Commercial hatchery processing may affect susceptibility to stress in laying hens.

Directly upon hatching, laying hen chicks are exposed to multiple stressful events during large-scale hatchery processing, which may affect their later coping abilities. Commercial hatchery chicks (HC) were compared to chicks that were incubated and hatched simultaneously under calm conditions (CC). After being raised under similar, non-stressful conditions for 36 days, all chicks were exposed to a series of stressors: transportation and introduction into a novel environment followed by a regrouping event in order to characterize long-lasting consequences of hatchery treatment.

Individualized dosing of vancomycin in geriatric patients.

Aims: Pharmacotherapy in geriatric patients is challenging due to frequent multimorbidity, polypharmacy, increased risk of adverse drug effects, and altered pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics associated with aging. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is a dosing individualisation strategy that helps to minimise toxicity whilst maximising the efficacy of the agent. Routine TDM of vancomycin is recommended in clinical practice in order to optimise drug exposure.

[Therapeutic drug monitoring of beta-lactam antibiotics].

Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is a dosage individualization strategy that helps to minimize toxicity whilst maximizing the efficacy of an agent. For many years, beta-lactam antibiotics were not considered ideal candidates for TDM due to their wide therapeutic range. Profound and difficult to predict beta-lactam pharmacokinetic variability in specific patient populations and increasing bacterial resistance suggest that reaching optimal exposures can be challenging in some clinical settings.

Is continuous infusion of imipenem always the best choice?

Monte Carlo simulations allow prediction and comparison of concentration-time profiles arising from different dosing regimens in a defined population, provided a population pharmacokinetic model has been established. The aims of this study were to evaluate the population pharmacokinetics of imipenem in critically ill patients with hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) and to assess the probability of target attainment (PTA) and cumulative fraction of response (CFR) using EUCAST data. A two-compartment model based on a data set of 19 subjects was employed.

Pharmacokinetics of imipenem in critically ill patients during empirical treatment of nosocomial pneumonia: a comparison of 0.5-h and 3-h infusions.

In critically ill patients, pathophysiological changes alter the pharmacokinetics of antibiotics. Imipenem exhibits primarily time-dependent killing. Its administration by prolonged infusion may increase the time for which its plasma concentration exceeds the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of suspected pathogens.

Antibiotic consumption and its influence on the resistance in Enterobacteriaceae.

Background: Increasing bacterial resistance to antibiotics is one of the most serious problems in current medicine. An important factor contributing to the growing prevalence of multiresistant bacteria is application of antibiotics. This study aimed at analyzing the development of resistance of Enterobacteriaceae to selected beta-lactam, fluoroquinolone and aminoglycoside antibiotics in the University Hospital Olomouc and assessing the effect of selection pressure of these antibiotics.

[Effect of colistin consumption and prevalence of colistin-resistant bacteria].

Objective: Recently, there has been a renaissance of the use of the antibiotic colistin resulting from increasing resistance of bacterial pathogens, particularly in intensive care patients. The study aimed at assessing the impact of colistin consumption on the prevalence of colistin-resistant bacteria in the University Hospital Olomouc (UHO).

Methods: A laboratory database was retrospectively searched to identify all clinically significant colistin-resistant bacterial strains isolated between 2007 and 2011.

[Pharmacological characteristics of ertapenem].

Ertapenem is a broad-spectrum bactericidal carbapenem antibiotic. It differs from the other substances of this group by the absence of action against Gram-negative non-fermenting bacilli and by a long elimination half-life, which allows once-daily administration. It is administered once daily in a dose of 1 gram intravenously.

[Influence of carbapenem selection pressure on bacterial resistance].

As a result of high resistance of bacterial pathogens to broad-spectrum penicillins and cephalosporins, carbapenems have been increa-singly used recently. The presented study aimed at analyzing the association between carbapenem consumption and resistance of selected Gramnegative pathogens to meropenem. Using linear regression analysis, a statistically significant association was found between carbapenem consumption and resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

[Pharmacokinetics of carbapenems].

Carbapenems, beta-lactam antibiotics, are ideal candidates for the treatment of serious nosocomial infections including sepsis for their exceptionally broad antibacterial spectrum and high efficiency. They are administered parenterally by intravenous infusion. Carbapenems penetrate well and rapidly into many different tissue compartments and the interstitial fluid.