Publications by authors named "Maria Labonia"

Sepsis is a time-dependent disease: the early recognition of patients at risk for poor outcome is mandatory. To identify prognostic predictors of the risk of death or admission to intensive care units in a consecutive sample of septic patients, comparing different statistical models and machine learning algorithms. Retrospective study including 148 patients discharged from an Italian internal medicine unit with a diagnosis of sepsis/septic shock and microbiological identification.

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Article Synopsis
  • Remdesivir is an antiviral drug that can impede the replication of SARS-CoV-2, but studies on its impact on viral load (VL) in patients have been limited and inconsistent.
  • This study analyzed the VL in two groups of COVID-19 patients—one treated with remdesivir (27 patients) and another receiving standard care (18 patients)—comparing their nasopharyngeal swab results at the start and 7-14 days after treatment.
  • The results indicated that patients receiving remdesivir experienced a significantly greater reduction in VL compared to those who did not, suggesting that remdesivir may effectively lower viral loads in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
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A 20-year-old man was admitted to the intensive care unit for septic shock due to Lemierre's syndrome. It is a rare syndrome that manifests as an upper respiratory infection, although systemic involvement, severe coagulopathy, and multi-organ failure can dangerously complicate the clinical picture. In this syndrome, sepsis-related neuroendocrine dysregulation and microcirculation impairment can have a rapid deleterious progression.

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The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and presents a global health emergency that needs urgent intervention. Viruses constantly change through mutation, and new variants of a virus are expected to occur over time. In the United Kingdom (UK), a new variant called B.

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Introduction: The study aims to investigate the change in the burden of disease and the microbiological characteristics of Invasive Meningococcal Disease (IMD) in Puglia in comparison with overall incidence from 1994 through 2014.

Methods: Data are gathered in the frame of the National Surveillance System coordinated by the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità.

Results: In Puglia, from 1994 through 2014, the average incidence of IMD was 0.

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Klebsiella pneumoniae is at the forefront of antimicrobial resistance for Gram-negative pathogenic bacteria, as strains resistant to third-generation cephalosporins and carbapenems are widely reported. The worldwide diffusion of these strains is of great concern due to the high morbidity and mortality often associated with K. pneumoniae infections in nosocomial environments.

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Subdural empyema represents a loculated suppuration between the dura and the arachnoid. It has been described either intracranially or in the spinal canal, the latter localization being quite rare. It is a rare but serious illness with a declining mortality rate but rather frequent neurological sequelae.

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An outbreak of Pseudomonas aeruginosa showing a multidrug-resistant (MDR) phenotype (including carbapenems, ceftazidime, cefepime, gentamicin, tobramycin, and fluoroquinolones) was observed, during a 5-month period, in a general intensive care unit of a large tertiary care and clinical research hospital in southern Italy. The outbreak involved 15 patients, with a total of 87 isolates, mostly from lower respiratory tract specimens. Analysis of isolates involved in the outbreak revealed production of metallo-beta-lactamase (MBL) activity, and genotyping by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of genomic DNA digested by SpeI revealed clonal relatedness among isolates.

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