Helicobacter pylori is prevalent globally and implicated in various gastric diseases and malignancies. Rising antibiotic resistance has increasingly compromised the effectiveness of standard H. pylori eradication therapies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Managing disseminated nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infection in patients with neutralizing anti-interferon-γ autoantibodies (AIGAs) poses substantial challenges due to the lack of established treatment guidance and predictive tools for clinical outcomes. In this study, we investigated the utility of F-fluorodeoxyglucose (2-[F]FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) in guiding treatment decisions, with a focus on its ability to predict rehospitalization outcomes.
Methods: We conducted a post hoc analysis of the first available 2-[F]FDG PET scans of patients with AIGAs and disseminated NTM infection from a prospective observational multicenter cohort.
The diagnosis of adult-onset immunodeficiency syndrome associated with neutralizing anti-interferon γ autoantibodies (AIGA) presents substantial challenges to clinicians and pathologists due to its nonspecific clinical presentation, absence of routine laboratory tests, and resemblance to certain lymphoma types, notably nodal T follicular helper cell lymphoma, angioimmunoblastic type (nTFHL-AI). Some patients undergo lymphadenectomy for histopathological examination to rule out lymphoma, even in the absence of a preceding clinical suspicion of AIGA. This study aimed to identify reliable methods to prevent misdiagnosis of AIGA in this scenario through a retrospective case-control analysis of clinical and pathological data, along with immune gene transcriptomes using the NanoString nCounter platform, to compare AIGA and nTFHL-AI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRepeated annual influenza vaccinations have been associated with reduced vaccine-induced antibody responses. This prospective study aimed to explore the role of vaccine antigen-specific regulatory T (Treg) cells in antibody response to repeated annual influenza vaccination. We analyzed pre- and postvaccination hemagglutination inhibition (HI) titers, seroconversion rates, seroprotection rates, vaccine antigen hemagglutinin (HA)-specific Treg cells, and conventional T (Tconv) cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: For people with human immunodeficiency virus (PWH) who have no serological responses to their primary hepatitis A virus (HAV) vaccination or have seroreversion after successful primary vaccination, the optimal revaccination strategy remains unclear.
Methods: In this open-label, randomized clinical trial, PWH who tested negative for anti-HAV antibodies after receiving a standard 2-dose series of primary HAV vaccination were enrolled and assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive either 1 dose (the 1-dose group) or 2 doses of HAV vaccine administered 4 weeks apart (the 2-dose group). Serological response rates and anti-HAV antibody titers were compared at weeks 24 and 48.
J Microbiol Immunol Infect
February 2023
Amphotericin B and itraconazole are the primary agents for treating histoplasmosis. Newer azoles are alternatives for patients refractory to or intolerant of standard therapy. We report an 83-year-old woman with rheumatoid arthritis complicated with pleuropulmonary histoplasmosis who responded to liposomal amphotericin B, but progressed under voriconazole and posaconazole maintenance therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Patients with adult-onset immunodeficiency syndrome due to anti-interferon-γ autoantibodies (AIGAs) are susceptible to disseminated Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infections. M. chimaera, a newly identified MAC species, is distinguished from the others due to the reduced virulence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Formos Med Assoc
November 2022
Background: The surgical outcome for primary pulmonary cryptococcosis remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the clinical characteristics, treatment, and outcomes of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) for primary pulmonary cryptococcosis.
Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 49 patients with confirmed pulmonary cryptococcosis who underwent VATS for pulmonary nodules at the National Taiwan University Hospital between May 2013 and March 2019.
Rationale: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease is relatively uncommon in nontransplant hematological patients. Moreover, cutaneous manifestations of CMV diseases have scarcely been reported and are probably under-recognized.
Patient Concerns: We describe a patient with large B-cell lymphoma who developed a band-form, erythematous lesion over his left abdomen soon after the second course of rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisolone chemotherapy.
Purpose: Precise subspeciation of Mycobacterium abscessus complex (MAB) is crucial for predicting antibiotic susceptibilities and patient outcomes. However, routine clinical microbiology laboratories have limited diagnostic tools for the differentiation of the subspecies. Thus, we investigated the predictors for MAB subspecies to actuate rapid differentiation and the optimal treatment plans.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Sepsis remains a common but fatal complication among patients with immune suppression. We aimed to investigate the performance of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) compared with standard microbiological diagnostics in patients with hematologic malignancies.
Methods: We performed a prospective study from June 2019 to December 2019.
Because the geometric means of fluconazole and voriconazole in some isolates were not correctly input into the low trailing or high trailing WT group during the visualization process when using GraphPad Prism [...
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Neutralizing anti-granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) autoantibodies (AAbs) have been increasingly recognized to predispose healthy individuals to disseminated cryptococcosis. However, studies have only considered patients with central nervous system (CNS) infection. No longitudinal study has captured the disease spectrum and clinical course.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Azole-resistant has emerged in Asia in the context of its trailing nature, defined by residual growth above minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs). However, limited investigations in have focused on the difference of genotypes and molecular mechanisms between these two traits.
Methods: Sixty-four non-duplicated bloodstream isolates collected in 2017 were evaluated for azole MICs by the EUCAST E.
Early recognition of adult-onset immunodeficiency associated with neutralizing anti-interferon gamma autoantibodies (anti-IFNγ Abs) remains difficult, and misdiagnoses have been reported. Although febrile lymphadenopathy is among the most common initial manifestations of this disorder, no comprehensive clinicopathologic analysis of lymphadenopathy in patients with anti-IFNγ Abs has been reported. Here, we describe 26 lymph node biopsy specimens from 16 patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: (MAB) has emerged as the predominant pulmonary non-tuberculous mycobacterial pathogen in parts of Asia, including Taiwan. The reasons for the significant increase in MAB infections in the non-cystic fibrosis (CF) populations are poorly understood. The study aimed to elucidate whether this increase is related to the spread of the globally successful clone of MAB.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground/purpose: Concurrent sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are not uncommon in at-risk populations, for which control requires integrated testing, treatment and prevention.
Methods: From May, 2019 to February, 2020, multiplex real-time PCR assays were prospectively performed to detect Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG), and Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) in the urine and rectal/vaginal swab specimens collected from HIV-positive patients with a history of STIs or symptoms suggestive of STIs. Patients confirmed to have acquired STIs were treated according to treatment guidelines.
Rationale: Pulmonary non-tuberculous mycobacterial (PNTM) disease has increased over the past several decades, especially in older women. Abnormal mucociliary clearance and abnormal nasal nitric oxide (nNO) have been associated with PNTM disease in other patient cohorts. Mucociliary clearance can be affected by NO-cyclic guanosine monophosphate signalling and, therefore, modulation of the pathway may be possible with phosphodiesterase inhibitors such as sildenafil as a novel therapeutic approach.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Microbiol Immunol Infect
August 2020
Objective: Although disseminated nontuberculous mycobacterial infection is attributed to defects in the interleukin (IL)-12/interferon-γ circuit, the immunophenotype of idiopathic pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacterial (PNTM) disease is not well defined.
Method: We phenotyped Th1, Th2, Th17, and Treg cytokines and colony-stimulating factor production from patients with idiopathic PNTM disease. Data were compared with healthy donors, cystic fibrosis (CF), and primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) patients with PNTM disease.
Outbreaks of infections by , particularly subspecies , are increasingly reported worldwide. Several multilocus sequence typing (MLST) protocols for grouping international outbreak strains have been developed but not yet directly compared. Using the three-gene (, , and ), seven-gene (, , , , , , and ) and thirteen-gene (all of the preceding genes plus , , and ) MLST schemes, we identified 22, 38, and 40 unique sequence types (STs), respectively, among a total of 139 nonduplicated isolates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCandida tropicalis is the leading cause of non-C. albicans candidemia in tropical Asia and Latin America. We evaluated isolates from 344 patients with an initial episode of C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe burden of fungal diseases based on the real-world national data is limited. This study aimed to estimate the Taiwan incident cases with selected fungal diseases in 2013 using the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) which covered 99.6% of the 23.
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