Duration of antibiotic treatment using procalcitonin-guided treatment algorithms in older patients: a patient-level meta-analysis from randomized controlled trials.

Background: Older patients have a less pronounced immune response to infection, which may also influence infection biomarkers. There is currently insufficient data regarding clinical effects of procalcitonin (PCT) to guide antibiotic treatment in older patients.

Objective And Design: We performed an individual patient data meta-analysis to investigate the association of age on effects of PCT-guided antibiotic stewardship regarding antibiotic use and outcome.

Clinical and microbiological characteristics of OXA-23- and OXA-143-producing Acinetobacter baumannii in ICU patients at a teaching hospital, Brazil.

Background: Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAb) is an important cause of nosocomial infections especially in intensive care units. This study aimed to assess clinical aspects and the genetic background of CRAb among ICU patients at a Brazilian teaching hospital.

Methods: 56 critically ill patients colonized or infected by CRAb, during ICU stay, were prospectively assessed.

Procalcitonin-guided protocol is not useful to manage antibiotic therapy in febrile neutropenia: a randomized controlled trial.

Febrile neutropenia (FN) requires immediate use of antibiotics (ATB), and procalcitonin (PCT) is proven to be useful in guiding antibiotic therapy in different settings. This study investigated the use of PCT as a guide for the duration of ATB in FN. A randomized controlled trial was carried out from January-December 2010.

Antimicrobials and renal failure in neutropenic patients.

Antimicrobial treatment is often indicated to neutropenic patients. Although renal failure is a common complication of many antibiotics, no information could be found in the literature defining which are the best screening criteria for detecting renal injury. In this paper, the authors aim to assess the progress to renal failure in neutropenic patients on antimicrobial use and to compare different diagnostic criteria of renal failure in association to antimicrobial agents used.

Neutropenic patients and their infectious complications at a University Hospital.

Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze the characteristics and infectious complications of neutropenic patients in a referral hospital.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out between April and September 2008, which enrolled all neutropenic patients identified by daily blood counts in the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Demographic data and information on infections were obtained from the Hospital Infection Control Committee.

Outbreak of resistant Acinetobacter baumannii- measures and proposal for prevention and control.

Acinetobacter baumannii colonization and infection, frequent in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients, is commonly associated with high morbimortality. Several outbreaks due to multidrug-resistant (MDR) A. baumanii have been reported but few of them in Brazil.

Tuberculosis in liver transplant recipients: a single Brazilian center experience.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is an important opportunistic infection in transplant recipients worldwide. The frequency of Mycobacterium tuberculosis disease varies among different regions, but the incidence of TB in adult liver transplant (LT) recipients is largely unknown. The estimated frequency ranges from 0.

Conventional and molecular techniques in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis: a comparative study.

Objective: To compare four laboratory methods in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Methods: Respiratory secretion specimens were collected from 160 patients suspected of having pulmonary tuberculosis. Direct testing for Mycobacterium tuberculosis was carried out using Ziehl-Neelsen and auramine staining.