: Tuberculosis (TB) is preventable and curable, but multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) pose significant challenges worldwide due to the limited treatment options, lengths of therapies, and high rates of treatment failure. The management of MDR-TB has been revolutionized by all oral anti-TB drug regimens that are likely to improve adherence and treatment outcomes. These regimes include bedaquiline (B), pretomanid (P), and linezolid (L) (BPaL), and moxifloxacin if resistance to fluoroquinolones is not detected (BPaLM).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiagnosing non-tuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease (NTM-PD) in patients unable to produce sputum spontaneously requires invasive procedures to obtain valid respiratory specimens. In this retrospective study, we evaluated the results of microbiological tests performed on respiratory samples of 132 patients affected by NTM-PD. In the diagnostic workout, 98 patients performed both induced sputum (IS) and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and were enrolled in our study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn Italy, tuberculosis (TB) incidence in the last decade has remained constant at under 10 cases/100,000 inhabitants. In the Philippines, TB annual incidence is greater than 500 cases/100,000 inhabitants. Omalizumab is a humanized anti-IgE monoclonal antibody approved for the treatment of chronic spontaneous urticaria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite the higher transmissibility of Omicron Variant of Concern (VOC), several reports have suggested lower risk for hospitalization and severe outcomes compared to previous variants of SARS-CoV-2. This study, enrolling all COVID-19 adults admitted to a reference hospital who underwent both the S-gene-target-failure test and VOC identification by Sanger sequencing, aimed to describe the evolving prevalence of Delta and Omicron variants and to compare the main in-hospital outcomes of severity, during a trimester (December 2021 to March 2022) of VOCs' cocirculation. Factors associated with clinical progression to noninvasive ventilation (NIV)/mechanical ventilation (MV)/death within 10 days and to MV/admission to intensive care unit (ICU)/death within 28 days, were investigated through multivariable logistic regressions.
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