ABSTRACT
The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells (sTREM-1) is present in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with acute meningitis and if its presence can predict bacterial infection. We found elevated levels of sTREM-1 in the CSF of seven of the nine (78%) patients with culture-positive specimens and in none of 12 (0%) patients with culture-negative specimens (sensitivity: 78%; specificity: 100%). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for sTREM-1 in the CSF as a predictor for bacterial meningitis was 0.889. This suggests that sTREM-1 is upregulated in the CSF of patients with bacterial meningitis with high specificity and that its presence can potentially assist clinicians in the diagnosis of bacterial meningitis.
Subject(s)
Membrane Glycoproteins/cerebrospinal fluid , Meningitis, Aseptic/diagnosis , Meningitis, Bacterial/diagnosis , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Diagnosis, Differential , Female , Humans , Male , Meningitis, Aseptic/cerebrospinal fluid , Meningitis, Bacterial/cerebrospinal fluid , Middle Aged , Predictive Value of Tests , Receptors, Immunologic , Sensitivity and Specificity , Triggering Receptor Expressed on Myeloid Cells-1ABSTRACT
The aim of the study presented here was to evaluate the antibiotic susceptibility of Staphylococcus aureus over a 7-year period. A total of 2,122 clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus were collected from hospitalized patients at 3-year intervals during the period 1991-1997. The prevalence of methicillin-resistant isolates was 41.6%, 38.2% and 36% in 1991, 1994 and 1997, respectively; all of these isolates were sensitive to vancomycin. Over the study period, resistance to pristinamycin and fusidic acid increased slightly and resistance to imipenem, rifampicin and amikacin increased greatly, while resistance to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole decreased. For methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus isolates, significantly increased resistance was observed against amikacin only. Phage typing was conducted using the international set of phages. All of the isolates that were sensitive to group I, group II, or group V phages were sensitive to methicillin. Of the isolates that were sensitive to group III phages, 96% were methicillin resistant, and 70.5% of them were sensitive to phages 75 and 85.