genospecies 2 of the A. baumannii complex was associated with greater resistance to antibiotics and higher mortality among bacteremic patients, compared with other genospecies, especially genospecies 13TU. These findings emphasize the need to focus on genospecies to better understand the pathogenesis and epidemiology of infections caused by the A. baumannii complex.

BackgroundTuberculous pleurisy is traditionally indicated by extreme lymphocytosis in pleural fluid and low yield of effusion culture. However, there is considerable inconsistency among previous study results. In addition, these data should be updated due to early effusion studies and advances in culture methods.MethodsFrom January 2004 to June 2009, patients with tuberculous pleurisy were retrospectively identified from the mycobacteriology laboratories and the pathology and tuberculosis registration databases of two hospitals in Taiwan where tuberculosis is endemic. Pleural fluid characteristics and yields of mycobacterial cultures using liquid media were evaluated.ResultsA total of 382 patients with tuberculous pleurisy were identified. The median lymphocyte percentage of total cells in pleural fluids was 84% (IQR 64–95%) and 17% of cases had a lymphocyte percentage of <50%. The lymphocyte percentage was negatively associated with the probability of a positive effusion culture (OR 0.97; 95% CI 0.96 to 0.99). The diagnostic yields were 63% for effusion culture, 48% for sputum culture, 79% for the combination of effusion and sputum cultures, and 74% for histological examination of pleural biopsy specimens.ConclusionThe degree of lymphocyte predominance in tuberculous pleurisy was lower than was previously thought. The lymphocyte percentage in pleural fluid was negatively associated with the probability of a positive effusion culture. With the implementation of a liquid culture method, the sensitivity of effusion culture was much higher than has been previously reported, and the combination of effusion and sputum cultures provided a good diagnostic yield.

Increased 14-day mortality was associated with colistin-tigecycline therapy given tigecycline minimum inhibitory concentration greater than 2 mg/L compared with colistin-carbapenem therapy for extensively drug-resistant A. baumannii bacteremia.

BackgroundColistin and tigecycline have both been shown good in vitro activity among multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (MDRAB). A comparative study of colistin versus tigecycline for MDRAB pneumonia is lacking.MethodsThe study enrolled adults with MDRAB pneumonia admitted to intensive care units at a referral medical center during 2009–2010. Since there were no standardized minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) interpretation criteria of tigecycline against A. baumannii, MIC of tigecycline was not routinely tested at our hospital. During the study periods, MIC of colistin was not routinely tested also. We consider both colistin and tigecycline as definite treatments of MDRAB pneumonia. Patients who received tigecycline were selected as potential controls for those who had received colistin. We performed a propensity score analysis, by considering the criteria of age, gender, underlying diseases, and disease severity, in order to match and equalize potential prognostic factors and severity in the two groups.ResultsA total of 294 adults with MDRAB pneumonia were enrolled, including 119 who received colistin and 175 who received tigecycline. We matched 84 adults who received colistin with an equal number of controls who received tigecycline. The two well matched cohorts share similar characteristics: the propensity scores are colistin: 0.37 vs. tigecycline: 0.37, (P = .97); baseline creatinine (1.70 vs. 1.81, P = .50), and the APACHE II score (21.6 vs. 22.0, P = .99). The tigecycline group has an excess mortality of 16.7% (60.7% vs. 44%, 95% confidence interval 0.9% – 32.4%, P = .04). The excess mortality of tigecycline is significant only among those with MIC >2 μg/mL (10/12 vs. 37/84, P = .01), but not for those with MIC ≦ 2 μg/mL (4/10 vs. 37/84, P = .81).ConclusionsOur data disfavors the use of tigecycline-based treatment in treating MDRAB pneumonia when tigecycline and colistin susceptibilities are unknown, since choosing tigecycline-based treatment might result in higher mortality. The excess mortality of tigecycline-based group may be related to higher MIC of tigecycline (> 2 μg/mL). Choosing tigecycline empirically for treating MDRAB pneumonia in the critical setting should be cautious.

Higher daptomycin doses (≥9 mg/kg) were associated with lower mortality in patients with VRE-BSI. Our results suggest that higher daptomycin doses need to be considered for VRE-BSI treatment.

Candida tropicalis is the leading cause of non– C. albicans candidemia in tropical Asia and Latin America. We evaluated isolates from 344 patients with an initial episode of C. tropicalis candidemia. We found that 58 (16.9%) patients were infected by fluconazole-nonsusceptible (FNS) C. tropicalis with cross resistance to itraconazole, voriconazole, and posaconazole; 55.2% (32/58) of patients were azole-naive. Multilocus sequence typing analysis revealed FNS isolates were genetically closely related, but we did not see time- or place-clustering. Among the diploid sequence types (DSTs), we noted DST225, which has been reported from fruit in Taiwan and hospitals in Beijing, China, as well as DST376 and DST505–7, which also were reported from hospitals in Shanghai, China. Our findings suggest cross-boundary expansion of FNS C. tropicalis and highlight the importance of active surveillance of clinical isolates to detect dissemination of this pathogen and explore potential sources in the community.

number NCT02208427.

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