New Diagnostic and Therapeutic Approach of Severe Infection Caused by MDR Pathogens: The Antimicrobial Stewardship after Pandemic

A special issue of Diagnostics (ISSN 2075-4418). This special issue belongs to the section "Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2023) | Viewed by 5872

Special Issue Editor


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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a huge number of patients have required admission to hospital and intensive care units (ICU). The data from literature suggest that COVID-19 was associated with a less effective implementation of infection control procedures with a lower application of antimicrobial stewardship programs. As a matter of fact, diagnosis of severe infection caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens is challenging for physicians considering the importance of an early assessment of infection, the role of colonization and its interpretation, and the importance of an early appropriate antimicrobial therapy. MDR infections are associated with a high mortality rate and a considerable burden on length of hospital stay, ICU admission and healthcare costs. To date, despite the wide choice of antibiotic therapy, knowledge of the local epidemiology, patient’s risk stratification, and infection control policies (mainly antimicrobial stewardship programs) remain the key elements for the effective management of infections caused by MDR microorganisms.

On these bases, physicians should recognize peculiar clinical characteristics and treat MDR infections appropriately in hospitalized patients. This Special Issue aims to collect papers on antimicrobial stewardship after pandemic, with a focus on new diagnostic and therapeutic approach of severe infection caused by MDR pathogens to better define the management and treatment of this difficult-to-treat infection. For this Special Issue, we invite to submit research articles, review articles, case series and clinical cases, especially in critically-ill patients.

Prof. Dr. Alessandro Russo
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • MDR pathogens
  • diagnosis
  • rapid microbiology
  • antibiotic resistance
  • therapy

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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13 pages, 315 KiB  
Article
Upraising Stenotrophomonas maltophilia in Critically Ill Patients: A New Enemy?
by George Dimopoulos, José Garnacho-Montero, Elisabeth Paramythiotou, Antonio Gutierrez-Pizarraya, Charalambos Gogos, Maria Adriansen-Pérez, Chrysa Diakaki, Dimitrios K. Matthaiou, Garyphalia Poulakou and Karolina Akinosoglou
Diagnostics 2023, 13(6), 1106; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics13061106 - 15 Mar 2023
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2192
Abstract
Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (S. maltophilia), an important pathogen in immuno-compromised patients, has recently gained attention in patients admitted in intensive care units (ICU). We sought to investigate clinical features of infections caused by S. maltophilia in ICU patients and identify risk factors [...] Read more.
Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (S. maltophilia), an important pathogen in immuno-compromised patients, has recently gained attention in patients admitted in intensive care units (ICU). We sought to investigate clinical features of infections caused by S. maltophilia in ICU patients and identify risk factors for mortality. We conducted a retrospective study in two multivalent non-COVID-19 ICUs of tertiary-teaching hospitals in Greece and Spain, including patients with isolated S. maltophilia from at least one clinical specimen along with clinical signs of infection. A total of 103 patients (66% male) were analyzed. Median age was 65.5 (54–73.3) years and mean APACHE II and SOFA scores upon ICU admission were 18.36 (±7.22) and 18.17 (±6.95), respectively. Pneumonia was the predominant clinical syndrome (72.8%), while 22% of cases were among hemato/oncology patients. Crude 28-day mortality rate was 54.8%, even though, 14-day clinical and microbiological response was 96%. Age, APACHE II on ICU admission, hemato-oncologic disease, and multi-organ failure were initially identified as potential predictors of mortality. In the multivariable analysis, only increasing age and hemato-oncologic disease were shown to be independent risk factors for 28-day mortality. High all-cause mortality was observed in critically ill patients with predominantly respiratory infections by S. maltophilia, despite initial clinical and laboratory response after targeted treatment. The study elucidates a potentially worrisome emerging pathogen in the ICU. Full article
9 pages, 907 KiB  
Communication
Validation of an Automated System for the Extraction of a Wide Dataset for Clinical Studies Aimed at Improving the Early Diagnosis of Candidemia
by Daniele Roberto Giacobbe, Sara Mora, Alessio Signori, Chiara Russo, Giorgia Brucci, Cristina Campi, Sabrina Guastavino, Cristina Marelli, Alessandro Limongelli, Antonio Vena, Malgorzata Mikulska, Anna Marchese, Antonio Di Biagio, Mauro Giacomini and Matteo Bassetti
Diagnostics 2023, 13(5), 961; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics13050961 - 3 Mar 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1606
Abstract
There is increasing interest in assessing whether machine learning (ML) techniques could further improve the early diagnosis of candidemia among patients with a consistent clinical picture. The objective of the present study is to validate the accuracy of a system for the automated [...] Read more.
There is increasing interest in assessing whether machine learning (ML) techniques could further improve the early diagnosis of candidemia among patients with a consistent clinical picture. The objective of the present study is to validate the accuracy of a system for the automated extraction from a hospital laboratory software of a large number of features from candidemia and/or bacteremia episodes as the first phase of the AUTO-CAND project. The manual validation was performed on a representative and randomly extracted subset of episodes of candidemia and/or bacteremia. The manual validation of the random extraction of 381 episodes of candidemia and/or bacteremia, with automated organization in structured features of laboratory and microbiological data resulted in ≥99% correct extractions (with confidence interval < ±1%) for all variables. The final automatically extracted dataset consisted of 1338 episodes of candidemia (8%), 14,112 episodes of bacteremia (90%), and 302 episodes of mixed candidemia/bacteremia (2%). The final dataset will serve to assess the performance of different ML models for the early diagnosis of candidemia in the second phase of the AUTO-CAND project. Full article
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15 pages, 662 KiB  
Brief Report
Whole-Genome Sequence-Based Characterization of Pre-XDR M. tuberculosis Clinical Isolates Collected in Kazakhstan
by Asset Daniyarov, Ainur Akhmetova, Saule Rakhimova, Zhannur Abilova, Dauren Yerezhepov, Lyailya Chingissova, Venera Bismilda, Nurlan Takenov, Ainur Akilzhanova, Ulykbek Kairov and Ulan Kozhamkulov
Diagnostics 2023, 13(12), 2005; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics13122005 - 8 Jun 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1601
Abstract
Background: Kazakhstan has a high burden of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the Central Asian region. This study aimed to perform genomic characterization of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains obtained from Kazakhstani patients with pre-extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis diagnosed in Kazakhstan. Methods: Whole-genome sequencing was performed on 10 [...] Read more.
Background: Kazakhstan has a high burden of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the Central Asian region. This study aimed to perform genomic characterization of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains obtained from Kazakhstani patients with pre-extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis diagnosed in Kazakhstan. Methods: Whole-genome sequencing was performed on 10 pre-extensively drug-resistant M. tuberculosis strains from different regions of Kazakhstan. All strains had high-confidence resistance mutations according to the resistance grading system previously established by the World Health Organization. The genome analysis was performed using TB-Profiler, Mykrobe, CASTB, and ResFinder. Results: Valuable information for understanding the genetic diversity of tuberculosis in Kazakhstan can also be obtained from whole-genome sequencing. The results from the Phenotypic Drug Susceptibility Testing (DST) of bacterial strains were found to be consistent with the drug resistance information obtained from genomic data that characterized all isolates as pre-XDR. This information can help in developing targeted prevention and control strategies based on the local epidemiology of tuberculosis. Furthermore, the data obtained from whole-genome sequencing can help in tracing the transmission pathways of tuberculosis and facilitating early detection of outbreaks. Conclusions: The results from whole-genome sequencing of tuberculosis clinical samples in Kazakhstan provide important insights into the drug resistance patterns and genetic diversity of tuberculosis in the country. These results can contribute to the improvement of tuberculosis control and management programs in Kazakhstan. Full article
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