Journal of infection and chemotherapy : official journal of the Japan Society of Chemotherapy
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J. Infect. Chemother. · Jul 2015
Comparative StudyClinical features of enterococcal bacteremia due to ampicillin-susceptible and ampicillin-resistant enterococci: An eight-year retrospective comparison study.
Enterococcus consists human bowel flora, but sometimes behave as an important nosocomial pathogen. In order to identify clinical characteristics that help discriminate between ampicillin-susceptible and ampicillin-resistant enterococcal bacteremia in advance for antimicrobial susceptibility testing, a retrospective eight-year study was carried out in patients with enterococcal bacteremia experienced in Saga University Hospital, Japan. A total of 143 patients were included in the analysis: 85 (59.4%) with bacteremia caused by ampicillin-susceptible enterococci and 58 (40.6%) by ampicillin-resistant strains. ⋯ On multivariate analysis, independent risk factors for ampicillin-resistant enterococci were as follows: prior exposures to penicillins and carbapenems, and bacteremia related to mucositis with febrile neutropenia. These findings would assist physicians in deciding whether glycopeptide antibiotics should be included as an empiric antibiotic therapy in patients with suspected enterococcal infections and also those with persistent neutropenic fever refractory to fourth generation cephalosporin. A few cases of MALDI-TOF MS-identified Enterococcus faecium that turned out ampicillin-sensitive were also described to emphasize the importance of taking epidemiological aspects of patients into considerations when deciding initial antimicrobial treatment.
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J. Infect. Chemother. · Jul 2015
The association of elevated trough serum vancomycin concentrations with obesity.
Obese patients display differences in vancomycin drug disposition, which may complicate attainment of appropriate serum vancomycin concentrations (SVCs). This study was conducted to determine if obesity leads to trough SVCs above the therapeutic range. ⋯ Increasing obesity predicted higher probabilities of SVCs > 20 mg/L. Development of alternative dosing and management strategies for vancomycin may be necessary to account for pharmacokinetic changes associated with obesity.
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J. Infect. Chemother. · Jun 2015
Development of a teicoplanin loading regimen that rapidly achieves target serum concentrations in critically ill patients with severe infections.
We performed high-dose loading (12 mg/kg every 12 h for 48 h; 4 doses total) of teicoplanin (TEIC) in patients with severe methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, with the goal of achieving target serum concentration (TEICc) ≥ 15 mg/l within 48 h of starting administration. The safety and effectiveness of the fixed, early-stage administration method were evaluated across a range of kidney dysfunction severity levels. TEIC high-dose loading was administered to 106 patients with MRSA infection from February 2010 to February 2013. ⋯ Target TEICc was reached in all groups, and bacteriological effectiveness and utility were high in G1, G2, and G3. The maximum TEICc (≥ 28.0 mg/l) and serum albumin (≤ 1.84 g/dl) were associated with organ toxicity. Fixed high-dose loading of TEIC achieved the target therapeutic range (≥ 15 mg/l) within 48 h of the start of administration regardless of kidney dysfunction, and exhibited sufficient utility.
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J. Infect. Chemother. · May 2015
ReviewApplications of the pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) analysis of antimicrobial agents.
The alarming increase of resistance against multiple currently available antibiotics is leading to a rapid lose of treatment options against infectious diseases. Since the antibiotic resistance is partially due to a misuse or abuse of the antibiotics, this situation can be reverted when improving their use. One strategy is the optimization of the antimicrobial dosing regimens. ⋯ Two methodologies are described to establish the PK/PD breakpoints, which are a big part of the clinical breakpoint setting machine. Furthermore, the main subpopulations of patients with altered characteristics that can condition the PK/PD behavior (such as critically ill, elderly, pediatric or obese patients) and therefore, the outcome of the antibiotic therapy, are reviewed. Finally, some recommendations are provided from a PK/PD point of view to enhance the efficacy of prophylaxis protocols used in surgery.
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J. Infect. Chemother. · May 2015
Increasing patients with pulmonary Mycobacterium avium complex disease and associated underlying diseases in Japan.
This study was conducted to evaluate trends in the isolation of strains of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) and trends in the number of patients with pulmonary Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) disease. We retrospectively reviewed microbiological results and clinical data to identify patients who were diagnosed with pulmonary MAC disease at Kyoto University Hospital in Japan between 2000 and 2013. NTM were isolated from 6327 of 80,285 samples (7.9%) for mycobacterial culture. ⋯ Compared with the early cohort (2000-2006, 236 patients), more patients in the late cohort (2007-2013, 356 patients) had an underlying disease (157 [66.5%] vs. 284 [79.8%], P = 0.0003), a Charlson comorbidity index score ≥ 1 (115 [48.7%] vs. 213 [59.8%], P = 0.008), collagen vascular disease (18 [7.6%] vs. 60 [16.9%], P = 0.001), rheumatoid arthritis (11 [4.7%] vs. 41 [11.5%], P = 0.004), and used immunosuppressive drugs (22 [9.3%] vs. 63 [17.7%], P = 0.004). The numbers of patients with lung disease, malignant disease and diabetes mellitus increased; however, their frequencies did not differ. The recovery rate of NTM and patients with pulmonary MAC disease increased, especially in patients with collagen vascular disease or rheumatoid arthritis or who used immunosuppressive drugs.