasi3d3gb55rn0js): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once