Infection
-
Aim of this study was to evaluate whether risk factors which predict the development of candidemia may also predict death in ICU patients with candidemia. During an 8-year-period all ICU patients whose blood cultures yielded Candida species (n = 40) were retrospectively evaluated in a case-control fashion. The average incidence of Candida bloodstream infections was 5.5 per 10,000 patient days, ranging from 2.4 in 1990 to 7.4 in 1994. ⋯ The overall mortality of patients with candidemia was 58%. Mortality was highest in the group of patients with multi-organ dysfunction syndrome, especially among those in need of hemodialysis. Risk factors for the development of candidemia, such as age, malignancy, steroid use, i.v. catheterization, and the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics were not correlated with mortality in the ICU patients studied.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Meropenem monotherapy versus cefotaxime plus metronidazole combination treatment for serious intra-abdominal infections.
In an open, randomised, multicentre trial, the efficacy and tolerability of empirical meropenem monotherapy (1 g intravenously every 8 hours) and cefotaxime (2 g every 8 hours) plus metronidazole (0.5 g intravenously every 8 hours) for 5 to 10 days was compared in 94 patients with serious intra-abdominal infection who required surgery. Eighty-three patients had an evaluable clinical response. ⋯ In the bacteriologically evaluable population, a satisfactory clinical response was observed in 31/33 of those who received meropenem compared to 24/32 of the cefotaxime/metronidazole recipients (p = 0.03). Empirical meropenem monotherapy should prove a useful alternative to the currently standard combination treatment for serious intraabdominal infections.
-
Comparative Study
Procalcitonin in patients with and without immunosuppression and sepsis.
High serum levels of procalcitonin (PCT) are observed in patients with sepsis or severe infection. In a prospective study of 122 hospitalised adult medical patients with sepsis, serum PCT was determined on admission and for 9 days thereafter. Patients with no alteration in their immune system showed high PCT values up to day 5, decreasing to normal levels by day 9. ⋯ PCT concentrations fell to base line levels on days 6 to 9 of the sepsis episode in both groups. The observed difference was not significantly related to the kind of causative microorganism or a culture negative sepsis. Leukopenia seemed to go together with lower PCT values after day 2 of the episode, but this could not be proven statistically.
-
In this prospective study the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score was evaluated in 107 critically ill infectious disease (ID) patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) during a 1-year period. Patients were separated into two groups: those affected by central nervous system (CNS) infections and those affected by infections other than of the CNS. ⋯ Univariate logistic regression analysis confirmed a significant relationship between the first ICU day GCS score and the subsequent ICU mortality in the group of patients with CNS infections (r = 0.3152, p = 0.0015) but not in the group with infections not affecting the CNS (r = 0.0919, p = 0.1106). Our preliminary results suggest that the prognostic value of the GCS score is valid only in patients with CNS infections but not in other ID patients.