scholarly journals Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of children with community-acquired mycoplasma pneumonia in Nanjing

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Changdi Xu ◽  
Xiao Ma ◽  
Fengxia Zhang ◽  
Ying Bi ◽  
Qiangquan Rong ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a ubiquitous pathogen, causing various manifestations of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). This study aimed to update the epidemiology and clinical manifestations of community-acquired mycoplasma pneumonia (CAMP) in hospitalized children in Nanjing and to investigate the association of age, sex, and season of onset with the prognosis of CAMP. Methods The clinical data of children <18 years old, hospitalized for CAP in 2016, were collected and reviewed. Blood and nasopharyngeal aspirates were obtained for pathogen detection, including cultivation, immunofluorescence, and polymerase chain reaction and acid tests. Demographic, clinical, radiographic, and laboratory data were analyzed using SPSS version 21.0 software. Results Of 3377 eligible children with radiographic confirmation of pneumonia, 1249 (36.99%) had M. pneumoniae infection. Although most children (614, 49.16%) with M. pneumoniae infection were ≤3 years old, CAMP occurred mostly in those aged 5-10 years (70.23%). The peak incidence was recorded between July and September (49.05%). Children aged 5-10 years had significantly longer hospitalization and more frequent atelectasis. No significant difference in CAMP was found between the sexes. Conclusions M. pneumoniae remains one of the leading pathogens in pediatric CAP .Particular care is necessary for children older than 5 years and during the peak periods of disease.

Author(s):  
G Qian ◽  
Y Lin ◽  
AHY Ma ◽  
X Zhang ◽  
G Li ◽  
...  

Introduction: We aimed to compare the early clinical manifestations, laboratory results and chest computed tomography (CT) images of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with those of other community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) patients to differentiate COVID-19 before reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction results are obtained. Methods: The clinical and laboratory data and chest CT images of 51 patients were assessed in a fever observation ward for evidence of COVID-19 between January and February 2020. Results: 24 patients had laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, whereas 27 individuals had negative results. No statistical difference in clinical features was found between COVID-19 and CAP patients except for diarrhoea. There was a significant difference in lymphocyte and eosinophil counts between COVID-19 and CAP patients. 22 (91.67%) COVID-19 patients had bilateral involvement and multiple lesions according to their lung CT images; the left lower lobe (87.50%) and right lower lobe (95.83%) were most often affected, and all lesions were located in peripheral zones of the lung. The most common CT feature of COVID-19 was ground-glass opacity, found in 95.83% of patients, compared to 66.67% of CAP patients. Conclusion: Diarrhoea, lymphocyte counts, eosinophil counts and CT findings (e.g. ground-glass opacity) could help to distinguish COVID-19 from CAP at an early stage of infection, based on findings from our fever observation ward.


2014 ◽  
Vol 104 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
María José Iglesias Sánchez ◽  
Ana María Pérez Pico ◽  
Félix Marcos Tejedor ◽  
María Jesús Iglesias Sánchez ◽  
Raquel Mayordomo Acevedo

Background Dermatomycoses are a group of pathologic abnormalities frequently seen in clinical practice, and their prevalence has increased in recent decades. Diagnostic confirmation of mycotic infection in nails is essential because there are several pathologic conditions with similar clinical manifestations. The classical method for confirming the presence of fungus in nail is microbiological culture and the identification of morphological structures by microscopy. Methods We devised a nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) that amplifies specific DNA sequences of dermatophyte fungus that is notably faster than the 3 to 4 weeks that the traditional procedure takes. We compared this new technique and the conventional plate culture method in 225 nail samples. The results were subjected to statistical analysis. Results We found concordance in 78.2% of the samples analyzed by the two methods and increased sensitivity when simultaneously using the two methods to analyze clinical samples. Now we can confirm the presence of dermatophyte fungus in most of the positive samples in just 24 hours, and we have to wait for the result of culture only in negative PCR cases. Conclusions Although this PCR cannot, at present, substitute for the traditional culture method in the detection of dermatophyte infection of the nails, it can be used as a complementary technique because its main advantage lies in the significant reduction of time used for diagnosis, in addition to higher sensitivity.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. S503-S503
Author(s):  
Courtney C Sutton ◽  
Patti J Walton ◽  
Montgomery F Williams ◽  
Tracey L Bastian ◽  
Michael Wright ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flaviane Granero Maltempe ◽  
Vanessa Pietrowski Baldin ◽  
Mariana Aparecida Lopes ◽  
Vera Lúcia Dias Siqueira ◽  
Regiane Bertin de Lima Scodro ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Leprosy is a neglected tropical disease and an important public health problem, especially in developing countries. It is a chronic infectious disease that is caused by Mycobacterium leprae, which has a predilection for the skin and peripheral nerves. Although it has low sensitivity, slit-skin smear (SSS) remains the conventional auxiliary laboratory technique for the clinical diagnosis of leprosy. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a molecular biology technique that holds promise as a simple and sensitive diagnostic tool. In the present study, the performance of two PCR methods, using different targets, PCR-LP and PCR-P, were compared with SSS with regard to leprosy diagnosis in a reference laboratory. M. leprae DNA was extracted from 106 lymph samples of 40 patients who had clinical suspicion of leprosy. The samples were subjected to both PCR techniques and SSS. Amplification of the human b-globin gene was used as PCR inhibitor control. The specificity of both PCR techniques was 100%, and sensitivity was 0.007 and 0.015 µg/ml for PCR-LP and PCR-P, respectively. No significant difference was found between either the PCR-LP or PCR-P results and SSS results (p > 0.05). Although PCR is not yet a replacement for SSS in the diagnosis of leprosy, this technique may be used as an efficient auxiliary tool for early detection of the disease, especially in endemic regions. This strategy may also be useful in cases in which SSS results are negative (e.g., in paucibacillary patients) and cases in which skin biopsy cannot be performed.


Author(s):  
Wan Huang ◽  
Jisheng Zhang ◽  
Lingyi Zeng ◽  
Chengru Yang ◽  
Lining Yin ◽  
...  

BackgroundThis study aimed to determine the molecular characteristics of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP) isolates in a hospital in western Chongqing, southwestern China.MethodsA total of 127 unique CRKP isolates were collected from the Yongchuan Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, identified using a VITEK-2 compact system, and subjected to microbroth dilution to determine the minimal inhibitory concentration. Enterobacteriaceae intergenic repeat consensus polymerase chain reaction and multilocus sequence typing were used to analyze the homology among the isolates. Genetic information, including resistance and virulence genes, was assessed using polymerase chain reaction. The genomic features of the CRKP carrying gene blaKPC-2 were detected using whole-genome sequencing.ResultsST11 was the dominant sequence type in the homology comparison. The resistance rate to ceftazidime-avibactam in children was much higher than that in adults as was the detection rate of the resistance gene blaNDM (p &lt; 0.0001). Virulence genes such as mrkD (97.6%), uge (96.9%), kpn (96.9%), and fim-H (84.3%) had high detection rates. IncF (57.5%) was the major replicon plasmid detected, and sequencing showed that the CRKP063 genome contained two plasmids. The plasmid carrying blaKPC-2, which mediates carbapenem resistance, was located on the 359,625 base pair plasmid IncFII, together with virulence factors, plasmid replication protein (rep B), stabilizing protein (par A), and type IV secretion system (T4SS) proteins that mediate plasmid conjugation transfer.ConclusionOur study aids in understanding the prevalence of CRKP in this hospital and the significant differences between children and adults, thus providing new ideas for clinical empirical use of antibiotics.


Author(s):  
Nayoung Kang ◽  
Mohammed A Alrashed ◽  
Eric M Place ◽  
Phuongthao T Nguyen ◽  
Stephen J Perona ◽  
...  

Abstract Disclaimer In an effort to expedite the publication of articles related to the COVID-19 pandemic, AJHP is posting these manuscripts online as soon as possible after acceptance. Accepted manuscripts have been peer-reviewed and copyedited, but are posted online before technical formatting and author proofing. These manuscripts are not the final version of record and will be replaced with the final article (formatted per AJHP style and proofed by the authors) at a later time. Purpose To evaluate potential differences in days on mechanical ventilation for patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) based on route of administration of analgesic and sedative medications: intravenous (IV) alone vs IV + enteral (EN). Summary This institutional review board–approved study evaluated ventilation time and fentanyl or midazolam requirements with or without concurrent EN hydromorphone and lorazepam. Patients were included in the study if they were 18 to 89 years old and were admitted to the intensive care unit with a positive severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction or antigen test and respiratory failure requiring invasive mechanical ventilation for more than 72 hours. In total, 100 patients were evaluated, 60 in the IV-only group and 40 in the IV + EN group. There was not a significant difference in ventilation time between the groups (mean [SD], 19.6 [12.8] days for IV + EN vs 15.6 [11.2] days for IV only; P = 0.104). However, fentanyl (2,064 [847] μg vs 2,443 [779] μg; P &lt; 0.001) and midazolam (137 [72] mg vs 158 [70] mg; P = 0.004) requirements on day 3 were significantly higher in the IV-only group, and the increase in fentanyl requirements from day 1 to day 3 was greater in the IV-only group than in the IV + EN group (378 [625] μg vs 34 [971] μg; P = 0.033). Conclusion Addition of EN analgesic and sedative medications to those administered by the IV route did not change the duration of mechanical ventilation in patients with COVID-19, but the combination may reduce IV opioid requirements, decreasing the impact of IV medication shortages.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayat B. Al-Ghafari ◽  
Areej M. Alqahtani ◽  
Suzan N. Alturki ◽  
Huda Abdulaziz Al Doghaither ◽  
Hanaa M. Tashkandi ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Multidrug resistance member 1 (MDR1) is located on chromosome 7 and encodes P-glycoprotein (Pgp), which is universally accepted as a drug resistance biomarker. MDR1 polymorphisms may change either the protein expression or function, suggesting its possible association with cancers, including colorectal cancer (CRC). Thus, this study aimed to determine the effects of MDR1 polymorphisms on the drug response of Saudi CRC patients.Methods DNA samples were obtained from 62 CRC patients and 100 healthy controls. The genotypes and allele frequencies of the MDR1 polymorphisms G2677T and T1236C were determined by polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP).Results No significant difference was observed in the genotype distribution and allele frequency of T1236C between the CRC the patients and the controls. However, G2677T was found to play a highly significant protective role against the progression of CRC. Moreover, the results showed that none of the genotypes in SNPs T1236C and G2677T affected chemoresistance to Xeliri and Xelox.Conclusions T1236C in the MDR1 gene is not related to CRC risk, and G2677T protects against the development of CRC. Both MDR1 polymorphisms are not associated with the risk of chemoresistance.


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