Untangling the Nuances Complicating Urinary Tract Infection Diagnosis and Management: Moving Beyond the Basics
Urinary tract infection (UTI) is an extremely common infection that impacts providers and patients across the continuum of care. Although many clinicians feel comfortable with the basic approach to UTI diagnosis and management, the range of syndromes, presence of complicating host features, and ever-changing resistance patterns make UTI anything but a basic condition. (Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America)
Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America - March 26, 2024 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Kalpana Gupta Tags: Preface Source Type: research

Infections in Heart and Lung Transplant Recipients
This article reviews the epidemiology, risk factors, specific clinical syndromes, and most frequent opportunistic infections in heart and/or lung transplant recipients that will be encountered in the intensive care unit and will provide a practical approach of empirical management. (Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America)
Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America - January 26, 2024 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Mohammed Alsaeed, Shahid Husain Source Type: research

Opportunistic Infections Post-Lung Transplantation: Viral, Fungal, and Mycobacterial
Opportunistic infections are a leading cause of lung transplant recipient morbidity and mortality. Risk factors for infection include continuous exposure of the lung allograft to the external environment, high levels of immunosuppression, impaired mucociliary clearance and decreased cough reflex, and impact of the native lung microbiome in single lung transplant recipients. Infection risk is mitigated through careful pretransplant screening of recipients and donors, implementation of antimicrobial prophylaxis strategies, and routine surveillance posttransplant. This review describes common viral, fungal, and mycobacterial ...
Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America - January 26, 2024 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Gabriela Magda Source Type: research

Novel Approaches to Multidrug-Resistant Infections in Cystic Fibrosis
Patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) often develop respiratory tract infections with pathogenic multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and a variety of gram-negative organisms that include Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Burkholderia sp., Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Achromobacter xylosoxidans, and nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). Despite the introduction of new therapies to address underlying cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) dysfunction, MDRO infections remain a problem and novel antimicrobial interventions are still needed. Therapeutic approaches incl...
Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America - January 26, 2024 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Thomas S. Murray, Gail Stanley, Jonathan L. Koff Source Type: research

Novel and Rapid Diagnostics for Common Infections in the Critically Ill Patient
There are several novel platforms that enhance detection of pathogens that cause common infections in the intensive care unit. These platforms have a sample to answer time of a few hours, are often higher yield than culture, and have the potential to improve antibiotic stewardship. (Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America)
Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America - January 26, 2024 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Chiagozie I. Pickens, Richard G. Wunderink Source Type: research

Management of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia
Two recent major guidelines on diagnosis and treatment of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) recommend consideration of local antibiotic resistance patterns and individual patient risks for resistant pathogens when formulating an initial empiric antibiotic regimen. One recommends against invasive diagnostic techniques with quantitative cultures to determine the cause of VAP; the other recommends either invasive or noninvasive techniques. Both guidelines recommend short-course therapy be used for most patients with VAP. Although neither guideline recommends use of procalcitonin as an adjunct to clinical judgment when dia...
Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America - January 26, 2024 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Mark L. Metersky, Andre C. Kalil Source Type: research

The Role of Biomarkers in the Diagnosis and Management of Pneumonia
Biomarkers are used in the diagnosis, severity determination, and prognosis for patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Selected biomarkers may indicate a bacterial infection and need for antibiotic therapy (C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells). Biomarkers can differentiate CAP patients who require hospital admission and severe CAP requiring intensive care unit admission. Biomarker-guided antibiotic therapy may limit antibiotic exposure without compromising outcome and thus improve antibiotic stewardship. The authors discuss the role of biomarkers in diagnosin...
Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America - January 26, 2024 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Sarah Sungurlu, Robert A. Balk Source Type: research

Infectious Pulmonary Diseases
Pneumonia is a lower respiratory tract infection caused by the inability to clear pathogens from the lower airway and alveoli. Cytokines and local inflammatory markers are released, causing further damage to the lungs through the accumulation of white blood cells and fluid congestion, leading to pus in the parenchyma. The Infectious Diseases Society of America defines pneumonia as the presence of new lung infiltrate with other clinical evidence supporting infection, including new fever, purulent sputum, leukocytosis, and decline in oxygenation. Importantly, lower respiratory infections remain the most deadly communicable d...
Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America - January 26, 2024 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Rachel Rafeq, Lauren A. Igneri Source Type: research

Coronavirus Disease-2019 in the Immunocompromised Host
Immunocompromised hosts, which encompass a diverse population of persons with malignancies, human immunodeficiency virus disease, solid organ, and hematologic transplants, autoimmune diseases, and primary immunodeficiencies, bear a significant burden of the morbidity and mortality due to coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). Immunocompromised patients who develop COVID-19 have a more severe illness, higher hospitalization rates, and higher mortality rates than immunocompetent patients. There are no well-defined treatment strategies that are specific to immunocompromised patients and vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, and conv...
Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America - January 26, 2024 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Christopher D. Bertini, Fareed Khawaja, Ajay Sheshadri Source Type: research

Radiographic Imaging of Community-Acquired Pneumonia
The chest radiograph is the most common imaging examination performed in most radiology departments, and one of the more common indications for these studies is suspected infection. Radiologists must therefore be aware of less common radiographic patterns of pulmonary infection if they are to add value in the interpretation of chest radiographs for this indication. This review uses a case-based format to illustrate a range of imaging findings that can be associated with acute pulmonary infection and highlight findings that should prompt investigation for diseases other than community-acquired pneumonia to prevent misdiagno...
Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America - January 26, 2024 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Lacey Washington, Bryan O ’Sullivan-Murphy, Jared D. Christensen, H. Page McAdams Source Type: research

Viral Pneumonias
Viral pneumonia is usually community acquired and caused by influenza, parainfluenza, respiratory syncytial virus, human metapneumovirus, and adenovirus. Many of these infections are airway centric and chest imaging demonstrates bronchiolitis and bronchopneumonia, With the exception of adenovirus infections, the presence of lobar consolidation usually suggests bacterial coinfection. Community-acquired viral pathogens can cause more severe pneumonia in immunocompromised hosts, who are also susceptible to CMV and varicella infection. These latter 2 pathogens are less likely to manifest the striking airway-centric pattern. Ai...
Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America - January 26, 2024 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Jennifer Febbo, Jonathan Revels, Loren Ketai Source Type: research

Influenza and Viral Pneumonia
Influenza and other respiratory viruses are commonly identified in patients with community-acquired pneumonia, hospital-acquired pneumonia, and in immunocompromised patients with pneumonia. Clinically, it is difficult to differentiate viral from bacterial pneumonia. Similarly, the radiological findings of viral infection are in general nonspecific. The advent of polymerase chain reaction testing has enormously facilitated the identification of respiratory viruses, which has important implications for infection control measures and treatment. Currently, treatment options for patients with viral infection are limited but the...
Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America - January 26, 2024 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Rodrigo Cavallazzi, Julio A. Ramirez Source Type: research

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INFECTIOUS DISEASE CLINICS OF NORTH AMERICA (Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America)
Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America - January 26, 2024 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Rachael A. Lee, Helen W. Boucher Source Type: research

Copyright
Elsevier (Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America)
Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America - January 26, 2024 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: research

Contributors
HELEN W. BOUCHER, MD, FACP, FIDSA (Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America)
Source: Infectious Diseases Clinics of North America - January 26, 2024 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: research