Inter-laboratory variability of caspofungin MICs for isolates - an Irish tertiary hospital experience.

Background: , formerly , is an opportunistic yeast and emerging cause of human infections. The use of broth microdilution (BMD) methodologies for caspofungin (CSP) antifungal susceptibility testing (AFST) against is reported to be prone to high inter-laboratory variation. We aimed to compare CSP MICs of isolates from our institution with those obtained by the Reference Laboratory for the same isolates.

Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of anaerobic bacteria at an Irish University Hospital over a ten-year period (2010-2020).

Objectives: In recent years various clinical studies have demonstrated poor outcomes in infections caused by anaerobic bacteria due to inappropriate therapy, directly due to emergence of resistant strains. This is a concern given that many anaerobic infections are treated empirically with metronidazole or a beta-lactam/beta-lactamase inhibitor combinations (e.g.

European survey of management of patients with multidrug-resistant organisms in rehabilitation facilities.

Background: Rehabilitation facilities have among the highest prevalence of multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) colonization of any inpatient population. There is no formal consensus on how patients with MDROs should be managed in the rehabilitation setting.

Aim: The aim of this study was to assess how rehabilitation hospitals throughout Europe manage patients with MDROs, and the impact of MDRO carriage on outcomes.

Cytokine responses to Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection differ between patient cohorts that have different clinical courses of infection.

Background: The clinical course of Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection is unpredictable and bacterial virulence, host immune response and patient characteristics are among the factors that contribute to the clinical course of infection. To investigate the relationship between cytokine response and clinical outcome, circulating cytokine levels were investigated in response to S. aureus bloodstream infection in patients with different clinical courses of infection.

DNA microarray genotyping and virulence and antimicrobial resistance gene profiling of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream isolates from renal patients.

Thirty-six methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream isolates from renal patients were genetically characterized by DNA microarray analysis and spa typing. The isolates were highly clonal, belonging mainly to ST22-MRSA-IV. The immune evasion and enterotoxin gene clusters were found in 29/36 (80%) and 33/36 (92%) isolates, respectively.