scholarly journals Clinical Progress Note: Procalcitonin in the Diagnosis and Management of Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Hospitalized Adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 691-693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin J Choi ◽  
Matthew W McCarthy ◽  
Matthew S Simon ◽  
Arthur T Evans ◽  
Wesley H Self ◽  
...  

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) accounts for more than 1.5 million adult hospitalizations and 100,000 deaths each year in the United States.1 Antibiotic overuse in the hospital setting is an important contributor to the rise of antibiotic resistance, prompting increased efforts to limit inappropriate antibiotic use in hospitals.2 Procalcitonin, a precursor of the hormone calcitonin, is upregulated in bacterial infections and downregulated in viral infections. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved it as a serum biomarker to assist clinicians with decisions about using antibiotics.3 There is no consensus on how to best use procalcitonin in the management of CAP. We provide a practical update that includes a review of recent literature, added secondary analysis, and expert opinion surrounding the use of procalcitonin in the diagnosis and management of CAP in hospitalized adults.

Author(s):  
Stephanie C. Rutten-Ramos ◽  
Shabbir Simjee ◽  
Michelle S. Calvo-Lorenzo ◽  
Jason L. Bargen

Abstract OBJECTIVE To assess antibiotic use and other factors associated with death rates in beef feedlots in 3 regions of the US over a 10-year period. SAMPLE Data for 186,297 lots (groups) of finished cattle marketed between 2010 and 2019 were obtained from a database representing feedlots in the central, high, and north plains of the US. PROCEDURES Descriptive statistics were generated. Generalized linear mixed models were used to estimate lot death rates for each region, sex (steer or heifer), and cattle origin (Mexico or the US) combination. Death rate was calculated as the (number of deaths/number of cattle placed in the lot) × 100. Lot antibiotic use (TotalActiveMG/KGOut) was calculated as the total milligrams of active antibiotics assigned to the lot per live weight (in kilograms) of cattle marketed from the lot. Rate ratios were calculated to evaluate the respective associations between lot death rate and characteristics of cattle and antibiotic use. RESULTS Mean death rate increased during the 10-year period, peaking in 2018. Mean number of days on feed also increased over time. Mean TotalActiveMG/KGOut was greatest in 2014 and 2015, lowest in 2017, and moderated in 2018 and 2019. Death rate was positively associated with the number of days on feed and had a nonlinear association with TotalActiveMG/KGOut. Feeding medicated feed articles mitigated death rate. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Results suggested a balance between disease prevention and control in feedlots for cattle with various risk profiles. Additional data sources are needed to assess TotalActiveMG/KGOut across the cattle lifetime.


Author(s):  
Edward Goldstein

Abstract Background Antibiotic use contributes to the rates of bacteremia, sepsis and associated mortality, particularly through lack of clearance of resistant infections following antibiotic treatment. At the same time, there is limited information on the effects of prescribing of some antibiotics vs. others on the rates of outcomes related to severe bacterial infections. Methods We looked at associations between the proportions (state-specific in the US; Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)-specific in England) of different antibiotic types/classes among all prescribed antibiotics in the outpatient setting (oral antibiotics in the US), and rates of outcomes (mortality with sepsis, ICD-10 codes A40-41 present as either underlying or contributing causes of death on a death certificate in different age groups of US adults; E. coli as well as MSSA bacteremia in England) per unit of antibiotic prescribing (defined as the rate of outcome divided by the rate of outpatient prescribing of all antibiotics). Results In the US, prescribing of penicillins was associated with rates of mortality with sepsis for persons aged 75-84y and 85+y between 2014-2015. In England, prescribing of penicillins other than amoxicillin/co-amoxiclav was associated with rates of both MSSA and E. coli bacteremia for the period between financial years 2014/15 through 2017/18. Additionally, multivariable analysis for the US data has also shown an association between the percent of individuals aged 50-64y lacking health insurance, as well as the percent of individuals aged 65-84y who are African-American and rates of mortality with sepsis in the corresponding age groups. Conclusions Our results suggest that prescribing of penicillins is associated with rates of E. coli and MSSA bacteremia in England, and rates of mortality with sepsis in older US adults. Those results, as well as the related epidemiological data suggest that replacement of certain antibiotics, particularly penicillins in the treatment of certain syndromes should be considered for reducing the rates of outcomes related to severe bacterial infections.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Stallwood ◽  
Alex Shirlow ◽  
Angie Hibbert

Objectives The aim of this study was to explore owners’ knowledge of antibiotics, experience of antibiotic use in their cats and involvement in decision-making regarding antibiotic prescriptions. Methods Cat owners were recruited via social media and veterinary practices to complete a survey designed to evaluate general knowledge of antibiotics, attitudes to antibiotic stewardship and experiences of antibiotic use in their own cat between November 2017 and March 2018. Data were analysed descriptively. Results A total of 1436 surveys were completed; 247 respondents (17.2%) had a veterinary background. The majority of the remaining respondents correctly identified that antibiotics treat bacterial infections (84.0%; n = 999) but do not treat viral infections (72.8%; n = 865). A minority (n = 338; 28.4%) agreed that antibiotic resistance was a problem in cats in the UK; 92.3% (n = 1097) identified that resistance was a problem in human medicine. Seventy percent (n = 832) of the respondents’ cats had received antibiotics; 29.6% (n = 246) received a long-acting injectable antibiotic (14 days’ duration). Diagnostic tests were performed before antibiotic prescription in 38.7% (n = 322) of cats; 1.4% (n = 7) of respondents reported declining suggested tests and 65.8% (n = 778) indicated that they would be happy to pay for diagnostic tests to allow selection of the most appropriate antibiotic. Most respondents (95.8%; n = 792) indicated that they were happy to follow their veterinarian’s advice and recommendations; however, 49.2% (n = 405) had expected antibiotics to be prescribed. Conclusions and relevance Cat owners demonstrated good knowledge of antibiotic action; however, greater owner education regarding the potential for veterinary antibiotic resistance, requirement for diagnostic testing and training in the administration of oral medication with first-line antibiotics, as well as the use of veterinary antibiotic guidelines, will improve antibiotic stewardship. Good communication between veterinarians and owners is necessary for rational antibiotic use.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (11) ◽  
pp. 1229-1235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying P. Tabak ◽  
Arjun Srinivasan ◽  
Kalvin C. Yu ◽  
Stephen G. Kurtz ◽  
Vikas Gupta ◽  
...  

AbstractObjective:Antibiotics are widely used by all specialties in the hospital setting. We evaluated previously defined high-risk antibiotic use in relation to Clostridioides difficile infections (CDIs).Methods:We analyzed 2016–2017 data from 171 hospitals. High-risk antibiotics included second-, third-, and fourth-generation cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, carbapenems, and lincosamides. A CDI case was a positive stool C. difficile toxin or molecular assay result from a patient without a positive result in the previous 8 weeks. Hospital-associated (HA) CDI cases included specimens collected >3 calendar days after admission or ≤3 calendar days from a patient with a prior same-hospital discharge within 28 days. We used the multivariable Poisson regression model to estimate the relative risk (RR) of high-risk antibiotic use on HA CDI, controlling for confounders.Results:The median days of therapy for high-risk antibiotic use was 241.2 (interquartile range [IQR], 192.6–295.2) per 1,000 days present; the overall HA CDI rate was 33 (IQR, 24–43) per 10,000 admissions. The overall correlation of high-risk antibiotic use and HA CDI was 0.22 (P = .003), and higher correlation was observed in teaching hospitals (0.38; P = .002). For every 100-day (per 1,000 days present) increase in high-risk antibiotic therapy, there was a 12% increase in HA CDI (RR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.04–1.21; P = .002) after adjusting for confounders.Conclusions:High-risk antibiotic use is an independent predictor of HA CDI. This assessment of poststewardship implementation in the United States highlights the importance of tracking trends of antimicrobial use over time as it relates to CDI.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (S 02) ◽  
pp. S54-S57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ki Wook Yun ◽  
Rebecca Wallihan ◽  
Alexis Juergensen ◽  
Asuncion Mejias ◽  
Octavio Ramilo

AbstractCommunity-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is the leading cause of death in children < 5 years of age worldwide. It is also one of the most frequent infectious diseases in children, leading to large antibiotic use and hospitalization even in the industrialized countries. However, the optimal management of CAP in children is still not well defined. Currently, respiratory viruses are considered the most frequent etiologic agents, but detection of viruses in the upper respiratory tract does not guarantee causation of pneumonia, nor precludes the presence of a bacterial pathogen. In both the upper and lower respiratory tract, respiratory viruses and pathogenic bacteria interact. Emerging evidence indicates that dual viral–bacterial infections function synergistically in many cases and together likely enhance the severity of CAP. Therefore, new and advanced technologies capable of sensitively and specifically discriminating viral, bacterial, and viral–bacterial coinfections are needed. Instead of focusing on the pathogen, analysis of host immune transcriptome profiles from children with CAP can potentially offer diagnostic signatures, help to assess disease severity, and eventually, prognostic indicators. An optimized management strategy by using molecular pathogen testing and transcriptome profiling will facilitate prompt, more appropriate, and targeted therapies, which in turn will lead to improved clinical outcomes in children with CAP.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Goldstein

AbstractBackgroundAntibiotic use contributes to the rates of bacteremia, sepsis and associated mortality, particularly through lack of clearance of resistant infections following antibiotic treatment. At the same time, there is limited information on the effects of prescribing of some antibiotics vs. others, of antibiotic replacement and of reduction in prescribing on the rates of severe outcomes associated with bacterial infections.MethodsFor each of several antibiotic types/classes, we looked at associations (univariate, and multivariable for the US data) between the proportions (state-specific in the US, Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)-specific in England) of a given antibiotic type/class among all prescribed antibiotics in the outpatient setting, and rates of outcomes (mortality with septicemia, ICD-10 codes A40-41 present on the death certificate in different age groups of adults in the US, and E. coli or MSSA bacteremia in England) per unit of antibiotic prescribing (defined as the rate of outcome divided by the rate of prescribing of all antibiotics).ResultsIn the US, prescribing of penicillins was positively associated with rates of mortality with septicemia for persons aged 75-84y and 85+y between 2014-2015, while multivariable analyses also suggest an association between the percent of individuals aged 50-64y lacking health insurance, as well as the percent of individuals aged 65-84y who are African-American and rates of mortality with septicemia. In England, prescribing of penicillins other than amoxicillin/co-amoxiclav was positively associated with rates of both MSSA and E. coli bacteremia for the period between financial years 2014/15 through 2017/18. Additionally, as time progressed, correlations between prescribing for both trimethoprim and co-amoxiclav and rates of bacteremia in England decreased, while correlations between amoxicillin prescribing and rates of bacteremia increased.ConclusionsOur results suggest that prescribing of penicillins is associated with rates of E. coli and MSSA bacteremia in England, and rates of mortality with septicemia in older US adults, which agrees with our earlier findings. Those results, as well as the related epidemiological data suggest that antibiotic replacement rather than reduction in prescribing may be the more effective mechanism for reducing the rates of severe bacterial infections.


2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (6) ◽  
pp. 802-808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Trouillet-Assant ◽  
Sébastien Viel ◽  
Antoine Ouziel ◽  
Lucille Boisselier ◽  
Philippe Rebaud ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Fever is one of the leading causes of consultation in the pediatric emergency department for patients under the age of 3 years. Distinguishing between bacterial and viral infections etiologies in febrile patients remains challenging. We hypothesized that specific host biomarkers for viral infections, such as type I-interferon (IFN), could help clinicians’ decisions and limit antibiotic overuse. Methods Paxgene tubes and serum were collected from febrile children (n = 101), age from 7 days to 36 months, with proven viral or bacterial infections, being treated at pediatric emergency departments in France. We assessed the performance of an IFN signature, which was based on quantification of expression of IFN-stimulated genes using the Nanostring® technology and plasma IFN-α quantified by digital ELISA technology. Results Serum concentrations of IFN-α were below the quantification threshold (30 fg/mL) for 2% (1/46) of children with proven viral infections and for 71% (39/55) of children with bacterial infections (P &lt; 0.001). IFN-α concentrations and IFN score were significantly higher in viral compared to bacterial infection (P &lt; 0.001). There was a strong correlation between serum IFN-α concentrations and IFN score (p-pearson = 0.83). Both serum IFN-α concentration and IFN score robustly discriminated (Area Under the Curve &gt;0.91 for both) between viral and bacterial infection in febrile children, compared to C-reactive protein (0.83). Conclusions IFN-α is increased in blood of febrile infants with viral infections. The discriminative performance of IFN-α femtomolar concentrations as well as blood transcriptional signatures could show a diagnostic benefit and potentially limit antibiotic overuse. Clinical Trials Registration clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03163628).


Author(s):  
Megan M. Petteys ◽  
Leigh Ann Medaris ◽  
Julie E. Williamson ◽  
Rohit S. Soman ◽  
Travis A. Denmeade ◽  
...  

Abstract Antibiotic overuse is high in patients hospitalized with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) despite a low documented prevalence of bacterial infections in many studies. In this study evaluating 65 COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit, empiric broad-spectrum antibiotics were often overutilized with an inertia to de-escalate despite negative culture results.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S65-S65
Author(s):  
Aimen Vanood ◽  
Alexandra Hospodar ◽  
Christopher F Carpenter

Abstract Background The detection and identification of meningitis and encephalitis pathogens from CSF via traditional microbiologic methods may take several hours to days. The BioFire FilmArray Meningitis/Encephalitis Panel (BioFire), approved by the FDA in 2015, can detect 14 different pathogens within one hour, providing a faster time to diagnosis of a broad range of pathogens. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of BioFire on length of hospital stay and duration of antibiotic use. Methods We conducted a retrospective chart review of patients diagnosed meningitis/encephalitis between 2015 and 2019 at 3 Beaumont Health (BH) hospitals. BioFire was adopted by BH midyear in 2017, allowing for analysis of cohorts over comparable periods before and after the introduction of the panel. Data collected and analyzed included biodemographics, comorbidities, presenting signs and symptoms, CSF analysis results, pathogens, days of antibiotic therapy, length of stay, and mortality. Results A total of 161 patients diagnosed with meningitis and/or encephalitis were reviewed, including 59 who underwent testing via BioFire. Of the 161 patients, 68 had a pathogen identified, 50 via traditional methods (6 bacterial and 44 viral) and 18 via BioFire (3 bacterial and 15 viral). West Nile Virus accounted for 17 of the viral infections diagnosed via traditional methods. The mean duration of antibiotic use after the assays resulted was not significantly different between patients with bacterial infections diagnosed by traditional methods or BioFire (11.2 vs 13.0 days, p=0.82) or for those with viral infections (0.1 vs 0 days, p=0.3). The median length of stay was also not significantly different between the two cohorts for patients with bacterial infections (21.7 vs 15.0 days, p = 0.36) or viral infections (6.2 vs. 10.0 days, p = 0.10). Conclusion While utilization of the BioFire panel yielded a faster diagnostic result, we have no evidence to demonstrate that it contributes to a significant reduction in duration of antibiotic use or length of stay. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Will Cherry ◽  
Marielle Brown ◽  
Colin Garner

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had severe implications on healthcare systems and the patients affected by this infectious disease. To improve outcomes for patients with COVID-19 and limit future antimicrobial resistance, there is continued urgency to improve our understanding of the rates and causative agents of secondary bacterial infections in patients with COVID‑19, and recognise whether antibiotics are being overused in patients prior to and following COVID-19 diagnosis. This article presents the results of a rapid review comparing reported rates of secondary bacterial infections with rates of antibiotic use in patients with COVID-19 predominantly in a hospital setting, within the context of treatment guidelines and recommendations. The review revealed rates of antibiotic use in patients with COVID-19 of 37–100%, far outweighing rates of secondary bacterial infections which were typically below 20%. There was a lack of consistent reporting of causative microorganisms of secondary infections, and the distinction between bacterially- and virally-induced sepsis was rarely made. Early in the pandemic, healthcare agencies published treatment guidelines recognising the importance of antimicrobial stewardship. However, many are yet to provide updated guidance detailing the most appropriate antibiotics to treat patients with concurrent COVID-19 and secondary bacterial infections in a way which limits the emergence of drug-resistant infections and does not negatively impact patient outcomes. Without significant improvements to the testing and reporting of causative organisms and corresponding updates to antimicrobial treatment guidelines, there is a risk of worsened clinical outcomes and increased burden on healthcare systems from antimicrobial resistance during the remainder of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.


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