Dr. Germophile

Turbett, Sarah E., et al. “Use of Routine Complete Blood Count Results to Rule Out Anaplasmosis Without the Need for Specific Diagnostic Testing.” Clinical Infectious Diseases : an Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2019.

By apena17 on June 16, 2020June 16, 2020

This one out of the one and only Mass Gen. Apparently they have issues with people ordering PCR for Anaplasma when it is not needed (they state 3% of those PCRs ordered ended up being positive). As such, they did a 2 phase study to see if they could use CBC and LFTs to screen

#FOAMID Article Summaries

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.

By apena17 on June 16, 2020June 16, 2020

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

Posted in: AIDS, BD glucan, HIV

#FOAMID Article Summaries Diagnostics Fungi

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.

By apena17 on June 16, 2020June 16, 2020

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

Posted in: Article Summaries, BD glucan, hematology