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Biomedical subjects

A Orsi

Publications and source records attributed to A Orsi.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Aztreonam versus colistin-neomycin for selective decontamination of the digestive tract in patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation: a randomized study.

Aztreonam (Az), a minimally absorbable monobactam antibiotic, was compared to colistin plus neomycin (CN), for intestinal decontamination during Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) in a controlled study. Thirty-four consecutive patients were randomized in two groups and evaluated for number of febrile episodes, days of fever, fecal cultures and clinical symptoms related to infections or colonizations. No significant differences were observed suggesting that Az is at least as effective as the CN regimen and may be considered as an alternative approach for intestinal decontamination in BMT patients.

Aztreonam

[Isosporiasis and sarcocystosis. The current findings].

A review on infections by Isospora belli and Sarcocystis spp. both in healthy and in AIDS patients is done on the basis of literature and personal data. In this view a special focus is made on isospora belli infection in AIDS because of its high recurrence after successful attack therapy. Consequently the most recent protocols for maintenance and attack therapy in these patients are reported. At the end, concerning ultrastructural pathology, the features of some Isospora belli developing stages are described by means of electron microscopy on duodenal biopsy specimens from a patient.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections

[Intestinal microbial pathology in AIDS. A clinical case series].

Microbial isolates from 60 diarrheic AIDS patients hospitalized to the Infectious Disease Division of Careggi hospital (Florence) are described. Clinical, microbiological and diagnostic features of each case are discussed with emphasis to some rare or underestimated entities in Europe: Campylobacter laridis bacteremia, Whipple-like disease by atypical Mycobacteria, Schistosoma mansoni proctocolitis. Results regarding newly AIDS-related microorganisms are also stressed.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Prevalence of oral lesions among HIV-infected intravenous drug abusers and other risk groups.

To study the prevalence of oral manifestations, we examined 217 patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Most of our patients were intravenous drug abusers (IVDAs) (65%). Other risk categories were represented by IVDAs who were also male homosexuals or bisexuals (11%), male homosexuals and bisexuals (16%), sexual partners of HIV-infected patients (5%), and hemophilic persons and recipients of blood transfusions (3%). Forty-six patients were women and 171 were men, with a median age of 27 years (range, 11 to 65 years). At the time of first examination, 38% of patients had asymptomatic HIV infection, 36% had lymphadenopathy syndrome, 17% had AIDS-related complex, and 9% had AIDS. Oral manifestations were observed in 89 (41%) patients. Of these, 15 had asymptomatic infection, 23 had lymphadenopathy syndrome, 27 had AIDS-related complex, and 24 had AIDS. Increasing severity of disease was significantly associated with higher prevalence of oral lesions (p less than or equal to 0.0001). Candidiasis was the most common oral lesion, followed by hairy leukoplakia. Kaposi's sarcoma, melanotic macules, herpes labialis, condyloma acuminatum, perioral molluscum contagiosum, and bacterial glossitis due to Escherichia coli infection were found in a small number of patients. Results of culture for fungi, available for 203 patients, revealed that 51% of patients with positive Candida cultures had clinical evidence of candidiasis. Our study demonstrates that oral lesions are also important signs of HIV infection among IVDAs. Early diagnosis of these manifestations is becoming increasingly significant in the practice of dentistry.

Adolescent

In-vitro activity of vancomycin, teicoplanin, daptomycin, ramoplanin, MDL 62873 and other agents against staphylococci, enterococci and Clostridium difficile.

The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of different antibiotics were determined by a broth microdilution method for staphylococci, enterococci and Clostridium difficile. The antimicrobial agents tested were vancomycin, teicoplanin, daptomycin, ramoplanin, MDL 62873, rifampicin and piperacillin, the latter limited to enterococci. In terms of MIC90S, daptomycin (0.89 mg/l). MDL 62873 (0.99 mg/l), and teicoplanin (1.50 mg/l) were found to be highly active against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Daptomycin (MIC90 0.48 mg/l), MDL 62873 (0.95 mg/l) and ramoplanin (1.45 mg/l) were the most active drugs against methicillin-resistant S. epidermidis (MRSE). Teicoplanin (MIC90 0.45 mg/l) was the most active agent against enterococci, followed by MDL 62873 (0.65 mg/l) and daptomycin (1.60 mg/l). MDL 62873 gave the lowest MIC90 (0.17 mg/l) for C. difficile. Teicoplanin (MIC90 0.42 mg/l), daptomycin (0.87 mg/l) and ramoplanin (0.98 mg/l) were also very active. Our results indicate that teicoplanin, daptomycin, ramoplanin and MDL 62873, a teicoplanin derivative, are potentially effective alternative antibiotics for treatment of infections caused by staphylococci, enterococci and C. difficile.

Anti-Bacterial Agents

Antimicrobial agent susceptibility patterns of staphylococci isolated in urban and rural areas of Bolivia.

Staphylococcal strains obtained from cutaneous swabs of hospital staff and school students of Camiri and Boyuibe and healthy people living in Javillo, Bolivia, were tested for their in-vitro antimicrobial susceptibility. The highest percentages of resistance to the antibiotics tested were found in staphylococcal strains isolated from hospital personnel. All the S. aureus strains from these subjects were resistant to penicillin. Coagulase-negative staphylococci from hospital personnel evidenced a high rate of multiresistant strains, mainly to penicillin, ampicillin, tetracycline, and chloramphenicol. The staphylococcal strains isolated in the rural population of Javillo were highly susceptible to all the antibiotics tested.

Anti-Bacterial Agents

The influence of ofloxacin versus trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole on the aerobic flora in granulocytopenic subjects.

Ofloxacin (300 mg twice a day) and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMZ) (160 mg trimethoprim and 800 mg sulfamethoxazole twice a day) were given prophylactically to 19 adult patients with acute leukemia undergoing induction chemotherapy. The influence of the two regimens on the bacterial aerobic flora was evaluated. Both of the prophylactic regimens conditioned the aerobic microflora of the patients. Both groups acquired new microorganisms, prevalently gram-positive cocci, but also gram-negative bacteria with the TMP-SMZ regimen. Both treatment groups acquired yeasts.

Adult

In vitro antimicrobial sensitivity of staphylococci isolated in the Santa Cruz region of Bolivia.

The in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility of staphylococci isolated in two different communities, Camiri and Javillo, of the Santa Cruz region in south-eastern Bolivia was tested by the agar diffusion technique and by a micro dilution susceptibility test to determine the Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations. Staphylococcal strains isolated from hospital staff of the Camiri Hospital were compared to that isolated from healthy people of Javillo, a very small community isolated in the jungle. In the Camiri Hospital, staphylococci showed a high prevalence of penicillin resistance, 100% for S. aureus strains and 73.5% for coagulase-negative staphylococci. Among coagulase-negative strains we found a high rate of multiresistant strains, mainly to ampicillin, tetracycline and chloramphenicol. In the rural population of Javillo we found staphylococcal strains highly susceptible to all the antibiotics tested.

Axilla

[Predictability of change].

The present paper considers the predictability of behavioral changes as a pragmatic-epistemological criterium of empirical corroboration of theory. The predictability itself remits us to a broad spectrum of points of view, I.E. one related to Epistemology, another related to Psychological Theory, another which will consider the scientist himself as a psycho-social cognitive being, and, at last, one related to Ethics. It emphasizes the value of the statistical prediction and its value of semicertainty with which it allows us to work in the field of Social Psychology. However, the conditionability the epistemological behavior of the scientist is subject to is not to be superseded. The author points out the need for desisting from a scientific posture that switches the professional practice of Psychology into a mere diffusing of the Philosophy of Behavior--instead of resorting to technics aiming at modifying a behavior the patient feels as unpleasant or unadapted.

Behavior Therapy

Identification, clinical distribution, and susceptibility to methicillin and 18 additional antibiotics of clinical Staphylococcus isolates: nationwide investigation in Italy.

A multicentric study of clinical Staphylococcus isolates was performed by seven operative units working in different areas of Italy. Over a 6-month period, a total of 3,226 staphylococci, isolated from in- and outpatients, were identified and tested for antimicrobial susceptibility by a protocol agreed upon by all units. On the basis of their bacteriolytic-activity patterns and other conventional tests, the isolates were identified by lyogroups , which closely correlate with human Staphylococcus species. Lyogroup I (Staphylococcus aureus) and lyogroup III (Staphylococcus capitis) were the most and the least frequently isolated staphylococci, respectively. Significant differences depending on strain origin from in- or outpatients were only observed with lyogroup IV (i.e., novobiocin- resistant staphylococci), whose isolation from outpatients was three times greater than from inpatients. Lyogroup I was predominant among isolates from most clinical sources. Lyogroup IV predominated in strains isolated from the urinary tract; lyogroup V (Staphylococcus epidermidis) predominated in strains from blood, cerebrospinal fluid, and indwelling artificial devices; and lyogroup VI ( Staphylococcus hominis, Staphylococcus haemolyticus, and Staphylococcus warneri ) predominated in strains from bile and the male genital tract. The incidence of methicillin resistance within the different lyogroups varied from unit to unit, suggesting epidemiological differences among different hospitals and different geographical areas. On the whole, methicillin resistance was more frequent in coagulase-negative staphylococci than in S. aureus and ranged from 19% for lyogroups I and III to 30% for lyogroup II (Staphylococcus simulans). Laboratory testing with 18 additional antibiotics suggested the occurrence of some specific differences in susceptibility among the different lyogroups . The rate of organisms resistant to the various antibiotics was greater among methicillin-resistant than among methicillin -susceptible staphylococci; particularly marked differences occurred with cephalosporins, rifampin, gentamicin, and tobramycin. The results suggested an increasing spread in Italy, during the last few years, of staphylococcal resistance to methicillin and to many other antibiotics. Some questions about the actual reliability of laboratory tests for the determination of staphylococcal susceptibility to methicillin and other beta-lactam antibiotics were raised by parallel test performances in which both unsupplemented and 5% NaCl-supplemented Mueller-Hinton agars were used. The presence of NaCl heightened, on the whole, the number of resistant strains detected; however, a few isolates resistant in the unsupplemented medium and susceptible in the salt-supplemented medium were also encountered. This was true not only for methicillin but also for all other beta-lactam antibiotics tested except cefamandole. With cefamandole, the presence of 5% NaCl reduced the number of resistant strains detected.

Anti-Bacterial Agents

In vitro activity of rifaximin and rifampicin against some anaerobic bacteria.

Activity of rifampicin and of a new rifamycin, rifaximin, was tested in strains of anaerobic bacteria belonging to the Bacteroides genus (75 B. fragilis group and 17 Bacteroides non-fragilis group) and in Clostridium perfringens (15 strains). It turned out that the bactericidal activity of both rifamycins could be overlapped and that it equalled 100% in the case of the non-fragilis Bacteroides and Clostridium species.

Bacteria, Anaerobic

[Comparison of direct and standardized disk diffusion susceptibility testing of urine and other clinical specimens (author's transl)].

A comparison between direct and standardized disk diffusion tests was made on a total of 116 urine specimens containing greater than or equal to 10(5) organism/ml and on a total of 229 clinical specimens others than urine. The number of major discrepancies per organism tested in pure culture was 31 (39.7%) for urine and 102 (59.6%) for other specimens. Although this procedure may be of value in selected cases with pure cultures of organism, its use on a routine basis is not recommended.

Bacteriuria