SUMMARYAn apparently completely complement C7-deficient patient with refractory otitis media and two episodes of meningococcal disease was given therapeutic plasma transfusions in 1992 and 1994. Following these transfusions unexpected changes were found in C7 levels. Immediately after transfusion the serum C7 levels failed to rise to the expected levels but then rose to 5-10% of the normal mean during the next 5 days and remained at that level for more than 2 weeks before eventually returning to zero. The patient's DNA genotyped C7 M, and therefore C7 N donor plasma was selected for the second transfusion to allow identification of the source of the C7 circulating post-transfusion. This C7 phenotyped C7 M, demonstrating it to be of recipient origin. Therefore, the apparently completely C7-deficient patient was able to secrete some C7. By a combination of DNA typing and isoelectric focusing of the C7 appearing after transfusion, it was demonstrated that the patient was heterozygous for combined subtotal C6/C7 deficiency (inherited from his father) and a different, so far uncharacterized, subtotal C7 deficiency (inherited from his mother). The low amount of C7 secreted appeared to be constantly consumed, probably by generation of C5b6 as a result of his chronic infection. He had been shown to have circulating C5b6 most of the time, and thus only when sufficient exogenous C7 was given to consume the free C5b6 did his own C7 appear in circulation.
Neisseria meningitidis infection may present as meningitis or as severe, fulminant sepsis. In order to classify individual patients early according to the expected course of the disease, we developed a score named Neisseria sepsis index [NESI]. The NESI was defined using the parameters heart rate, mean arterial blood pressure, base excess and presence of acute subcutaneous bleeding and/or skin necroses (minimal value [= no evidence for sepsis] NESI 0; maximum value [= most severe sepsis] NESI 8). Seventeen patients with documented, systemic N. meningitidis infection were prospectively assessed for the terminal complement complex (TCC), serum tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha) levels (as laboratory parameters for severity of sepsis) and NESI score. The evaluation was immediately performed when the patients were admitted to the hospital. The 17 patients showed the following distribution of data: NESI 0 (n = 4), NESI 1 (n = 6), NESI 2 (n = 0), NESI 3 (n = 1), NESI 4 (n = 2), NESI 5 (n = 2), NESI 6 (n = 0), NESI 7 (n = 1), NESI 8 (n = 1). Mortality was 4/17 patients, all had NESI > or = 5. TCC values ranged from 647-6461 ng/ml (normal range: 130-360 ng/ml); and was not correlated to NESI. TNF alpha values ranged from 10-910 pg/ml and were correlated to NESI (r2 = 0.71, n = 17, P < 0.001). In patients with fatal outcome, TNF alpha was 600 +/- 160 pg/ml (mean +/- SEM) and in surviving patients 130 +/- 50 pg/ml (mean +/- SEM). TNF alpha was increased in 15/17 patients when compared to normal controls (< 27 pg/ml). CONCLUSION. The NESI is based on few clinical, objective data, that are available in every hospital. NESI appears to offer an instrument: (1) for making decisions in regard to appropriate monitoring and treatment of vital organ function; and (2) for assessing the quality of care for this life-threatening infection.
Strains of microorganisms characterized by resistance to antimicrobial drugs used in medical organizations continue to spread In most regions of the world including Russia. It is clear that it affects both the effectiveness of antimicrobial therapy and tactics and strategy of its use not only in adults patients but also in children. The pandemic of coronavirus infection, in addition, highlighted the growing problems in treatment of invasive mycoses, the dose adjustment of antibiotics during sorption and dialysis therapy methods. These circumstances made it necessary to make adjustments to Guidelines on Diagnostics and Antimicrobial Therapy of Infections Caused by Multiresistant Strains of Microorganisms, which were prepared by a group of leading Russian experts in 2020 [1]. The submitted version of the recommendations was approved on 25.03.2022 at a joint meeting of the working group with representatives of public organizations: Association of Anesthesiologists-Intensivists, the Interregional Non-Governmental Organization Alliance of Clinical Chemotherapists and Microbiologists, the Interregional Association for Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (IACMAC), and NGO Russian Sepsis Forum. These recommendations reflect an interdisciplinary consensus opinion on approaches to the diagnosis and antimicrobial therapy of infections caused by multiresistant microorganisms. They are based on data from publications obtained from randomized trials as well as based on international clinical guidelines with a high degree of evidence.It is rational to use the Guidelines for determining the tactics of empirical and etiotropic therapy of the most severe infections.
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