Comparative Analysis of Bacterial Community Composition and Structure in Clinically Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Central Venous Catheters

Abstract

Totally implanted venous access ports (TIVAPs) are commonly used implants for the management of acute or chronic pathologies. Although their use improves the patient’s health care and quality of life, they are associated with a risk of infection and subsequent clinical complications, often leading to implant removal. While all TIVAPs appear to be colonized, only a fraction become infected, and the relationship between nonpathogenic organisms colonizing TIVAPs and the potential risk of infection is unknown. We explored bacteria present on TIVAPs implanted in patients with or without signs of TIVAP infection and identified differences in phylum composition and community structure. Our data suggest that the microbial ecology of intravascular devices could be predictive of TIVAP infection status and that ultimately a microbial ecological signature could be identified as a tool to predict TIVAP infection susceptibility and improve clinical management.

Tetrasodium EDTA Is Effective at Eradicating Biofilms Formed by Clinically Relevant Microorganisms from Patients’ Central Venous Catheters

“…In our study, the isolated organisms likely represent a mix of attached, surface- or lumen-associated cells ( 33 , 34 ). We obtained diverse Gram-negative, Gram-positive, and fungal isolates, and S. epidermidis was the most predominant single species, which matches well with previous reports ( 36 , 45 , 47 ). However, if we had employed a culture-independent approach focused on sequencing, we anticipate that microorganisms would have been detected in nearly 100% of the catheters.…”

“…The Maki roll technique, which has low sensitivity for isolation of intraluminal bacteria ( 34 ), was combined with sonication to maximize the chances of detecting bacterial colonization. Recently, culture-independent approaches have shown that both “symptomatic” and “nonsymptomatic” catheters contain diverse microorganisms ( 45 – 47 ), with “symptomatic” catheters colonized at higher levels and the most numerically dominant organisms often being the only ones cultured. This could explain the commonly held dogma that some catheters are colonized and others are not.…”

“…More research is needed to better understand what signals trigger biofilm development in the host and to learn how to extrapolate these signals to the in vitro environment. Although it is difficult to know the true prevalence of in vivo biofilm formation, recent studies using microscopic examination of the inside of catheters indicate that it could be near 100% ( 45 – 47 ). Despite this high in vivo prevalence, only 10 to 15% of isolates in our study were capable of forming robust biofilms in vitro.…”

Probiotic Escherichia coli inhibits biofilm formation of pathogenic E. coli via extracellular activity of DegP

“…While planktonic cells are susceptible to environmental cues, mixed-species biofilm communities provide a stable environment, e.g ., they maintain viable phage and bacterial populations 9 or induce adaptive bacterial physiological responses 10 . Molecular interactions between pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria are also potentially important in understanding bacterial colonization patterns, as shown in the bacterial community parameters in central venous catheters 11 .…”

Assessment of Bacterial Colonization of Intracranial Pressure Transducers: A Prospective Study

“…Finally, a seductive hypothesis to explain the low risk of infection despite almost universal bacterial colonization is that the mature biofilm we observed may act as a protective microbiota on the surface of the ICPT [6,30,31]. Studying another type of indwelling device (totally implanted venous access port, TIVAP) using NGS, Stressmann et al [30] identified two distinct patterns of biofilm composition, depending on the status of the patient at TIVAP removal (clinical suspicion of infection ["symptomatic"] or not ["asymptomatic"]). Among samples from asymptomatic patients, they identified Herbaspirillum, Paracoccus and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia more abundantly than in symptomatic patients.…”