SMART-COP is a simple, practical clinical tool for accurately predicting the need for IRVS that is likely to assist clinicians in determining CAP severity.

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This study provides direct evidence of the presence of viable C. pneumoniae in atheromatous lesions. A chronic inflammatory response caused by a persistent infection of the coronary arteries may explain the link between C. pneumoniae and atherosclerosis.

The estimated US burden of CAP is substantial, with >1.5 million unique adults being hospitalized annually, 100000 deaths occurring during hospitalization, and approximately 1 of 3 patients hospitalized with CAP dying within 1 year.

cIn a previous phase 3 study, the cure rates that occurred in patients with hospital-acquired pneumonia treated with tigecycline at the approved dose were lower than those seen with patients treated with imipenem and cilastatin (imipenem/cilastatin). We hypothesized that a higher dose of tigecycline is necessary in patients with hospital-acquired pneumonia. This phase 2 study compared the safety and efficacy of two higher doses of tigecycline with imipenem/cilastatin in subjects with hospital-acquired pneumonia. Subjects with hospital-acquired pneumonia were randomized to receive one of two doses of tigecycline (150 mg followed by 75 mg every 12 h or 200 mg followed by 100 mg every 12 h) or 1 g of imipenem/cilastatin every 8 h. Empirical adjunctive therapy was administered for initial coverage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, depending on the randomization regimen. Clinical response, defined as cure, failure of treatment, or indeterminate outcome, was assessed 10 to 21 days after the last day of therapy. In the clinically evaluable population, clinical cure with tigecycline 100 mg (17/20, 85.0%) was numerically higher than with tigecycline 75 mg (16/23, 69.6%) and imipenem/cilastatin (18/24, 75.0%).No new safety signals with the high-dose tigecycline were identified. A numerically higher clinical response was observed with the 100-mg dose of tigecycline. This supports our hypothesis that a higher area under the concentration-time curve over 24 h in the steady state divided by the MIC (AUC/MIC ratio) may be necessary to achieve clinical cure in patients with hospital-acquired pneumonia. Further studies are necessary. (The ClinicalTrials.gov identifier for this clinical trial is NCT00707239.) H ospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) remains an important problem in the care of critically ill patients and has significant clinical and economic consequences, including a 30% to 70% mortality rate (1-4). Mortality among patients with HAP associated with mechanical ventilation is approximately twice that of patients with HAP not associated with mechanical ventilation (5). The initial management of patients with HAP includes obtaining appropriate respiratory samples for culture and sensitivity and initiating therapy with broad-spectrum antibiotics that are active against likely pathogens (6).Tigecycline has a broad spectrum of antibacterial activity (7), including activity against many multidrug-resistant organisms and efficacy in treatment of community-acquired pneumonia (8-10). A single-dose study that collected lung tissue from uninfected subjects undergoing elective surgery showed a ratio of lung area under the concentration time-curve (AUC) to serum AUC, which is also known as lung penetration, of 2.0 (11). Results from a multiple-dose study with tigecycline that measured serum, pulmonary epithelial lining fluid (ELF), and alveolar cell concentrations in healthy volunteers demonstrated ELF penetration of 1.32 (12). These results, together with the observation by Crandon e...

The significant global presence of atypical pathogens and the better outcomes associated with antimicrobial regimens with atypical coverage support empiric therapy for all hospitalized patients with CAP with a regimen that covers atypical pathogens.

Inflammation is a double-edged sword in the outcome of pneumonia. On the one hand, an effective and timely inflammatory response is required to eliminate the invading respiratory pathogen. On the other, a toxic and prolonged inflammatory response may result in lung injury and poor outcomes, even in those receiving advanced medical care. This review focuses on recent understanding of the dynamics of the cytokine response, neutrophil activity, and responsiveness to cytokines and neutrophil lifespan as major elements of lung inflammation resulting in favorable or poor outcomes in lung infection primarily due to pneumococcus and influenza virus. Although some progress has been made in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of the pneumonia inflammation axis composed of cytokines modulating neutrophil activation and neutrophil apoptosis, important questions remain to be answered. The degree of neutrophil activation, generation of reactive oxygen species, and the release of granule antimicrobial peptides play a key role in microbial pathogen clearance; however, prolonged neutrophil activation may contribute to lung injury and poor outcomes in pneumonia. Molecular markers of the mechanisms regulating neutrophil survival and apoptosis may help in the identification of novel therapeutic targets to modulate inflammation by inducing timely neutrophil apoptosis. A major task is to identify the mechanisms of dysregulation in inflammation leading to toxic responses, thereby targeting a biomarker and enabling timely therapies to modulate inflammation.

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