Objective:The use of procalcitonin (ProCT) as a marker of several clinical conditions, in particular, systemic inflammation, infection, and sepsis, will be clarified, and its current limitations will be delineated. In particular, the need for a more sensitive assay will be emphasized. For these purp

Procalcitonin assay in systemic inflammation, infection, and sepsis: clinical utility and limitations.

https://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/bitstream/1822/10549/1/Santos_ResMicrobiol.pdf

Fourier transform infrared as a powerful technique for the identification and characterization of filamentous fungi and yeasts

Biomolecular and bioanalytical applications of infrared spectroscopy - A review.

Proteomics is particularly suitable for characterising human pathogens with high life cycle complexity, such as fungi. Protein content and expression levels may be affected by growth states and life cycle morphs and correlate to species and strain variation. Identification and typing of fungi by conventional methods are often difficult, time-consuming and frequently, for unusual species, inconclusive. Proteomic phenotypes from MALDI-TOF MS were employed as analytical and typing expression profiling of yeast, yeast-like species and strain variants in order to achieve a microbial proteomics population study. Spectra from 303 clinical isolates were generated and processed by standard pattern matching with a MALDI-TOF Biotyper (MT). Identifications (IDs) were compared to a reference biochemical-based system (Vitek-2) and, when discordant, MT IDs were verified with genotyping IDs, obtained by sequencing the 25–28S rRNA hypervariable D2 region. Spectra were converted into virtual gel-like formats, and hierarchical clustering analysis was performed for 274 Candida profiles to investigate species and strain typing correlation. MT provided 257/303 IDs consistent with Vitek-2 ones. However, amongst 26/303 discordant MT IDs, only 5 appeared “true”. No MT identification was achieved for 20/303 isolates for incompleteness of database species variants. Candidaspectra clustering agreed with identified species and topology of Candida albicans and Candida parapsilosis specific dendrograms. MT IDs show a high analytical performance and profiling heterogeneity which seems to complement or even outclass existing typing tools. This variability reflects the high biological complexity of yeasts and may be properly exploited to provide epidemiological tracing and infection dispersion patterns.

MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry proteomic phenotyping of clinically relevant fungi

Vibration spectroscopy and body biofluids: Literature review for clinical applications.

Epidemiological investigation and typing of Candida glabrata clinical isolates by FTIR spectroscopy.

Surgery for mesenteric infarction: prognostic factors associated with early death within 72 hours.

Candida albicans is an opportunistic pathogen, generally though to be of endogenous origin, with however reported outbreaks. Epidemilogy of C. albicans has been studied so far by genotypic methods mainly, including the classical RAPD analysis. Albeit powerful, genotypic techniques are expensive, time consuming and complex to implement. FTIR spectroscopy is simple, rapid, inexpensive and an increasingly used technique for the identification of microorganisms. As a phenotypic method, it provides rapid whole cells 'fingerprinting' using few consumables and can detect very subtle differences between strains of the same species. In this study, C. albicans strains isolated from 50 patients from six hospital units were collected and studied by FTIR spectroscopy and RAPD-PCR. Discrimination of strains was computed using classification algorithms on selected features of the spectral data. Results from 10 patients, for whom iterative sampling was possible, are presented and discussed. Emphasis was laid on the reproducibility of dat for strain-level identification. FTIR analysis shows that (a) the C. albicans spectra were different from one patient to another, (b) seven patients exhibit each a homogeneous group while three patients display each two groups of strains. RAPD-PCR and FTIR analyses correlate quite well showing that FTIR spectroscopy could be a potential epidemiological tool in the control of nosocomial fungal infections.

Comparing FTIR and RAPD techniques in the typing of C. albicans in a clinical set-up

Meme si la neurochirurgie est dans la plupart des cas une chirurgie propre avec un risque infectieux faible, la gravite des infections postneurochirurgicales est indiscutable, en raison de leur proximite, voire meme de leur localisation a l’interieur du systeme nerveux central (SNC). Ces infections sont diverses, et leur survenue depend de trois acteurs: le malade et sa pathologie, l’operateur et la bacterie. Il est classique de dire que leur pronostic a ete modifie par l’apport de l’imagerie medicale, les progres des techniques chirurgicales et de l’antibiotherapie. C’est sans compter avec l’action des Comites de Lutte contre les Infections Nosocomiales (CLIN) a l’interieur des hopitaux et dans les blocs operatoires et leur role dans la prevention et l’analyse de la cause du developpement des infections nosocomiales. Meme si les criteres de definition de ces infections restent trop souvent simplistes et dogmatiques, les neuro-anesthesistes reanimateurs sont concernes par cette pathologie, non seulement par la prescription de molecules anti-infectieuses, mais aussi dans leur prevention.

Claire Lepouse

Papers

Epidemiological investigation and typing of Candida glabrata clinical isolates by FTIR spectroscopy.

Surgery for mesenteric infarction: prognostic factors associated with early death within 72 hours.

Comparing FTIR and RAPD techniques in the typing of C. albicans in a clinical set-up

Infections neuroméningées postopératoires et abcès cérébraux

Ischémie mésentérique : présentation clinique et réanimation