Where all your ID needs are met! Sort of.
Originally described as a pathogen in 1923, Corynebacterium equi was isolated from the lungs of ten foals (aka a young horse) who had pneumonia (1). Its name was later changed to rhodococcus (aka red coccus), and can be mistaken for mycobacterium spp due to its sometimes acid-fast appearance (2). It is known to infect horses,
Aspiration of any content is one of those nebulous things we tend to treat, no matter what. The idea is that aspiration of any oropharyngeal contents into the lungs represents an establishment of a new infection and, thus, it needs to be treated. I think the term aspiration pneumonia is actually misunderstood, and it may
What is this? I am writing about a topic related to transplant infectious diseases? Something has to be going on! I had originally intended to write about CMV serostatus and risk of organ rejection in SOT patients, but that was a more difficult topic to tackle (just like that HTLV-1 post; yeah that one is
Consider this post a continuation of the prior one on prophylaxis. I mention a bit on the pathophysiology, where adaptive immunity seems to play a key role in the way the body deals with the fungus, with mice with SCID infected with pneumocystis not being able to mount an inflammatory response. As a result of
Staphylococcus aureus is an organism that is quite common in many diseases, including skin and soft tissue infections, bacteremias, and pneumonia. It causes fairly severe infection due to its significant number of toxins and virulence factors. I have mentioned the superantigen that causes toxic shock syndrome however another toxin that is useful to know about
If you get nothing from this, just remember: TMP-SMX, fluroquinolones, minocycline. These tend to be good antibiotic options for this bug. Also, make sure if you isolate this from a trach or a endotracheal tube that there are signs of infection before you proceed with treatment as this can colonize plastic! Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is a
Procalcitonin is a precursor of the hormone calcitonin and is released into systemic circulation within 4 hours of inoculation of bacterial endotoxin, In general, cytokines enhance procalcitonin release while interferons, which are released in context of viral infections. Because of this, there has been a push towards using PCT to differentiate bacterial from viral infections
Empiric therapy for patients with pneumonia is not as clear cut as one would think. Guidelines tend to differ in terms of when to start empiric MRSA coverage, with some guidelines recommending initial therapy that covers MRSA in those who are admitted to the ICU (1), while other guidelines suggest to start MRSA therapy if
I am probably not the only one who doubts the utility of the physical exam in the diagnosis of disease. Indeed, when looking at the imaging modalities that we have at hand, including CT, MRI, PET, Echo, ultrasound, and how quickly we can get any of these studies now, the physical exam seems to be
Dr. Germophile 