Clinical outcomes of intensive care unit patients infected with multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria treated with ceftazidime/avibactam and ceftolozane/tazobactam.

In intensive care units (ICUs), infection rates range from 18 to 54%, which is five to ten times higher than those observed in other hospital units, with a mortality rate of 9% to 60%. In recent decades, the susceptibility pattern has changed and Gram-Negative Bacteria (GNB) have become a threat due to their high frequency of multidrug resistance associated with a scarcity of therapeutic options. However, the drugs Ceftolozane/Tazobactam (C/T) and Ceftazidime/Avibactam (C/A) are demonstrating good clinical and microbiological response in the treatment of severe nosocomial infections. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the clinical outcome of patients with severe infections caused by Multidrug-Resistant (MDR) GNB treated with C/T and C/A. Our study evaluates a total of 131 patients who received treatment with C/T and C/A due to infections caused by MDR GNB within the period from 2018 to 2021. The main infections were urinary tract (46,6%) and respiratory (26,7%) infections. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the prevailing agent in the sample evaluation (34.3%), followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (30,1%). About 54,9% of patients showed a favorable response, with culture negativation in 66,4% of the samples, with no discrepancy in negativations when comparing ages: 67,7% in young and 66% in elderly patients. Among the patients, 62,6% received monotherapy with C/T and C/A with a better response observed with monotherapy compared to combination therapy (58,6% vs 41,4%). The overall mortality rate was 45%, with MDR GNB infections responsible for 33,9% of these deaths, and the others (66,1%) due to factors such as oncological, hematological, and degenerative neurological diseases. In regards to hematological aspect, 35,1% of patients showed changes, with 28,2% of them presenting anemia, 4,5% thrombocytopenia, and 2,5% thrombocytosis. Concerning the use of invasive devices, higher mortality was observed in patients on mechanical ventilation (52%). In this manner, it was possible to observe that therapy with C/T and C/A yielded a favorable clinical outcome in patients with severe infections caused by MDR GNB in the study. These drugs also demonstrated good tolerability regardless of age or the presence of preexisting comorbidities and were deemed safe when assessing adverse effects. Our data also demonstrate the importance of determining the mechanism of resistance to carbapenems so that these drugs can be used more effectively and rationally.

Phenotypic and molecular detection of the bla KPC gene in clinical isolates from inpatients at hospitals in São Luis, MA, Brazil.

BACKGROUND: Bacteria that produce Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemases (KPCs) are resistant to broad-spectrum ß-lactam antibiotics. The objective of this study was to phenotypically and genotypically characterize the antibiotic susceptibility to carbapenems of 297 isolates recovered from clinical samples obtained from inpatients at 16 hospitals in São Luis (Maranhão, Brazil). METHODS: The study was conducted using phenotypic tests and molecular methods, including polymerase chain reaction (PCR), sequencing and enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC)-PCR. The nonparametric chi-square test of independence was used to evaluate the associations between the bacterial bla KPC gene and the modified Hodge test, and the chi-square adherence test was used to assess the frequency of carbapenemases and their association with the bla KPC gene. RESULTS: The most frequently isolated species were Acinetobacter baumannii (n = 128; 43.0%), K. pneumoniae (n = 75; 25.2%), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n = 42; 14.1%). Susceptibility assays showed that polymixin B was active against 89.3% of the bacterial isolates. The Acinetobacter spp. and K. pneumoniae strains were susceptible to amikacin and tigecycline, and Pseudomonas spp. were sensitive to gentamicin and amikacin. Among the 297 isolates, 100 (33.7%) were positive for the bla KPC gene, including non-fermentative bacteria (A. baumannii) and Enterobacteriaceae species. Among the isolates positive for the bla KPC gene, K. pneumoniae isolates had the highest positivity rate of 60.0%. The bla KPC gene variants detected included KPC-2, which was found in all isolates belonging to species of the Enterobacteriaceae family. KPC-2 and KPC-3 were observed in A. baumannii isolates. Importantly, the bla KPC gene was also detected in three Raoultella isolates and one isolate of the Pantoea genus. ERIC-PCR patterns showed a high level of genetic diversity among the bacterial isolates; it was capable of distinguishing 34 clones among 100 strains that were positive for bla KPC and were circulating in 11 of the surveyed hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: The high frequency of the bla KPC gene and the high degree of clonal diversity among microorganisms isolated from patients from different hospitals in São Luis suggest the need to improve the quality of health care to reduce the incidence of infections and the emergence of carbapenem resistance in these bacteria as well as other Gram-negative pathogens.

Caracterização molecular de Enterobacteriaceae não-Klebsiella pneumoniae produtoras de KPC isoladas em diferentes estados brasileiros / Molecular characterization of non-Enterobacteriaceae Klebsiella pneumoniae KPC-producing isolated in different Brazilian states

A produção de carbapenemases do tipo KPC tem se tornado um importante mecanismo de resistência aos carbapenemas na família Enterobacteriaceae. Embora seja descrita predominantemente em Klebsiella pneumoniae, a enzima KPC também tem sido encontrada em diferentes espécies de Enterobacteriaceae. Contudo, pouco se sabe sobre a epidemiologia da disseminação do gene blaKPC-2 nestas outras espécies. No Brasil, a enzima KPC foi relatada inicialmente em K. pneumoniae no Recife, em 2006, mas atualmente já se encontra disseminada pelo país, onde sua incidência tem aumentado significativamente. Portanto, o objetivo desse trabalho foi realizar a caracterização molecular de amostras brasileiras produtoras de KPC pertencentes a diferentes espécies de Enterobacteriaceae (excluindo K. pneumoniae), isoladas de diferentes estados brasileiros no período de 2009 a 2011. O perfil de resistência foi avaliado por difusão em ágar e E-test. A variante alélica de blaKPC, assim como a participação do transposon Tn4401 e a análise da presença de outros genes de beta-lactamases (TEM, SHV e CTX-M) foram realizadas por PCR e sequenciamento. Análise plasmidial e hibridação foram realizadas para determinar o ambiente genético do gene blaKPC. Para a tipagem molecular foi realizado PFGE e MLST (somente para Escherichia coli)Foram encaminhadas ao Laboratório de Pesquisa em Infecção Hospitalar da Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, 83 amostras produtoras de KPC-2 (correspondendo as espécies: Enterobacter aerogenes, Enterobacter cloacae, Escherichia coli, Pantoea agglomerans, Providencia stuartii, Citrobacter freundii, Klebsiella oxytoca, Morganella morganii e Serratia marcescens) provenientes de 9 estados das regiões sudeste, nordeste e centro-oeste do país. Em amostras KPC positivas, foram encontrados altos percentuais de resistência à maioria dos antimicrobianos testados, inclusive tigeciclina (36,1 porcento não sensíveis) e polimixina B (16,5 porcento)...

The production of Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC)-type enzymes has become an important mechanism of carbapenem resistance in the Family Enterobacteriaceae.Although it is predominantly described in Klebsiella pneumoniae, the KPC enzyme has also been found in different species of Enterobacteriaceae. Moreover, little is known about theepidemiology of the dissemination of blaKPC gene in other Enterobacteriaceae species. InBrazil, KPC was initially described in K. pneumoniae in Recife, state of Pernambuco, in 2006, but currently this enzyme is already disseminated throughout the country, where itsincidence has increased significantly. Thus, this study aimed to perform the molecular characterization of KPC-producing brazilian isolates belonging to different species of Enterobacteriaceae (non-K. pneumoniae) originated from different Brazilian states between2009 and 2011. The resistance profile was evaluated by disc-diffusion method and E-test. The allelic variant of the blaKPC gene, as well as the participation of Tn4401 and the presence of other beta-lactamase genes (TEM, SHV and CTX-M) were analyzed by PCR and genome sequencing. Plasmid analysis and hibridization were used to determine the genetic environment of the blaKPC gene. Molecular typing was done by PFGE and MLST (only forEscherichia coli). Eighty three unique clinical isolates of Enterobacteriaceae KPC-2-producers were referred to the Laboratório de Pesquisa em Infecção Hospitalar from Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, corresponding to 9 different species (Enterobacter aerogenes, Enterobacter cloacae, Escherichia coli, Pantoea agglomerans, Providencia stuartii, Citrobacter freundii, Klebsiella oxytoca, Morganella morganii and Serratia marcescens) isolated from 9 states located in northeast, southeast and central regions of Brazil. Highresistance rates towards most of the antimicrobial agents tested, including tigecycline (36.1 percent nonsusceptible) and polymyxin B (16.5 percent) were detected...