High antibiotic resistance rates in Helicobacter pylori strains in Turkey over 20 years: implications for gastric disease treatment.

OBJECTIVE: Helicobacter pylori (Hp) eradication therapy is crucial for preventing the development of gastritis, peptic ulcers, and gastric cancer. An increase in resistance against antibiotics used in the eradication of Hp is remarkable. This meta-analysis aims to examine the resistance rates of Hp strains isolated in Turkey over the last 20 years against clarithromycin (CLR), metronidazole (MTZ), levofloxacin (LVX), tetracycline (TET), and amoxicillin (AMX) antibiotics. BASIC METHODS: Literature search was carried out in electronic databases, by searching articles published in Turkish and English with the keywords ' helicobacter pylori ' or 'Hp' and 'antibiotic resistance' and 'Turkey'. That meta-analysis was carried out using random-effect model. First, the 20-year period data between 2002 and 2021 in Turkey were planned to be analyzed. As a second stage, the period between 2002 and 2011 was classified as Group 1, and the period between 2012 and 2021 as Group 2 for analysis, with the objective of revealing the 10-year temporal variation in antibiotic resistance rates. MAIN RESULTS: In gastric biopsy specimens, 34 data from 29 studies were included in the analysis. Between 2002-2021, CLR resistance rate was 30.9% (95% CI: 25.9-36.2) in 2615 Hp strains. Specifically, in Group 1, the CLR resistance rate was 31% in 1912 strains, and in Group 2, it was 30.7% in 703 strains. The MTZ resistance rate was found to be 31.9% (95% CI: 19.8-45.4) in 789 strains, with rates of 21.5% in Group 1 and 46.6% in Group 2. The overall LVX resistance rate was 25.6%, with rates of 26.9% in Group 1 and 24.8% in Group 2. The 20-year TET resistance rate was 0.8%, with 1.50% in Group 1 and 0.2% in Group 2. The overall AMX resistance rate was 2.9%, 3.8% between 2002-2011, and 1.4% between 2012-2021. PRINCIPAL CONCLUSION: Hp strains in Turkey exhibit high resistance rates due to frequent use of CLR, MTZ, and LVX antibiotics. However, a significant decrease has been observed in TET and AMX resistance to Hp in the last 10 years. Considering the CLR resistance rate surpasses 20%, we suggest reconsidering the use of conventional triple drug therapy as a first-line treatment. Instead, we recommend bismuth-containing quadruple therapy or sequential therapies (without bismuth) for first-line treatment, given the lower rates of TET and AMX resistance. Regimens containing a combination of AMX, CLR, and MTZ should be given priority in second-line therapy. Finally, in centers offering culture and antibiogram opportunities, regulating the Hp eradication treatment based on the antibiogram results is obviously more appropriate.

A meta-analysis of antibiotic resistance rates in Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated in blood cultures in Turkey between 2007 and 2017.

OBJECTIVE: The prevalence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa has remained stable in recent years, and resistant strains has increased dramatically. In this meta-analysis, we aimed to analyze the P. aeruginosa strains isolated from blood cultures in Turkey during the last 11 years and to reveal their antimicrobial susceptibility. METHODS: Data collected between 2007 and 2017 were divided into two groups as Group-1; 2007-2011 and Group-2; 2012-2017. The differences in antibiotic resistance rates between Group-1 and Group-2 were analyzed. The study data were included according to PRISMA criteria, then meta-analysis was performed. RESULTS: A total of 30 study data from 25 studies were included in the study. The prevalence rate of meropenem (MEM) resistance in P. aeruginosa in Turkey was 25.1% (95% Cl: 20.65-29.83) according to a meta-analysis of 637 isolates. MEM resistance rates in Group-1 and Group-2 were 23.4% (95% Cl: 18.34-28.99) and 29.3% (95% Cl: 21.23-38.23), respectively. The prevalence rate of imipenem (IMP) resistance in P. aeruginosa in Turkey was 26.8% (%95 Cl: 23.40-30.35) according to a meta-analysis of 1421 isolates. IMP resistance rates in Group-1 and Group-2 were 26.2% (95% Cl: 22.41-30.27) and 28.4% (95% Cl: 21.57-35.88), respectively. Ciprofloxacin (CIP) resistance rate was 27.04% (95% Cl: 21.88-32.52) in 1388 isolates. CIP resistance rates in Group-1 and Group-2 were 30.8% (95% Cl: 24.35-37.56) and 18.6% (95% Cl: 10.72-28.11), respectively. The prevalence rate of piperacillin-tazobactam (TZP) resistance in P. aeruginosa in Turkey was 29.2% (95% Cl: 21.058-38.088) according to a meta-analysis of 1030 isolates. TZP resistance rates in Group-1 and Group-2 were 26.1% (95% Cl: 17.76-35.31) and 38.2% (95% Cl: 18.48-60.27), respectively. CONCLUSION: There is a remarkable increase in resistance rates in P. aeruginosa to MEM and TZP in Turkey due to frequent use. Other antibiotics with antipseudomonal effect should be prioritized in the treatment of these infections.

Fever of unknown origin (FUO) on a land on cross-roads between Asia and Europa; a multicentre study from Turkey.

AIMS: The differential diagnosis of Fever of Unknown Origin (FUO) is still a major clinical challenge despite the advances in diagnostic procedures. In this multicentre study, we aimed to reveal FUO aetiology and factors influencing the final diagnosis of FUO in Turkey. METHODS: A total of 214 patients with FUO between the years 2015 and 2019 from 13 tertiary training and research hospitals were retrospectively evaluated. RESULTS: The etiologic distribution of FUO was infections (44.9%), malignancies (15.42%), autoimmune/inflammatory (11.68%) diseases, miscellaneous diseases (8.41%) and undiagnosed cases (19.62%). Brucellosis (10.25%), extrapulmonary tuberculosis (6.54%) and infective endocarditis (6.54%) were the most frequent three infective causes. Solid malignancies (7.1%) and lymphoma (5.6%), adult-onset still's disease (6.07%) and thyroiditis (5.14%) were other frequent diseases. The aetiological spectrum did not differ in elderly people (P < .05). Infections were less frequent in Western (34.62%) compared with Eastern regions of Turkey (60.71%) (P < .001, OR: 0.31, 95% Cl: 0.19 to 0.60). The ratio of undiagnosed aetiology was significantly higher in elderly people (p: 0.046, OR: 2.34, 95% Cl: 1.00 to 5.48) and significantly lower in Western Turkey (P: .004, OR: 3.07, 95% Cl: 1.39 to 6.71). CONCLUSIONS: Brucellosis, extrapulmonary tuberculosis and infective endocarditis remain to be the most frequent infective causes of FUO in Turkey. Solid tumours and lymphomas, AOSD and thyroiditis are the other common diseases. The aetiological spectrum did not differ in elderly people, on the other hand, infections were more common in Eastern Turkey. A considerable amount of aetiology remained undiagnosed despite the state-of-the-art technology in healthcare services.

Evaluation of 170 Followed-up Cases Treated for Hydatid Disease: A Multicentre Study.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the clinical characteristics of patients with cystic echinococcosis and the diagnostic and therapeutic approaches used. METHODS: This is a multicentre, retrospective study. Patients from six centres who were diagnosed with hydatid cysts in the last five years were evaluated. RESULTS: The mean age was 45.4±17.4 years, and 54.7% were female. The most common complaints were abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, and the most common physical examination finding was abdominal tenderness. Most patients were diagnosed within 2-6 months. Anaemia and eosinophilia were the most common laboratory findings. The liver was the most commonly involved organ (n=153, 90%). One hundred twenty-five (73.5%) patients underwent ultrasonography. The largest cyst was present in the liver at stage four, and its diameter was 160x170 mm. The rates of the negative, grey zone and positive results were 9.4%, 8.8% and 81.8%. Surgery was more common (n=72, 42.4%) than puncture, aspiration, injection, and re-aspiration treatments (n=14, 8.2%). Of the 47 patients who had a recurrence, 22 (46.8%) had a history of hydatid cyst treatment. CONCLUSION: Hydatid disease, which is endemic in our country, is diagnosed at a late stage. In terms of disease diagnosis, serological tests may be misleading. It was not possible to compare the success rates according to the treatment choices because of the lack of randomisation of stages and sizes of the lesions.

Recurrent toxocariasis due to chronic urticaria and successful treatment with prolonged albendazole therapy.

Toxocariasis is a worldwide human helminthiasis, especially seen in temperate and tropical climate regions around the world. The diagnosis of this disease is performed on the basis of clinical symptoms and laboratory findings. Albendazole is one of the treatment choices for toxocariasis, with a currently recommended regimen of 10 mg/kg/day in two doses (400 mg twice daily) for 5 days. However, there is no precise consensus about the duration of the treatment. In this article, we report a case of toxocariasis; the patient visited our infectious disease polyclinic with complaints of long-term itching and urticarial skin lesions that were resistant to routine treatment and that recurred. Then, recurrent disease was resolved and skin lesions were diminished after prolonged albendazole therapy.

Tuberculous and brucellosis meningitis differential diagnosis.

BACKGROUND: The Thwaites and Lancet scoring systems have been used in the rapid diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis (TBM). However, brucellar meningoencephalitis (BME) has similar characteristics with TBM. The ultimate aim of this study is to infer data to see if BME should be included in the differential diagnosis of TBM when these two systems suggest the presence of TBM. METHOD: BME and TBM patients from 35 tertiary hospitals were included in this study. Overall 294 adult patients with BME and 190 patients with TBM were enrolled. All patients involved in the study had microbiological confirmation for either TBM or BME. Finally, the Thwaites and Lancet scoring systems were assessed in both groups. RESULTS: The Thwaites scoring system more frequently predicted BME cases (n = 292, 99.3%) compared to the TBM group (n = 182, 95.8%) (P = 0.017). According to the Lancet scoring system, the mean scores for BME and TBM were 9.43 ± 1.71 and 11.45 ± 3.01, respectively (P < 0.001). In addition, TBM cases were classified into "probable" category more significantly compared to BME cases, and BME cases were categorized into the "possible" category more frequently. CONCLUSIONS: When the Thwaites or Lancet scoring systems indicate TBM, brucellar etiology should also be taken into consideration particularly in endemic countries.

Surgical site infection rates in 16 cities in Turkey: findings of the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC).

BACKGROUND: Surgical site infections (SSIs) are a threat to patient safety; however, there were no available data on SSI rates stratified by surgical procedure (SP) in Turkey. METHODS: Between January 2005 and December 2011, a cohort prospective surveillance study on SSIs was conducted by the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) in 20 hospitals in 16 Turkish cities. Data from hospitalized patients were registered using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) methods and definitions for SSIs. Surgical procedures (SPs) were classified into 22 types according to International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision criteria. RESULTS: We recorded 1879 SSIs, associated with 41,563 SPs (4.3%; 95% confidence interval, 4.3-4.7). Among the results, the SSI rate per type of SP compared with rates reported by the INICC and CDC NHSN were 11.9% for ventricular shunt (vs 12.9% vs 5.6%); 5.3% for craniotomy (vs 4.4% vs 2.6%); 4.9% for coronary bypass with chest and donor incision (vs 4.5 vs 2.9); 3.5% for hip prosthesis (vs 2.6% vs 1.3%), and 3.0% for cesarean section (vs 0.7% vs 1.8%). CONCLUSIONS: In most of the 22 types of SP analyzed, our SSI rates were higher than the CDC NHSN rates and similar to the INICC rates. This study advances the knowledge of SSI epidemiology in Turkey, allowing the implementation of targeted interventions.

Clinical usefulness of mean platelet volume and red blood cell distribution width to platelet ratio for predicting the severity of hepatic fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B virus patients.

OBJECTIVE: Hepatitis B virus infection is still one of the leading causes of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma worldwide. Liver biopsy is the gold-standard method to assess the severity of liver fibrosis, but the invasive nature of this method limits its usage. Currently, noninvasive parameters are utilized to estimate liver histology. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between the severity of fibrosis and red blood cell distribution width (RDW), platelet distribution width (PDW), mean platelet volume (MPV), and MPV and red blood cell distribution width to platelet ratio (RPR) in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). DESIGN: A total of 229 biopsy-proven naïve CHB cases were included in the study. The complete blood count variables including white blood cell, hemoglobin, hematocrit value, platelet count, RDW, MPV and PDW, as well as aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, total bilirubin, albumin, and other routine biochemical parameters were tested. Liver biopsy samples were examined using the Ishak scoring system. Data analyses were carried out using SPSS 15 software. Statistical significance was set at a P-value of less than 0.05. RESULTS: Of the 229 cases, 210 (91.7%) were men and 19 (8.3%) were women. The mean age of the patients was 30.9 years, and 85 cases (37.1%) had HBeAg positivity. Fibrosis scores of 41 cases (17.9%) were greater than or equal to 3, whereas 188 cases (82.1%) had fibrosis scores less than 3. There was a significant difference between these two groups for MPV (group 1=7.98±1.20, group 2=8.77±1.44, P<0.05). There was also a significant difference between these two groups for RDW (P<0.05). The RDW value in group 1 patients was 11.83±0.89, whereas this value was 12.57±1.32 in group 2. Moreover, the RPR was significantly higher in group 2 than in group 1 (P<0.001). There was no significant difference between the groups for PDW. We have compared the receiver operating characteristic curves for the diagnostic performance of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, platelet count, RDW, MPV, and RPR in identifying fibrosis in CHB and area under the curve values for these variables were 0.666, 0.463, 0.657, 0.672, 0.677, and 0.758, respectively. CONCLUSION: MPV and RDW values are significantly higher in hepatitis B virus-infected patients, associated with severity, and can be defined as independent predicting factors in hepatic fibrosis. Further studies are required to determine the associations between MPV and the severity of fibrosis in hepatitis B patients.

[Two imported and relapsed of Plasmodium vivax malaria cases and primaquine prophylaxis]. / Dis kaynakli Iki Relaps Plasmodium vivax Olgusu ve Proflakside Primakin.

Malaria is a worldwide infection causing serious health and financial problems. Turkey is in the elimination phase, and malaria cases have been observed in patients who have come from abroad recently. In this study, 2 relapsed Plasmodium vivax (Pv) cases that returned from Afghanistan to our country at least 6 months ago were presented. The first case had received irregular chemoprophylaxis during travel, 6 months after returning to Turkey occurred malaria clinic. The second case had not received chemoprophlaxis during his travel, and he had experienced 2 previous episodes of malaria. He had used inappropriate anti-malarial drugs before returning to Turkey. Two separate incubation periods for P. vivax and P. ovale have been described. One of them is defined as late infection, or relapse, which is maturation of dormant bacilli in the liver, known as the hypnozoite stage. We thought that relapses of Pv infection could result from activation of hypnozoites in these cases. These 2 cases were treated with chloroquine and primaquine. The purpose of presenting these 2 cases is that primaquine should be considered for primer prophylaxis in short travels, especially after traveling to endemic areas, and the patient's relapse should be considered.

[The management of therapeutic failure in a falciparum malaria patient under oral arthemether-lumefantrine therapy]. / Falsiparum sitmali bir vakada oral artemisin-lümefantrin tedavi basarisizliginin yönetimi.

Malaria is a parasitic infection characterized by anemia, splenomegaly and periodic fever. This infection has a tendency to cause serious complications. Falciparum malaria could occur in our country as an imported case due to increasing intercontinental travel opportunities. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends arthemether combination treatment as a first line choice. Here we report a Turkish case admitted to the hospital with high fever, sweating and fatigue. He had been in Uganda for 6 months without prophylaxis. Plasmodium falciparum with an intense parasitic load was diagnosed. We started arthemether-lumefantrine combination therapy immediately. 18 days after his discharge he was readmitted with the same complaints and parasitemia was detected once again. This time, we treated him with the quinine-tetracycline combination regime for 7 days. Within 48 hours the patient was afebrile and the blood smear was negative. Falciparum malaria must be considered in infection emergencies for febrile patients especially with any travel history. For an initial therapy, arthemetherlumefantrine combination is a successful choice of treatment. Even with adequate treatment of arthemether-lumefantrine combination, the problems of recurrence (recrudescence or reinfection) could occur due to treatment failure. For the possibility of recurrence, close monitoring of patients is very important in the critical course after adequate treatment.

A surveillance of nosocomial candida infections: epidemiology and influences on mortalty in intensive care units.

INTRODUCTION: It was aimed to investigate the frequency of Candida infections (CI) in the intensive care units (ICU), to determine typing of candida to evaluate risk factors associated with CI and mortality, and to evaluate influence of CI on mortality. METHODS: The prospective cohort study was carried out between Jan 1, 2009 and Dec 31, 2010 in ICUs, and the patients were observed with active surveillance. VITEK 2 Compact System (BioMerieux, France) kits were used for the identification of isolates from various clinical samples. RESULTS: A total of 2362 patients had enrolled for 16135 patients-days into the study. During the study, 63 (27,5%) of patients developed 77 episodes of CI were observed. Of the patients; 54% were male, 46% were female. Duration of hospitalization (OR = 1,03, p = 0,007), hyperglycemia (OR = 17,93, p = 0,009), and co-infections (OR = 3,98, p = 0,001) were identified as independent risk factors for CI. The most common infections were bloodstream (53%). 77 of 135 candida strains was isolated as causative pathogens. C. albicans (63,6%) was the most frequent species. Overall mortality rate was 78%. The rates of mortality attributable to CI and candidemia were 27%, and 18,3% respectively. Species- specific mortality rates of C.albicans and C.tropicalis were determined as 12%. High APACHE II scores (OR = 1,37; p = 0,002), and the use of central venous catheter (OR = 9,01; p = 0,049) were assigned as independent risk factors for mortality. CONCLUSION: CI is an important problem in our hospital. CI and associated mortality can be prevented by controlling of risk factors. Updating of epidemiological data is required for successful antifungal treatment.

Nosocomial infection characteristics in a burn intensive care unit: analysis of an eleven-year active surveillance.

AIMS: The objective of this study was to describe nosocomial infection (NI) rates, risk factors, etiologic agents, antibiotic susceptibility, invasive device utilization and invasive device associated infection rates in a burn intensive care unit (ICU) in Turkey. METHODS: Prospective surveillance of nosocomial infections was performed according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) criteria between 2001 and 2012. The data was analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS: During the study period 658 burn patients were admitted to our burn ICU. 469 cases acquired 602 NI for an overall NI rate of 23.1 per 1000 patient days. 109 of all the cases (16.5%) died. Pseudomonas aeruginosa (241), Acinetobacter baumannii (186) and Staphylococcus aureus (69) were the most common identified bacteria in 547 strains. CONCLUSION: Total burn surface area, full thickness burn, older age, presence of inhalation injury were determined to be the significant risk factors for acquisition of NI. Determining the NI profile at a certain burn ICU can lead the medical staff apply the appropriate treatment regimen and limit the drug resistance. Eleven years surveillance report presented here provides a recent data about the risk factors of NI in a Turkish burn ICU.

Increasing incidence of Gram-negative organisms in bacterial agents isolated from diabetic foot ulcers.

INTRODUCTION: In the present study, we sought to identify the bacterial organisms associated with diabetic foot infections (DFIs) and their antibiotic sensitivity profiles. METHODOLOGY: We retrospectively reviewed the records of wound cultures collected from diabetic patients with foot infections between May 2005 and July 2010. RESULTS: We identified a total of 298 culture specimens (165 [55%] wound swab, 108 [36%] tissue samples, and 25 [9%] bone samples) from 107 patients (74 [69%] males and 33 [31%] females, mean age 62 ± 13 yr) with a DFI. Among all cultures 83.5% (223/267) were monomicrobial and 16.4% (44/267) were polymicrobial. Gram-negative bacterial isolates (n = 191; 61.3%) significantly outnumbered Gram-positive isolates (n = 121; 38.7%). The most frequently isolated bacteria were Pseudomonas species (29.8%), Staphylococcus aureus (16.7%), Enterococcus species (11.5%), Escherichia coli (7.1%), and Enterobacter species (7.1%), respectively. While 13.2% of the Gram-negative isolates were inducible beta-lactamase positive, 44.2% of Staphylococcus aureus isolates were methicillin resistant. CONCLUSIONS: Our results support the recent view that Gram-negative organisms, depending on the geographical location, may predominate in DFIs.

Mortality indicators in community-acquired pneumonia requiring intensive care in Turkey.

BACKGROUND: Severe community-acquired pneumonia (SCAP) is a fatal disease. This study was conducted to describe an outcome analysis of the intensive care units (ICUs) of Turkey. METHODS: This study evaluated SCAP cases hospitalized in the ICUs of 19 different hospitals between October 2008 and January 2011. The cases of 413 patients admitted to the ICUs were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: Overall 413 patients were included in the study and 129 (31.2%) died. It was found that bilateral pulmonary involvement (odds ratio (OR) 2.5, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.1-5.7) and CAP PIRO score (OR 2, 95% CI 1.3-2.9) were independent risk factors for a higher in-ICU mortality, while arterial hypertension (OR 0.3, 95% CI 0.1-0.9) and the application of non-invasive ventilation (OR 0.2, 95% CI 0.1-0.5) decreased mortality. No culture of any kind was obtained for 90 (22%) patients during the entire course of the hospitalization. Blood, bronchoalveolar lavage, and non-bronchoscopic lavage cultures yielded enteric Gram-negatives (n=12), followed by Staphylococcus aureus (n=10), pneumococci (n=6), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n=6). For 22% of the patients, none of the culture methods were applied. CONCLUSIONS: SCAP requiring ICU admission is associated with considerable mortality for ICU patients. Increased awareness appears essential for the microbiological diagnosis of this disease.

Withdrawal of Staphylococcus aureus from intensive care units in Turkey.

BACKGROUND: In the past, Staphylococcus aureus infections have displayed various patterns of epidemiologic curves in hospitals, particularly in intensive care units (ICUs). This study aimed to characterize the current trend in a nationwide survey of ICUs in Turkey. METHODS: A total of 88 ICUs from 36 Turkish tertiary hospitals were included in this retrospective study, which was performed during the first 3 months of both 2008 (period [P] 1) and 2011 (P2). A P value ≤.01 was considered significant. RESULTS: Although overall rates of hospital-acquired infection (HAI) and device-associated infection densities were similar in P1 and P2, the densities of HAIs due to S aureus and methicillin-resistant S aureus (MRSA) were significantly lower in P2 (P < .0001). However, the proportion of HAIs due to Acinetobacter was significantly higher in P2 (P < .0001). CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of S aureus infections is declining rapidly in Turkish ICUs, with potential impacts on empirical treatment strategies in these ICUs.

[A case report: elephantiasis]. / Olgu Sunumu: Elefentiazis.

Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome (KTS) is a rare disease and a syndrome that is characterized by the triad of congenital port wine stains,venous malformations with or without varicose veins, bone or soft tissue hypertrophy. Lymphatic filariasis is a filarial disease which usually occurs with genital anomalies, pathologies associated with lymphedema or elephantiasis caused by a filarial infectious agent. In this case report, a 20-year-old male patient admitted to our clinic for diagnosis and treatment with right leg edema and lesions compatible with dermatological manifestations. In the list of differential diagnosis, filarial elephantiasis was also thought, consequently KTS was diagnosed. (Turkiye Parazitol Derg 2012; 36: 188-90).

How reliable are cultures of specimens from superficial swabs compared with those of deep tissue in patients with diabetic foot ulcers?

PURPOSE: To assess the reliability of cultures of superficial swabs (SS) by comparing them with cultures of concomitantly obtained deep tissue (DT) specimens in patients with diabetic foot ulcers. METHODS: We reviewed clinical and microbiological data from patients with diabetes who presented during a two-year period to our hyperbaric medicine center with a foot ulcer. We identified patients who had at least one concomitantly collected SS and DT pair of specimens sent for culture. RESULTS: A total of 89 culture pairs were available from 54 eligible patients, 33 (61.1%) of whom were hospitalized. Wounds were infected in 47 (87.0%) of the patients and 28 (51.9%) patients had received antibiotic therapy within the previous month. Overall, 65 (73%) of the SS and DT pairs had identical culture results, but in 11 (16.9%) cases the cultures were sterile; thus, only 54 (69.2%) of the 78 culture-positive pairs had identical results. Compared with DT, SS cultures yielded ≥1 extra organism in 10 (11.2%) cases, missed at least one organism in 8 (9.0%), and were completely different in 6 (6.7%). When compared to DT culture results, SS cultures had a positive predictive value of 84.4%, negative predictive value of 44.0%, and overall accuracy of 73.0%. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with diabetic foot ulcers, results of specimens for culture taken by SS did not correlate well with those obtained by DT. This suggests that SS specimens may be less reliable for guiding antimicrobial therapy than DT specimens.

Efficacy and tolerability of antibiotic combinations in neurobrucellosis: results of the Istanbul study.

No data on whether brucellar meningitis or meningoencephalitis can be treated with oral antibiotics or whether an intravenous extended-spectrum cephalosporin, namely, ceftriaxone, which does not accumulate in phagocytes, should be added to the regimen exist in the literature. The aim of a study conducted in Istanbul, Turkey, was to compare the efficacy and tolerability of ceftriaxone-based antibiotic treatment regimens with those of an oral treatment protocol in patients with these conditions. This retrospective study enrolled 215 adult patients in 28 health care institutions from four different countries. The first protocol (P1) comprised ceftriaxone, rifampin, and doxycycline. The second protocol (P2) consisted of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, rifampin, and doxycycline. In the third protocol (P3), the patients started with P1 and transferred to P2 when ceftriaxone was stopped. The treatment period was shorter with the regimens which included ceftriaxone (4.40 ± 2.47 months in P1, 6.52 ± 4.15 months in P2, and 5.18 ± 2.27 months in P3) (P = 0.002). In seven patients, therapy was modified due to antibiotic side effects. When these cases were excluded, therapeutic failure did not differ significantly between ceftriaxone-based regimens (n = 5/166, 3.0%) and the oral therapy (n = 4/42, 9.5%) (P = 0.084). The efficacy of the ceftriaxone-based regimens was found to be better (n = 6/166 [3.6%] versus n = 6/42 [14.3%]; P = 0.017) when a composite negative outcome (CNO; relapse plus therapeutic failure) was considered. Accordingly, CNO was greatest in P2 (14.3%, n = 6/42) compared to P1 (2.6%, n = 3/117) and P3 (6.1%, n = 3/49) (P = 0.020). Seemingly, ceftriaxone-based regimens are more successful and require shorter therapy than the oral treatment protocol.

[Hydatid cyst presenting with multiple recurrence and pelvic involvement: case report]. / Multiple rekürrensle seyreden pelvik tutulumlu hidatik kist: olgu sunumu.

Hydatid cyst disease is a parasitic infection which is caused by the metacestode form of Echinococcus granulosus and affects primarily the liver and lung. Bone involvement is found in 1% of patients afflicted with this disease. The spine is involved in about 50% of these cases. Herein, we report a 70 year old male case with pelvic and spinal hydatid cyst who was operated on eleven times.