Husrev Diktas

Effects of three different topical antibacterial dressings on Acinetobacter baumannii-contaminated full-thickness burns in rats.

In this animal study, three topical antibacterial dressings, Acticoat, chlorhexidine acetate 0.5% and silver sulfadiazine 1%, were compared in the treatment of Acinetobacter baumannii contamination of burns. All treatments were effective and prevented the organism invading the muscle and causing systemic infection, so there were significant differences between the results of the treatment groups and the control group. Mean eschar concentrations did not differ significantly between the silver sulfadiazine and chlorhexidine acetate groups, but there were significant differences between these and the Acticoat group, indicating that Acticoat eliminated A. baumannii from the tissues more effectively.

Mortality indicators in pneumococcal meningitis: therapeutic implications

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to delineate mortality indicators in pneumococcal meningitis with special emphasis on therapeutic implications. METHODS This retrospective, multicenter cohort study involved a 15-year period (1998-2012). Culture-positive cases (n=306) were included solely from 38 centers. RESULTS Fifty-eight patients received ceftriaxone plus vancomycin empirically. The rest were given a third-generation cephalosporin alone. Overall, 246 (79.1%) isolates were found to be penicillin-susceptible, 38 (12.2%) strains were penicillin-resistant, and 22 (7.1%) were oxacillin-resistant (without further minimum inhibitory concentration testing for penicillin). Being a critical case (odds ratio (OR) 7.089, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.230-15.557) and age over 50 years (OR 3.908, 95% CI 1.820-8.390) were independent predictors of mortality, while infection with a penicillin-susceptible isolate (OR 0.441, 95% CI 0.195-0.996) was found to be protective. Empirical vancomycin use did not provide significant benefit (OR 2.159, 95% CI 0.949-4.912). CONCLUSIONS Ceftriaxone alone is not adequate in the management of pneumococcal meningitis due to penicillin-resistant pneumococci, which is a major concern worldwide. Although vancomycin showed a trend towards improving the prognosis of pneumococcal meningitis, significant correlation in statistical terms could not be established in this study. Thus, further studies are needed for the optimization of pneumococcal meningitis treatment.

Comparison of silver-coated dressing (Acticoat®), chlorhexidine acetate 0.5% (Bactigrass®) and nystatin for topical antifungal effect in Candida albicans-contaminated, full-skin-thickness rat burn wounds

BACKGROUND In this experimental animal study, the effects of three different topical antimicrobial dressings on Candida albicans contaminated full-thickness burn in rats were analyzed. METHODS In total 32 adult Wistar rats (body weight 200-220 g) were used. Silver-coated dressing (Acticoat™®), chlorhexidine acetate 0.5% (Bactigrass®) and Mycostatine (Nystatin®) were compared to assess the antifungal effect of a once-daily application on experimental rat 15% full-skin thickness burn wound seeded 24h earlier with a 10(8) CFU/mL standard strain of C. albicans ATCC 90028. All the animals were sacrificed at post burn day 7. The quantitative counts of seeded organism in burn eschar and subjacent muscle were determined, in addition to the cultures of left ventricle blood and lung biopsies. RESULTS While there were significant differences between Acticoat™® group (4 ± 10 × 10(4)) and control group (5 ± 6 × 10(6)), and between Nystatin group (4 ± 4 × 10(4)) and control group (P=0.01, P=0.01), there were no significant differences between chlorhexidine acetate 0.5% group (2 ± 3 × 10(4)) and control group (P=0.7) respectively. Acticoat™® and Nystatin were sufficient to prevent to C. albicans from invading to the muscle and from causing systemic infection. CONCLUSIONS The animal data suggest that nystatin is the most effective agents in the treatment of C. albicans-contaminated burn wounds, and Acticoat™® is a choice of treatment on fungal burn wound infection with antibacterial effect and the particular advantage of limiting the frequency of replacement of the dressing.

Mortality indicators in community-acquired pneumonia requiring intensive care in Turkey

BACKGROUND Severe community-acquired pneumonia (SCAP) is a fatal disease. This study was conducted to describe an outcome analysis of the intensive care units (ICUs) of Turkey. METHODS This study evaluated SCAP cases hospitalized in the ICUs of 19 different hospitals between October 2008 and January 2011. The cases of 413 patients admitted to the ICUs were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS Overall 413 patients were included in the study and 129 (31.2%) died. It was found that bilateral pulmonary involvement (odds ratio (OR) 2.5, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.1-5.7) and CAP PIRO score (OR 2, 95% CI 1.3-2.9) were independent risk factors for a higher in-ICU mortality, while arterial hypertension (OR 0.3, 95% CI 0.1-0.9) and the application of non-invasive ventilation (OR 0.2, 95% CI 0.1-0.5) decreased mortality. No culture of any kind was obtained for 90 (22%) patients during the entire course of the hospitalization. Blood, bronchoalveolar lavage, and non-bronchoscopic lavage cultures yielded enteric Gram-negatives (n=12), followed by Staphylococcus aureus (n=10), pneumococci (n=6), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n=6). For 22% of the patients, none of the culture methods were applied. CONCLUSIONS SCAP requiring ICU admission is associated with considerable mortality for ICU patients. Increased awareness appears essential for the microbiological diagnosis of this disease.

Assessment of the requisites of microbiology based infectious disease training under the pressure of consultation needs

BackgroundTraining of infectious disease (ID) specialists is structured on classical clinical microbiology training in Turkey and ID specialists work as clinical microbiologists at the same time. Hence, this study aimed to determine the clinical skills and knowledge required by clinical microbiologists.MethodsA cross-sectional study was carried out between June 1, 2010 and September 15, 2010 in 32 ID departments in Turkey. Only patients hospitalized and followed up in the ID departments between January-June 2010 who required consultation with other disciplines were included.ResultsA total of 605 patients undergoing 1343 consultations were included, with pulmonology, neurology, cardiology, gastroenterology, nephrology, dermatology, haematology, and endocrinology being the most frequent consultation specialties. The consultation patterns were quite similar and were not affected by either the nature of infections or the critical clinical status of ID patients.ConclusionsThe results of our study show that certain internal medicine subdisciplines such as pulmonology, neurology and dermatology appear to be the principal clinical requisites in the training of ID specialists, rather than internal medicine as a whole.

Development and validation of a modified quick SOFA scale for risk assessment in sepsis syndrome

Sepsis is a severe clinical syndrome owing to its high mortality. Quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) score has been proposed for the prediction of fatal outcomes in sepsis syndrome in emergency departments. Due to the low predictive performance of the qSOFA score, we propose a modification to the score by adding age. We conducted a multicenter, retrospective cohort study among regional referral centers from various regions of the country. Participants recruited data of patients admitted to emergency departments and obtained a diagnosis of sepsis syndrome. Crude in-hospital mortality was the primary endpoint. A generalized mixed-effects model with random intercepts produced estimates for adverse outcomes. Model-based recursive partitioning demonstrated the effects and thresholds of significant covariates. Scores were internally validated. The H measure compared performances of scores. A total of 580 patients from 22 centers were included for further analysis. Stages of sepsis, age, time to antibiotics, and administration of carbapenem for empirical treatment were entered the final model. Among these, severe sepsis (OR, 4.40; CIs, 2.35–8.21), septic shock (OR, 8.78; CIs, 4.37–17.66), age (OR, 1.03; CIs, 1.02–1.05) and time to antibiotics (OR, 1.05; CIs, 1.01–1.10) were significantly associated with fatal outcomes. A decision tree demonstrated the thresholds for age. We modified the quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (mod-qSOFA) score by adding age (> 50 years old = one point) and compared this to the conventional score. H-measures for qSOFA and mod-qSOFA were found to be 0.11 and 0.14, respectively, whereas AUCs of both scores were 0.64. We propose the use of the modified qSOFA score for early risk assessment among sepsis patients for improved triage and management of this fatal syndrome.

Prevalence of Sharp Injuries and Associated Factors Among Healthcare Workers in a State Hospital

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of sharp injuries (SI) in our hospital, types of injuries, associated risk factors, and related knowledge and attitudes of personnel. Methods: This study was designed as a survey study applied between June 1 and June 15, 2016. Face-to-face interviews were performed using a questionnaire prepared by the researchers. The questionnaire included 21 questions related to sociodemographic data, viral serology outcomes, and occupational injuries. Study data were transferred to IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows. Version 22.0 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) statistical software, and a p<0.05 value was considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 97 healthcare personnel participated in the study and the participation rate in the study was calculated as 64.67%. Of the participants, 67 (69.1%) were women; the mean age was 39.4±5.07 years; and the mean period of service was 17.6±6.48 years. The rate of participants experiencing SI was 53.6%, and it was observed that 86.1% of 108 injuries were due to injectors. The most commonly preferred attitudes were washing the wound and having tests for possible contaminants. The rate of SI notification was 68%. Of the personnel, 78.4% stated that they had received training for occupational injuries. Of the participants, 62.9% knew their anti-HBs outcomes. When the factors associated with experiencing SI within the last 2 years were evaluated, significant differences were found between age (p=0.036) and SI training. Conclusions: The lack of the staff’s up-to-date knowledge needs to be resolved quickly, and necessary measures must be taken to transform information into practice. Klimik Dergisi 2018; 31(2): xx.

Comparison of relationship between histopathological, serological and biochemical parameters in patients with chronic hepatitis B infection

Objective To demonstrate the relationship between liver histology, alanine aminotransferase (ALT)/aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA levels based on hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) seropositivity status in naive patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Materials and method Naive patients with CHB admitted to our hospital between January 2012 and April 2014 were evaluated retrospectively. The patients were allocated into one of two groups based on HBeAg-seropositivity status. Results Two hundred and fourteen patients were enrolled in the study. Of these 214 patients, 103 (48.1%) were HBeAg-positive and 111 (51.9%) were HBeAg-negative. In the HBeAg-positive group, positive correlations were found between histologic activity index (HAI) scores and ALT (t=3.3, r=0.31, p=0.001), AST (t=2.8, r=0.27, p=0.005) and HBV DNA load (t=2.5, r=0.24, p=0.014). Additionally, in this group, fibrosis scores had positive correlations with ALT (t=3.3, r=0.32, p=0.001) and AST (t=2.7, r=0.26, p=0.008). In the HBeAg-negative group, positive correlations were found between HAI scores and ALT (t=3, r=0. 28, p=0.003), AST (t=3, r=0. 28, p=0.003) and HBV DNA (t=5.3, r=0. 45, p=0). In this same group, fibrosis scores had a positive correlation with HBV DNA (t=2.2, r=0. 21, p=0.024). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed a positive relationship between fibrosis and ALT in the HBeAg-positive group and a positive relationship between fibrosis and HBV DNA load in the HBeAg-negative group. Conclusions This study showed that HBV DNA load is an independent predictive factor for evaluating HAI and fibrosis in the HBeAg-negative group. Also, ALT is an independent predictive factor for evaluating fibrosis in the HBeAg-positive group.

The Current Definitions of Health-Care Associated Infections in Intensive Care Units

The incidence of nosocomial infections is higher than other sites of the hospitals at intensive care units (ICUs) because of high frequency of invasive interventions and multidrug resistant microorganism’s prevalence. The most frequent nosocomial infections in ICUs’ are ventilator-related pneumoniae, urinary tract infections, catheter-related bacteremia and surgical site infections. The definitions of health care associated infections and the diagnosis criteria were updated at 2008 by CDC/NHSN (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Healthcare Safety Network). After this period, Public Health Agency of Turkey translated this guideline to Turkish and publicated it. The aim of this study to discuss the definitions of health care associated infections in the lightening of current guidelines.

Coexistence of pancreatic tuberculosis with systemic brucellosis: a case report

Isolated pancreatic tuberculosis is an extremely rare clinical entity and is difficult to diagnose particularly in immunocompetent individuals. Clinical findings and symptomatology of brucellosis are often similar to tuberculosis thus making the differentiation amongst the two entities difficult. We report a case of pancreatic tuberculosis with systemic brucellosis in a 29 year old veterinarian who presented with epigastric pain and loss of appetite. Initial investigations revealed leukocytosis with moderately elevated transaminase, gamma glutamyl transferase, amylase and lipase levels. Imaging studies revealed an anechoic multiloculated cyst in the body and tail of the pancreas. Given the patient’s occupational risk coupled with the presence of a positive Brucella agglutination test (with a titer of 1:320); a diagnosis of pancreatitis secondary to brucellosis was given. In addition to standard pancreatitis therapy of bowel rest with intravenous fluid/electrolyte replacement, anti-brucellosis therapy was also administered. The patient’s initial response to therapy was positive however, 6 weeks into therapy, his abdominal pain recurred and repeat CT scan revealed the development of a pseudocyst in the pancreas. After failing a second attempt at conservative supportive therapy, the patient underwent an explorative laparotomy. Histological examination of the resected pancreatic specimen showed necrosis and was positive for tuberculosis by polymerase chain reaction. Herein, we describe the first case reported in the medical literature of the coexistence of systemic brucellosis with pancreatic tuberculosis. We suggest that the possibility of the coexistence of brucellosis with tuberculosis be kept in mind when assessing pancreatitis patients in endemic regions and in individuals with occupational risk hazards.