Determining the Need for Additional Testing With Quantiferon TB Gold in Patients With Positive Tuberculin Skin Tests and a History of BCG Vaccination
Objective: To determine if the QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT) testing can be obviated for the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in patients with a positive tuberculin skin test (TST) and...
Conclusion: This study also confirms that if the TST induration is more than 10mm in patients with a history of BCG vaccination, the TST induration is likely because of LTBI and is less likely because of cross-reaction with BCG vaccination.
Emergence of Multidrug-Resistant Non-Fermenting Gram-Negative Bacilli in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital of Central India: Is Colistin Resistance Still a Distant Threat?
Purpose Multidrug-resistant (MDR) organisms are being increasingly reported from India. This study aimed to determine the antibiotic susceptibility pattern of non-fermenting Gram-negative bacilli (NF-GNB) isolated from all the clinical samples...
Conclusion: Our study showed a significantly wide variety of NF-GNB, ranging from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (51.7%), Acinetobacter baumannii (23.4%), to Acinetobacter haemolyticus (4.6%), Pseudomonas putida (0.9%), Elizabethkingia meningoseptica (0.7%), Pseudomonas luteola (0.5%), and Ralstonia pickettii (0.4%), which have not been commonly...
What data collection methods work best for COVID19 outbreak surveillance for people with end stage kidney disease? An observational cohort study using the UK Renal Registry - BMC Nephrology
Source : https://bmcnephrol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12882-023-03148-8
Background Patients on kidney replacement therapy (KRT) are vulnerable to severe illness from COVID-19. Timely, accurate surveillance is essential for planning and implementing infection control at local, regional and national...
Conclusions: For patients undergoing ICHD treatment the collection of data submitted directly by renal centres allows constant monitoring in real time. For other KRT modalities, using a national swab test dataset through frequent linkage may be the most effective method. Optimising central surveillance can improve patient care by informing...
Accelerated waning of the humoral response to COVID-19 vaccines in obesity - Nature Medicine
Source : https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02343-2
Obesity is associated with an increased risk of severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and mortality. COVID-19 vaccines reduce the risk of serious COVID-19 outcomes; however, their effectiveness in people...
We found that 55% of individuals with severe obesity had unquantifiable titers of neutralizing antibody against authentic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus compared to 12% of individuals with normal BMI (P = 0.0003) 6 months after their second vaccine dose. Furthermore, we observed that, for individuals...
Development of a Reinforcement Learning Algorithm to Optimize Corticosteroid Therapy in Critically Ill Patients with Sepsis
Source : https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm12041513
Background: The optimal indication, dose, and timing of corticosteroids in sepsis is controversial. Here, we used reinforcement learning to derive the optimal steroid policy in septic patients based on data...
Conclusions: Individualized use of corticosteroids in sepsis may result in a mortality benefit, but optimal treatment policy may be more restrictive than the routine clinical practice. Whilst external validation is needed, our study motivates a ‘precision-medicine’ approach to future prospective controlled trials and practice.