β-Lactam Inoculum Effect in Methicillin-Susceptible Staphylococcus aureus Infective Endocarditis.

Importance: Infective endocarditis (IE) caused by Staphylococcus aureus is associated with high mortality, approximately 20% to 30%, mostly in the first month, with no improvement in recent decades. Current opinion is that antistaphylococcal penicillin and cefazolin are equally effective in treating methicillin-susceptible S aureus (MSSA) IE, and both are recommended as possible first-line treatments. Most MSSA strains carry the β-lactamase blaZ gene, and some blaZ-positive strains exhibit an inoculum effect, meaning increased minimum inhibitory concentrations at high inoculum.

Modelling the effectiveness of antiviral treatment strategies to prevent household transmission of acute respiratory viruses.

Households are a major driver of transmission of acute respiratory viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2 or Influenza. Until now antiviral treatments have mostly been used as a curative treatment in symptomatic individuals. During an outbreak, more aggressive strategies involving pre- or post-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP or PEP) could be employed to further reduce the risk of severe disease but also prevent transmission to household contacts.

Relation Between Chest Radiography Results and Antibiotic Initiation in Community-Acquired Pneumonia Management by General Practitioners.

Purpose: For most guidelines, diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is based on a combination of clinical signs and focal consolidation visible on chest radiographs (CRs). Our objective was to analyze antibiotic initiation by general practitioners for patients with suspected CAP according to CR.

Methods: We conducted a prospective cross-sectional study in general practice in France.

Evaluation of the specificity of the 2023 European Society of Cardiology classification for infective endocarditis.

Background: The 2023 Duke-ISCVID and 2023 ESC classifications have recently issued independent diagnostic criteria for infective endocarditis (IE), updating the 2015 ESC criteria.

Objectives: The specificity of the 2023 ESC criteria should be evaluated and compared to the two other classifications in IE suspected patients.

Methods: We retrospectively collected the characteristics of patients hospitalised in Bichat University Hospital, in 2021, who had been evaluated for suspicion of IE, and in whom IE diagnosis was finally rejected.