Category: Article Summaries

Rifampin and Staph Aureus Bacteremia!

Thwaites GE, et al. “Adjunctive rifampicin for Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (ARREST): a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial”. The Lancet. 2017. 391(10121):668-678. This is a multicenter, randomized, double blind placebo controlled trial on the use of adjunctive rifampin (or if you’re in the UK, rifampicin) for Staph aureus bacteremia. The inclusion criteria was either MSSA/MRSA from at

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Q Fever and Clotting!

A pair of Q fever studies: Million, Matthieu, et al. “Thrombosis and Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome During Acute Q Fever: a Cross-sectional Study.” Medicine, vol. 96, no. 29, 2017, pp. e7578. This is a cross-sectional study from the French National Referral Center for Q fever that sought to determine whether thrombosis in acute Q fever patients was associated

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Kullberg, Bart Jan, et al. “Isavuconazole Versus Caspofungin in the Treatment of Candidemia and Other Invasive Candida Infections: the ACTIVE Trial.” Clinical Infectious Diseases : an Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, vol. 68, no. 12, 2019, pp. 1981-1989.

The ACTIVE trial! This is a phase III, RCT, double blind, multicenter, non-inferiority trial comparing isavuconazole vs caspofungin in invasive candidiasis. Folks, in ID, it doesn’t get any better than this (look at all these studies!) Exclusion criteria were Candida in any body part (i.e. osteomyelitis, IE, meningitis), severe immunodeficiency, >48hrs of other antifungal therapy.

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Jorgensen, Sarah C J., et al. “Sequential Intravenous-to-oral Outpatient Antibiotic Therapy for MRSA Bacteraemia: One Step Closer.” The Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, vol. 74, no. 2, 2019, pp. 489-498.

This is a retrospective, observational cohort study from Detroit evaluating the frequency of IV to PO switch and the population for which this is use, as well as to figure out the factors associated with failure. They recruited 492 patients with MRSA bacteremia (basically anyone with the exception of polymicrobial bacteremia and those with wither

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Mehraj, Vikram, et al. “Circulating (1→3)-β-D-glucan Is Associated With Immune Activation During Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection.” Clinical Infectious Diseases : an Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, vol. 70, no. 2, 2020, pp. 232-241.

This is a cross-sectional and longitudinal assessment of BD glucan levels in 146 patients living with HIV. Within this cohort, 53 had been diagnosed within 6 months, 22 had chronic HIV but no ART, and 71 had chronic HIV and were on ART. These were then compared to 42 uninfected controls. The study design is

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Chang, Euijin, et al. “Limited Positive Predictive Value of β-d-Glucan in Hematologic Patients Receiving Antimold Prophylaxis.” Open Forum Infectious Diseases, vol. 7, no. 3, 2020, pp. ofaa048.

Retrospective study from South Korea evaluating the predictive value of BD glucan in the age of mold active triazole prophylaxis. They recruited patients that underwent induction chemotherapy, SCT, or GVHD treatment that had BD glucans throughout their stay while on posa or micafungin prophylaxis. They defined a positive BD glucan as 2 or more BDG

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