RESUMO
PURPOSE: We report the development of a lung abscess caused by a ciprofloxacin-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a patient with COVID-19 on long-term corticosteroid therapy. Successful antimicrobial treatment included the novel oral fluoroquinolone delafloxacin suggesting an oral administration option for ciprofloxacin-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung abscess. Case Presentation. An 86-year-old male was admitted to the hospital with fever, dry cough, and fatigue. PCR testing from a nasopharyngeal swab confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. An initial CT scan of the chest showed COVID-19 typical peripheral ground-glass opacities of both lungs. The patient required supplemental oxygen, and anti-inflammatory treatment with corticosteroids was initiated. After four weeks of corticosteroid therapy, the follow-up CT scan of the chest suddenly showed a new cavernous formation in the right lower lung lobe. The patient's condition deteriorated requiring high-flow oxygen support. Consequently, the patient was transferred to the intensive care unit. Empiric therapy with intravenous piperacillin/tazobactam was started. Mycobacterial and fungal infections were excluded, while all sputum samples revealed cultural growth of P. aeruginosa. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing showed resistance to meropenem, imipenem, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, and tobramycin. After two weeks of treatment with intravenous piperacillin/tazobactam, the clinical condition improved significantly, and supplemental oxygen could be stopped. Subsequently antimicrobial treatment was switched to oral delafloxacin facilitating an outpatient management. CONCLUSION: Our case demonstrates that long-term corticosteroid administration in severe COVID-19 can result in severe bacterial coinfections including P. aeruginosa lung abscess. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a P. aeruginosa lung abscess whose successful therapy included oral delafloxacin. This is important because real-life data for the novel drug delafloxacin are scarce, and fluoroquinolones are the only reliable oral treatment option for P. aeruginosa infection. Even more importantly, our case suggests an oral therapy option for P. aeruginosa lung abscess in case of resistance to ciprofloxacin, the most widely used fluoroquinolone in P. aeruginosa infection.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Hypercapnic failure is a severe complication of COPD disease progression, which is associated with a high morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to examine the association of comorbidity and clinical risk factors with the development of hypercapnia in acute exacerbated COPD patients. METHODS: In this retrospective monocentric cohort study, we examined the influence of the clinical parameters and the comorbidity of hospitalized patients with the acute exacerbation of COPD on the development of hypercapnia by performing multivariate logistic regression and a receiver operating characteristic analysis. RESULTS: In total, 275 patient cases with COPD exacerbation were enrolled during the period from January 2011 until March 2015, where 104 patients (37.8%) with hypercapnia were identified. The logistic regression analysis revealed severe airflow limitation (decreased FEV1) as the main factor associated with the development of hypercapnia. In the ROC analysis, we determined an FEV1 of 42.12%, which was predicted with a sensitivity of 82.6% and specificity of 55%, and an absolute value of FEV1 of 0.8 L, with a sensitivity of 0.62 and specificity of 0.79 as the cut off points, respectively. We could not verify an association with the patient's condition or the laboratory surrogate parameters of organ failure. CONCLUSION: Severe airflow limitation is an important risk factor that is associated with hypercapnic failure in acute exacerbated COPD patients. Validation in prospective cohorts is warranted and should focus on more intensive monitoring of these at-risk patients.
