PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

F X Lescure

Publications and source records attributed to F X Lescure.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

Incidence of and risk factors for severe liver toxicity in HIV-infected patients on anti-tuberculosis treatment.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the incidence and risk factors for severe liver toxicity in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected patients on anti-tuberculosis treatment and the impact of patients' characteristics and concomitant medications instituted during the first week of antituberculosis treatment. METHODS: HIV-infected patients referred to six French hospitals between 1 January 1992 and 31 December 2004, with confirmed or 'presumptive' tuberculosis (TB). Liver toxicity was studied during the first 2 months of TB treatment. RESULTS: During the 12 years of the study period, 144 patients were enrolled. Severe liver toxicity developed in 15 (10.7%). The median time to development of liver toxicity was 14 days. In the univariate analysis, high baseline bilirubin levels (P = 0.004), CD4 cell counts between 50 and 100 cells/mm3 (P = 0.022) and the use of fluconazole (P = 0.0005) were associated with liver toxicity. In the multivariate analysis, independent risk factors were abnormal baseline alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (P = 0.028) and bilirubin levels (P = 0.033) and the use of fluconazole (P = 0.008). CONCLUSION: Severe liver toxicity is frequent, and occurs early in the course of anti-tuberculosis treatment. ALT and bilirubin levels should be closely monitored during the first month of treatment, especially in patients with high baseline ALT or bilirubin levels. We suggest caution when prescribing fluconazole and anti-tuberculosis drugs concomitantly, although this needs to be confirmed and further investigated.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗

Community-acquired bacteraemic pneumococcal pneumonia in adults: effect of diminished penicillin susceptibility on clinical outcome.

Pneumococcal pneumonia remains a common disease with a high mortality rate. Between 1995 and 2000, we prospectively analyzed 95 consecutive adult cases of community-acquired bacteraemic pneumococcal pneumonia treated in a single centre. The incidence of pneumococcal resistance to penicillin increased from 19 to 50% during the study period. Multivariate analysis showed that only age and recent hospitalization were independently associated with fatal outcome. The proportion of penicillin-resistant strains was slightly but not significantly higher among patients who died before the fourth hospital day than among those who died later. Patients who died before D4 were more likely to have a recent history of hospitalization, cancer and/or chemotherapy. It thus appears that infection by a resistant pneumococcal strain is not in itself a gravity factor in this setting, but that their acquisition is associated with pejorative clinical features.

Adult↗

[Fistulisation of a tubercular adenopathy in the oesophagus. About a paucisymptomatic form].

The authors present the case of a cervico-mediastinal mass which disappeared spontaneously. The clinical presentation and the image of a fistula during the oesophagoscopy are in favour of the fistulisation of a tubercular adenopathy in the oesophagus. This pathology is rare. This observation is original by the delay of diagnosis due to a dysphagie summarizing the clinical signs and the spontaneously favorable evolution of the fistula.

Esophageal Fistula↗

A case of tuberculous sinusitis without concomitant pulmonary disease.

This case report highlights the difficulty of diagnosing tuberculous sinusitis in the absence of pulmonary foci. Although extrapulmonary localisations of tuberculosis are rare in immunocompetent patients, it is important to consider this diagnosis, since therapeutic delay usually results in an unfavourable outcome. Acid-fast bacilli are sometimes difficult to detect in pathological specimens. Consequently, the diagnosis is usually based on the following criteria: (i) the absence of clinical response to usual antibiotics, (ii) the presence of caseous granulomatous inflammatory lesion on histopathology, and (iii) identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by the polymerase chain reaction assay confirmed by bacteriological culture. The diagnosis of tuberculosis is finally confirmed by the efficacy of antituberculous treatment. The differential diagnosis is Wegener's disease.

Antitubercular Agents↗

[Atypical cutaneous leishmaniasis].

French Guyana is an endemic area for American cutaneous leishmaniasis. At the start, the initial red lesion may be mistaken for a whitlow. Twenty percent of developed forms exhibit a sporotrichosis pattern. The notion of travel to an endemic area is very important for diagnosis. We report the case of a young man from French Guyana presenting with a cutaneous lesion of the finger. After numerous surgical treatments for a "whitlow", the final diagnosis of leishmaniasis was difficult because of local-complications and cutaneous rearrangement. Erroneous initial orientation in a unit unaware of tropical diseases can forestall appropriate care of the patients. Epidemiological, clinical and therapeutic data on American tegument leishmaniasis are discussed.

Adult↗

Evaluation of the contribution of isolation precautions in prevention and control of multi-resistant bacteria in a teaching hospital.

From February 1999 to January 2000, a control programme to prevent the spread multi-resistant bacteria (MRB) was implemented in a French teaching hospital. This programme focused on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Enterobacteriaceae producing extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL), and was based on the application of barrier precautions (washing hands with antiseptic soaps, wearing disposable gloves and gowns, identifying MRB carriers). No changes in antibiotic policy occurred during the year. Our aim was to conduct an evaluation of this programme by measuring incidence rates. Concurrently, the effect of barrier precautions was estimated in an indirect way, by documenting the availability of barrier precautions in MRB carriers' rooms and by analysing the monthly correlation between the supply of such material and the theoretical cumulated length of MRB carriers' isolation in six randomized wards. All MRB isolated in hospitalized patients were recorded, and differentiated between acquisition in our hospital or from elsewhere. For the analysis of trends, the year was divided in three periods of four months. Over the year, the global MRB incidence was 1.26 per 1000 patient-days (PD) [95% confidence interval (95%CI)=1.16-1.36]. The MRSA incidence was 0.89 per 1000 PD (95%CI=0.81- 0.97) and the ESBL incidence was 0.38 per 1000 PD (95% CI=0.33-0.43). The MRB incidence decreased significantly in all types of specialties except for surgical wards. The incidence decreased by 17.9% for MRSA, 54.9% for ESBL and 34.8% for both MRB. Concurrently, the proportion of strains acquired in our hospital decreased for MRSA (P for trend > or = 0.05) and ESBL (P for trend > or = 0.01), whereas the incidence of imported strains increased slightly. The proportion of multiresistant strains in S. aureus (36.8%) and Enterobacter aerogenes (37.0%) remained similar throughout the year. Thus, the decrease of the incidence concerned both resistant and susceptible strains. The availability of antiseptic soaps increased significantly (P for trend > or = 0.01). The amount of antiseptic soap ordered and the theoretical lengths of isolation were correlated on a monthly basis (Spearman coefficient = 0.72; P > or = 0.02). These results shows the efficacy of such a programme of MRB containment in a large hospital, provided barrier nursing is instigated, together with the availability of such material as antiseptic soap, to allow implementation.

Bacterial Infections↗