Retrospective Multicenter Study Comparing Infectious and Noninfectious Aortitis.

BACKGROUND: Determining the etiology of aortitis is often challenging, in particular to distinguish infectious aortitis (IA) and noninfectious aortitis (NIA). This study aims to describe and compare the clinical, biological, and radiological characteristics of IA and NIA and their outcomes. METHODS: A multicenter retrospective study was performed in 10 French centers, including patients with aortitis between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2019. RESULTS: One hundred eighty-three patients were included. Of these, 66 had IA (36.1%); the causative organism was Enterobacterales and streptococci in 18.2% each, Staphylococcus aureus in 13.6%, and Coxiella burnetii in 10.6%. NIA was diagnosed in 117 patients (63.9%), mainly due to vasculitides (49.6%), followed by idiopathic aortitis (39.3%). IA was more frequently associated with aortic aneurysms compared with NIA (78.8% vs 17.6%, P < .001), especially located in the abdominal aorta (69.7% vs 23.1%, P < .001). Crude and adjusted survival were significantly lower in IA compared to NIA (P < .001 and P = .006, respectively). In the IA cohort, high American Society of Anesthesiologists score (hazard ratio [HR], 2.47 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 1.08-5.66]; P = .033) and free aneurysm rupture (HR, 9.54 [95% CI, 1.04-87.11]; P = .046) were significantly associated with mortality after adjusting for age, sex, and Charlson comorbidity score. Effective empiric antimicrobial therapy, initiated before any microbial documentation, was associated with a decreased mortality (HR, 0.23, 95% CI, .08-.71]; P = .01). CONCLUSIONS: IA was complicated by significantly higher mortality rates compared with NIA. An appropriate initial antibiotic therapy appeared as a protective factor in IA.

Prone position versus usual care in hypoxemic COVID-19 patients in medical wards: a randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Benefit of early awake prone positioning for COVID-19 patients hospitalised in medical wards and who need oxygen therapy remains to be demonstrated. The question was considered at the time of COVID-19 pandemic to avoid overloading the intensive care units. We aimed to determine whether prone position plus usual care could reduce the rate of non-invasive ventilation (NIV) or intubation or death as compared to usual care alone. METHODS: In this multicentre randomised clinical trial, 268 patients were randomly assigned to awake prone position plus usual care (N = 135) or usual care alone (N = 132). The primary outcome was the proportion of patients who underwent NIV or intubation or died within 28 days. Main secondary outcomes included the rates of NIV, of intubation or death, within 28 days. RESULTS: Median time spent each day in the prone position within 72 h of randomisation was 90 min (IQR 30-133). The proportion of NIV or intubation or death within 28 days was 14.1% (19/135) in the prone position group and 12.9% (17/132) in the usual care group [odds ratio adjusted for stratification (aOR) 0.43; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.14-1.35]. The probability of intubation, or intubation or death (secondary outcomes) was lower in the prone position group than in the usual care group (aOR 0.11; 95% CI 0.01-0.89 and aOR 0.09; 95% CI 0.01-0.76, respectively) in the whole study population and in the prespecified subgroup of patients with SpO2 ≥ 95% on inclusion (aOR 0.11; 95% CI 0.01-0.90, and aOR 0.09; 95% CI 0.03-0.27, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Awake prone position plus usual care in COVID-19 patients in medical wards did not decrease the composite outcome of need for NIV or intubation or death. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04363463 . Registered 27 April 2020.

Ultrasonography performed by an infectiologist in hip and knee prosthetic joint and native joint infections.

INTRODUCTION: Clinical ultrasonography (US) by infectiologists has only recently been developing, and as now there is little literature on the subject. Our study focuses on the conditions and diagnostic performance of clinical ultrasound imaging by infectiologists in cases of hip and knee prosthetic and native joint infection. METHODS: A retrospective study carried out between June 1st 2019 and March 31st 2021 in the University Hospital of Bordeaux, South-Western France. We measured US sensitivity (Se), specificity (Sp), positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV), combined or not with the analysis of articular fluid, compared to the MusculoSketetal Infection Society (MSIS) score in prosthetic joints, or to expert diagnosis in native joints. RESULTS: Fifty-four patients underwent US by an infectiologist in an infectious disease ward, including 11 (20.4%) for native joint and 43 (79.6%) for prosthetic joint. Joint effusion and/or periarticular collection were highlighted in 47 (87%) patients, and US led to 44 punctures. In all patients (n = 54), Se, Sp, PPV and NPV of US alone were 91%, 19%, 64% and 57%, respectively. When US was combined with fluid analysis, Se, Sp, PPV, NPV were 68%, 100%, 100%, 64% in all patients (n = 54), 86%, 100%, 100%, 60% in acute arthritis (n = 17) and 50%, 100%, 100% and 65% respectively in non-acute arthritis (n = 37). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that US by infectiologists effectively diagnoses osteoarticular infections (OAIs). This approach has many applications in infectiology routines. Consequently, it would be interesting to define the contents of a first level of infectiologist competence in US clinical practice.

Long-term follow-up of HIV-1 multi-drug-resistant treatment-experienced participants treated with etravirine, raltegravir and boosted darunavir: towards drug-reduced regimen? ANRS CO3 Aquitaine Cohort 2007-2018.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy of raltegravir, etravirine and darunavir/ritonavir (TRIO regimen) in treatment-experienced patients with human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) infection by describing the proportion of patients who experienced virological failure (VF) at Week 24. The secondary objectives were to assess the HIV-1 plasma viral load (pVL) after Week 24, the proportion of patients who were receiving dual therapy or monotherapy at the last visit, and the number of deaths. METHODS: Patients from the ANRS CO3 Aquitaine Cohort who were prescribed the TRIO regimen between February 2007 and September 2018 were classified into two groups based on their pVL at study inclusion: the virological failure group (VFG; pVL >50 copies/mL) and the virologically suppressed group (VSG; pVL <50 copies/mL). The impact of baseline pVL and genotypic susceptibility score (GSS) on VF was analysed. RESULTS: In total, 184 patients were enrolled in this study, with 123 (66.8%) in the VFG and 61 (33.2%) in the VSG. The median length of follow-up was 7.5 (interquartile range 4.1-9.6) years, and 29 (15.8%) patients died. Thirty-seven (25.5%) patients experienced VF at Week 24, including 32/145 (32.7%) in the VFG and 5/47 (10.6%) in the VSG (P<0.01). Resistance-associated mutations were detected in integrase, reverse transcriptase and protease for 7/37 (18.9%), 3/37 (8.1%) and 1/37 (2.7%) patients, respectively. High pVL and GSS at baseline were independently associated with VF. At the last visit, 76/184 (41.3%) patients were still receiving the TRIO regimen, while 55/184 (29.9%) were receiving dual therapy and 1/184 (0.5%) was receiving protease inhibitor monotherapy. Among the 56 patients receiving dual therapy or monotherapy, 51 (96.2%) had pVL <50 copies/mL. CONCLUSION: Despite a high level of mutation resistance at baseline, long-term virological follow-up was favourable and one-third of patients were eligible for drug-reducing strategies.

Does awake prone positioning prevent the use of mechanical respiratory support or death in COVID-19 patients on standard oxygen therapy hospitalised in general wards? A multicentre randomised controlled trial: the PROVID-19 protocol.

INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 is responsible of severe hypoxaemia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Prone positioning improves oxygenation and survival in sedated mechanically patients with ARDS not related to COVID-19. Awake prone positioning is a simple and safe technique which improves oxygenation in non-intubated COVID-19 patients. We hypothesised that early prone positioning in COVID-19 patients breathing spontaneously in medical wards could decrease the rates of intubation or need for noninvasive ventilation or death. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: PROVID-19 is an investigator-initiated, prospective, multicentre randomised, controlled, superiority trial comparing awake prone positioning to standard of care in hypoxaemic COVID-19 patients in 20 medical wards in France and Monaco. Patients are randomised to receive either awake prone position plus usual care or usual care alone with stratification on centres, body mass index and severity of hypoxaemia.The study objective is to compare the rate of treatment failure defined as a composite endpoint comprising the need for non-invasive ventilation (at two pressure levels) or for intubation or death, between the intervention group (awake prone position plus usual care) and the usual care (usual care alone) group at 28 days. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The protocol and amendments have been approved by the ethics committees (Comité de protection des personnes Ouest VI, France, no 1279 HPS2 and Comité Consultatif d'Ethique en matière de Recherche Biomédicale, Monaco, no 2020.8894 AP/jv), and patients are included after written informed consent. The results will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT04363463.

A Low Level of Darunavir Resistance-Associated Mutation Emergence in Patients With Virological Failure During Long-term Use of Darunavir in People With HIV. The ANRS CO3 Aquitaine Cohort.

BACKGROUND: Ritonavir-boosted darunavir (DRV/r) is a protease inhibitor (PI) indicated for the treatment of naïve and pretreated HIV-infected patients since 2007. Our study aims to describe DRV/r-treated patients experiencing virological failure (VF) documented with HIV resistance testing. METHODS: Data from patients belonging to the ANRS CO3 Aquitaine Cohort treated with a regimen including DRV/r between February 2007 and December 2015 were analyzed. Baseline characteristics of patients experiencing VF (defined by 2 consecutive plasma viral loads >50 copies/mL) were compared with those without VF. We then described factors associated with VF as emergence of IAS DRV resistance-associated mutations (RAMs). RESULTS: Among the 1458 patients treated at least once with a DRV/r-based regimen, 270 (18.5%) patients experienced VF during follow-up, including 240 with at least 1 genotype resistance test (GRT). DRV RAMs were detected in 29 patients (12%). Among them, 25/29 patients had ≥2 DRV RAMs before DRV/r initiation, all of whom had experienced VF during previous PI treatments. For 18/29, DRV/r was maintained after VF, and controlled viremia was restored after modification of DRV-associated antiretroviral molecules or increased DRV dose. Finally, only 6/29 patients selected new DRV RAMs after DRV/r initiation. All of these experienced previous VFs while on other PIs. CONCLUSIONS: These results highlight the efficacy and robustness of DRV/r, as the emergence of DRV RAMs appeared in <0.4% of patients receiving a DRV/r-based regimen in our large cohort.