The Journal of infection
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The Journal of infection · Dec 2005
Erysipelas and cellulitis: clinical and microbiological spectrum in an Italian tertiary care hospital.
Patients hospitalized in the authors' institution for erysipelas or cellulitis between January 1995 and December 2002 were included in this retrospective review. Two hundred cases of soft tissue infections were hospitalized during the study period. The mean age of the patients was 58 years. ⋯ Soft tissue infections are common and have a high degree of morbidity and require prolonged hospitalization and antibiotic treatment. Microbiological diagnosis is difficult and treatment is based on empiric evidence. ESR and CPR levels on admission may predict the severity of the disease and duration of hospitalization.
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The Journal of infection · Nov 2005
Comparative StudyFusobacterium necrophorum as the cause of recurrent sore throat: comparison of isolates from persistent sore throat syndrome and Lemierre's disease.
Fusobacterium necrophorum is a well established cause of Lemierre's disease (LD); a syndrome characterised by severe sore throat, septicaemia, multiple abscesses and jugular vein thrombosis. There is no published data concerning the role of F. necrophorum in recurrent sore throats. As the result of an index case of persistent sore throat attributable to this organism being diagnosed in our laboratory, a subsequent case controlled study (not yet published) isolated F. necrophorum from 21% (P=0.0001) of cases of persistent, recurrent and chronic sore throats. The object of this study was to compare isolates of F. necrophorum from cases of systemic disease with isolates from cases of persistent sore throat syndrome (PSTS) to ascertain whether strains of similar type were responsible for both throat and systemic disease or whether different strains were involved in these presentations. ⋯ These results show that clinical disease caused by F. necrophorum has a wider spectrum than first anticipated. Similar strains are able to cause either chronic local or acute systemic disease suggesting that genetic factors such as those relating to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class may be influencing the outcome of the disease in each patient. Further work is required to produce a more accurate typing scheme and to ascertain the mechanisms of disease caused by this organism. An age correlation between the high risk groups for onset of infectious mononucleosis (IM), peritonsillar abscess (PTA), LD and PSTS has been noted in adolescents and young adults. Further work is required to investigate whether IM is associated with the onset of PTA caused by F. necrophorum which may lead to either PSTS or LD.
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The Journal of infection · Nov 2005
Case ReportsClindamycin in the treatment of group G beta-haemolytic streptococcal infections.
We report a case of severe streptococcal cellulitis in a healthy 47 year old male, where the sole microbial isolate was a beta-haemolytic group G Streptococcus. Treatment failure with high dose penicillin was observed despite in vitro sensitivity. ⋯ Although well documented with group A streptococcal infections, this phenomenon has not been fully recognised with group G beta-haemolytic streptococcal infections. This may have important implications for clinical management.