Outcomes of Partial Oral Antibiotic Treatment for Complicated S. aureus Bacteremia in People Who Inject Drugs

alexandrossfakianakis shared this article with you from Inoreader Outcomes of Partial Oral Antibiotic Treatment for Complicated S. aureus Bacteremia in People Who Inject Drugs via Clinical Infectious Diseases Advance Access Abstract Background Staphylococcus aureus represents the leading cause of complicated bloodstream infections among persons who inject drugs (PWID). Standard of care (SOC) intravenous (IV) antibiotics result in high rates of treatment success, but are not feasible for some PWID. Transition to oral antibiotics may represent an alternative treatment option. Methods We evaluated all adult patients with a history of injection d rug use hospitalized from 1/2016 through 12/2021 with complicated S. aureus bloodstream infections, including infective endocarditis, epidural abscess, vertebral osteomyelitis, and septic arthritis. Patients were compared by antibiotic treatment (SOC IV antibiotics, incomplete IV therapy, or transition from initial IV to partial oral) using the primary composite endpoint of death or readmission due to microbiologic failure within 90 days of discharge. Results Patients who received oral antibiotics after an incomplete IV antibiotic course were significantly less likely to experience microbiologic failure or death than patients discharged without oral antibiotics (p < 0.001). There was no significant difference in microbiologic failure rates when comparing patients who were discharged on partial oral antibiotics after receiving at least 10 days of IV antibiotics to SOC regimens (P > 0.9). Conclusion Discharge of P WID with partially treated complicated S. aureus bacteremias without oral antibiotics results in high rates of morbidity and should be avoided. For PWID hospitalized with complicated S. aureus bacteremias who have received at least 10 days of effective IV antibiotic therapy after clearance of bacteremia, transition to oral antibiotics with outpatient support represents a potential alternative if the patient does not desire SOC IV antibiotic therapy. View on Web

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Evaluating agreement in different diagnosis methods is necessary

alexandrossfakianakis shared this article with you from Inoreader Evaluating agreement in different diagnosis methods is necessary via Journal of Medical Virology Abstract Prazuck et al. evaluated an innovative two-step self-test, the AAZ COVID-VIRO ALL IN ®, switching from the classic nasal swab to a nasal sponge. We notice that the agreement between COVID-VIRO ALL IN ® and RT-PCR was not assessed. Although the authors had evaluated the overall agreement between COVID-VIRO ALL IN ® and RT-PCR, applying overall agreement to evaluate intra-rater consistency is not always appropriate. Our second concern is about the precise number of patients. Thinking the exact number of patients is a prerequisite for statistical analysis, we would be grateful if the authors could explain their data in detail and clarify the misunderstanding. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. View on Web

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Estimating Waning of Vaccine Effectiveness: a Simulation Study

alexandrossfakianakis shared this article with you from Inoreader Estimating Waning of Vaccine Effectiveness: a Simulation Study via Clinical Infectious Diseases Advance Access Abstract Background Developing accurate and reliable methods to estimate vaccine protection is a key goal in immunology and public health. While several statistical methods have been proposed, their potential inaccuracy in capturing fast intra-seasonal waning of vaccine-induced protection needs to be rigorously investigated. Methods To compare statistical methods for vaccine effectiveness (VE) estimation, we generated simulated data using a multiscale agent-base d model of an epidemic with an acute viral infection and differing extents of VE waning. We apply a previously proposed framework for VE measures based on the observational data richness to assess changes of vaccine-induced protection over time. Results While VE measures based on hard-to-collect information (e.g. the exact timing of exposures) were accurate, usually VE studies rely on time-to-infection data and the Cox proportional hazard model. We found that its extension utilizing scaled Schoenfeld residuals, previously proposed for capturing VE waning, was unreliable in capturing both the degree of waning and its functional form and identified the mathematical factors contributing to this unreliability. We showed that partitioning time and including a time-vaccine interaction term in the Cox model significantly improved estimation of VE waning, even in the case of dramatic, rapid waning. We also proposed how to optimize the partitioning scheme. Conclusions While appropriate for rejecting the null hypothesis of no waning, scaled Schoenfeld residuals are unreliable for estimating the degree of waning. We propose a Cox-model-based method with a time-vaccine interaction term and further optimization of partitioning time. These findings may guide future analysis of VE waning data. View on Web

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COVID‐19 immunopathology: From acute diseases to chronic sequelae

alexandrossfakianakis shared this article with you from Inoreader COVID‐19 immunopathology: From acute diseases to chronic sequelae via Journal of Medical Virology ABSTRACT The clinical manifestation of COVID-19 mainly targets the lung as a primary affected organ, which is also a critical site of immune cells activation by SARS-CoV-2. However, recent reports also suggest the involvement of extrapulmonary tissues in COVID-19 pathology. The interplay of both innate and adaptive immune responses is key to COVID-19 management. As a result, a robust innate immune response provides the first line of defense, concomitantly, adaptive immunity neutralizes the infection and builds memory for long-term protection. However, dysregulated immunity, both innate and adaptive, can skew towards immunopathology both in acute and chronic cases. Here we have summarized some of the recent findings that provide critical insight into the immunopathology caused by SARS-CoV-2, in acute and post-acute cases. Finally, we further discuss some of the immunomodulatory drugs in preclinical and clinical trials for dampening the immunopathology caused by COVID- 19. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. View on Web

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WHOLE GENOME SEQUENCING OF SARS‐CoV‐2: COMPARISON OF TARGET CAPTURE AND AMPLICON SINGLE MOLECULAR REAL TIME SEQUENCING PROTOCOLS

alexandrossfakianakis shared this article with you from Inoreader WHOLE GENOME SEQUENCING OF SARS‐CoV‐2: COMPARISON OF TARGET CAPTURE AND AMPLICON SINGLE MOLECULAR REAL TIME SEQUENCING PROTOCOLS via Journal of Medical Virology ABSTRACT Fast, accurate sequencing methods are needed to identify new variants and genetic mutations of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) genome. Single Molecular Real Time (SMRT) Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) provides long, highly accurate sequences by circular consensus reads. This study compares the performance of a target capture SMRT Pacbio protocol for whole genome sequencing (WGS) of SARS-CoV-2 to that of an amplicon Pacbio SMRT sequencing protocol. The median genome coverage was higher (p<0.05) with the target capture protocol (99.3% [IQR: 96.3-99.5]) than with the amplicon protocol (99.3% [IQR :69.9-99.3]). The clades of 65 samples determined with both protocols were 100% concordant. After adjusting for Ct values, S gene coverage was higher with the target capture protocol than with the amplicon protocol. After stratification on Ct values, higher S gene coverage with the target capture protocol was observed only for samples w ith Ct>17 (p<0.01). Pacbio SMRT sequencing protocols appears to be suitable for WGS, genotyping and detecting mutations of SARS-CoV-2. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. View on Web

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Translucency, color stability, and biaxial flexural strength of advanced lithium disilicate ceramic after coffee thermocycling

alexandrossfakianakis shared this article with you from Inoreader Translucency, color stability, and biaxial flexural strength of advanced lithium disilicate ceramic after coffee thermocycling via Journal of Esthetic and Restorative Dentistry Abstract Objective To compare the color stability, translucency, and biaxial flexural strength (BFS) of differently glazed advanced lithium disilicate (ALDS) with those of lithium disilicate (LDS) and zirconia-reinforced lithium silicate (ZLS) after coffee thermocycling. Materials and methods Forty disk-shaped specimens were prepared from three lithium silicate based materials (CEREC Tessera, ALDS; IPS e.max CAD, LDS; Vita Suprinity, ZLS). ALDS specimens were divided into two subgroups according to glazing procedures (reduced glaze duration, ALDS-S and normal glaze duration, ALDS-N), while LDS and ZLS specimens were crystallized and glazed. Color coordinate measurements were performed before and after coffee thermocycling. Color differences (ΔE 00) and relative translucency parameters (RTP) were calculated. Specimens were then subjected to BFS test. Statistical analysis was performed by using 1- (ΔE 00 and BFS) and 2-way (RTP) ANOVA tests (α = 0.05). Results ΔE 00 values of tested materials were similar (df = 3, F = 0.150, p = 0.929). Two-way ANOVA showed the significant effect of material type, coffee thermocycling, and the interaction between these parameters on RTP values (p < 0.001). Both before and after thermocycling, LDS had the highest (p ≤ 0.001) and ZLS had the lowest (p < 0.001) RTP values, while ALDS-N had higher RTP than ALDS-S (p ≤ 0.001). Among tested materials, only LDS had similar RTP values before and after thermocycling (p = 0.865) as the other materials had lower RTP values after thermocycling (p < 0.001). ALDS-N had higher BFS values than ALDS-S (p = 0.005), while LDS had similar values to ALDS specimens (p ≥ 0.201). ZLS had the highest BFS (p ≤ 0.007). Conclusions ALDS had comparable values to those of other materials. However, reduced glazing duration resulted in decreased translucency and BFS of ALDS. Clinical significance ALDS may be an appropriate restorative material for those patients with increased coffee consumption considering its color stability and ability to maintain translucency, particularly when glazed by using a conventional porcelain furnace. View on Web

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