A rare case of pulmonary mucormycosis complicated by hydropneumothorax, successfully treated with non-surgical therapies.

Pulmonary mucormycosis (PM) is a rare but rapidly progressive fungal infection associated with high mortality. A review of the literature suggests that pleural effusions and pneumothoraces are uncommon manifestations associated with distant dissemination. Combined surgical interventions and prolonged antifungal therapy constitute the standard first-line management, with significantly poorer outcomes seen in patients managed with medical therapy alone. Here, we report an unusual case of PM complicated by hydropneumothorax in an immunocompromised patient, in whom comorbidities and disease burden precluded surgical debridement. His disease was ultimately treated with intravenous amphotericin B and maintenance posaconazole after adjunctive drainage. This clinical experience highlights the efficacy of antifungal therapy alone in the treatment of potentially fatal cases of PM unsuitable for surgery.

Oxford Screening CSF and Respiratory samples ('OSCAR'): results of a pilot study to screen clinical samples from a diagnostic microbiology laboratory for viruses using Illumina next generation sequencing.

OBJECTIVES: There is increasing interest in the use of metagenomic (next generation sequencing, NGS) approaches for diagnosis of infection. We undertook a pilot study to screen samples submitted to a diagnostic microbiology laboratory in a UK teaching hospital using Illumina HiSeq. In the short-term, this small dataset provides insights into the virome of human respiratory and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples. In the longer term, assimilating metagenomic data sets of this nature can inform optimization of laboratory and bioinformatic methods, and develop foundations for the interpretation of results in a clinical context. The project underpins a larger ongoing effort to develop NGS pipelines for diagnostic use. DATA DESCRIPTION: Our data comprise a complete metagenomic dataset from 20 independent samples (10 CSF and 10 respiratory) submitted to the clinical microbiology laboratory for a large UK teaching hospital (Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust). Sequences have been uploaded to the European Nucleotide Archive and are also presented as Krona plots through which the data can be interactively visualized. In the longer term, further optimization is required to better define sensitivity and specificity of this approach to clinical samples.

Case Report: No Response to Liposomal Daunorubicin in a Patient with Drug-Resistant HIV-Associated Visceral Leishmaniasis.

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in patients with HIV co-infection presents a significant therapeutic challenge due to the lessened chance of achieving long-term cure. We report a case of VL in a 60-year-old man with HIV infection who became refractory to anti-leishmania treatment due to multi-drug resistance. In the face of a worsening clinical situation, and with no other options available, he was treated with an experimental regimen of liposomal daunorubicin, which has previously been shown to have in vitro activity against Leishmania donovani and to be effective treatment of VL in animal studies. To our knowledge, he was the first patient with VL and HIV co-infection to have this treatment evaluated. We report on the lack of response to this treatment and possible causes for its failure.

The role of echocardiography in Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia at Auckland City Hospital.

AIMS: Current guidelines recommend echocardiography in all episodes of Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (SAB). This study aimed to determine whether a very low-risk group of patients with SAB could be found in whom echocardiography was of no incremental diagnostic value for the diagnosis of infective endocarditis. METHODS: Using the ANZCOSS dataset, we identified 574 eligible episodes of adult SAB at Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) between 2007 and 2012, and retrospectively obtained additional microbiological and clinical data. Prevalence of IE was determined using the modified Duke's criteria for diagnosis of IE. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine whether risk factors were independently associated with IE, and we also assessed their negative predictive value (NPV). RESULTS: Transthoracic and/or transoesophageal echocardiography was performed in 370 (65%) episodes of SAB. The prevalence of clinically definite and clinically possible IE was 5.6% and 8.5%, respectively. Thirty day all-cause mortality was 11.7%. The factors with the highest NPV when absent in hospital-acquired SAB were non central venous line-associated bacteraemia (100%), persistent bacteraemia (96%), and presence of a prosthetic valve or cardiac rhythm management (CRM) device (95%). When none of these three criteria were present the NPV was 100% (99-100%). CONCLUSIONS: A group of very low risk patients was found in our study: central line-associated SAB without prosthetic valves / CRM devices and without persistent bacteraemia. These patients had no episodes of IE and echocardiography is of no incremental diagnostic benefit.