Clostridium difficile colitis acquired in the intensive care unit: outcome and prognostic factors.

PURPOSE: We assessed factors associated with mortality and complicated course in the case of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) acquired in the intensive care unit (ICU). METHOD: Retrospective cohort study conducted from 1 January 2002 through 1 January 2012. All patients who acquired CDI in our ICU were included. RESULTS: Thirty-one patients were included. Twenty patients (65 %) had mild colitis, 8 (25 %) moderate colitis, and 3 (10 %) severe colitis. Initial antibiotherapy was metronidazole (n = 30, 97 %) and vancomycin (n = 1, 3 %). Seventeen patients (55 %) experienced at least one complication: failure of initial treatment (n = 16, 52 %), shock (n = 11, 34 %), need for surgery (n = 1, 3 %) or renal replacement (n = 4, 13 %), or death (n = 8, 26 %). Risk factors of ICU mortality were history of corticosteroids prescription, prolonged ICU stay, low serum albumin level, and high Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score at the time of CDI diagnosis. Factors associated with a complicated course were high Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS II), high SOFA score, and low serum albumin level at the time of CDI onset. CONCLUSION: Risk factors of poor outcome in patients with CDI acquired in the ICU are different from those in the general population suffering from CDI. The implementation of treatment algorithms taking into account these factors may reduce complication rates in this specific population.

Management and control of a carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii outbreak in an intensive care unit.

OBJECTIVE: We had for aim to describe the identification and management of a 14-clonal carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) outbreak, following admission of a known CRAB-infected patient in an ICU. METHODS: We reviewed the carriers' files and outbreak management procedures. RESULTS: The index patient was admitted with strict isolation precautions. The outbreak started 2 months after his discharge. It persisted despite reinforcement of strict isolation precautions, staff and patient cohorting, and extensive environmental decontamination including 2 rounds of routine terminal cleaning and disinfection or 1 round of cleaning and disinfection followed by hydrogen peroxide treatment. A second epidemic peak, after 4 weeks without any case, led to another wide environmental sampling and decontamination rounds. The source of the CRAB outbreak was suspected to be the blood pressure cuffs Velcro. Switching to cuffs submersible in a disinfectant stopped the outbreak. CONCLUSIONS: CRAB outbreaks are difficult to manage and sources of persistent colonization can be unexpected.

[Cryptococcal osteomyelitis in a patient with a lymphocytic leukemia treated with fludarabine-cyclophosphamide-rituximab]. / Cryptococcose osseuse chez une patiente porteuse d'une leucémie lymphocytique traitée par fludarabine-cyclophosphamide-rituximab.

INTRODUCTION: Cryptococcosis is a serious invasive fungal infection mostly described in patients with cell-mediated immunosuppression. Cryptococcus neoformans osteomyelitis is a rare infection that occurs mainly during disseminated forms. OBSERVATION: A 72-year-old diabetic patient, treated with fludarabine-cyclophosphamide-rituximab (since 10 months) for lymphocytic leukemia presented with osteolysis of the fourth left hand metacarpien the histological examination of which revealed C. neoformans. This bone involvement was associated with costal osteolytis and pulmonary cryptococcosis but central nervous system (CNS) was spared. Fluconazole was administered intravenously for 15 days, then switched to oral route for 6 months with favorable clinical course. This case describes an unusual clinical presentation of disseminated cryptococcosis without CNS involvement with multiple osseous metastases. A review of cryptococcal osteomyelitis cases reported in adult from 2000 to 2011 is also discussed. CONCLUSION: Cryptococcosis is a rare infection that should be discussed in seriously immunocompromized patients presenting with osteomyelitis even in the absence of CNS involvement.

A cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome with joint destruction.

OBJECTIVE: Describe four generations (11 members) of a family with a cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome (CAPS), including joint destruction, associated with a CIAS1-gene mutation and good responses to anakinra. METHODS: In addition to detailed questioning and physical examination, six family members underwent haematological, immunological and biochemical testing. Exon 3 of the CIAS1 gene was sequenced in search of a mutation in the 1q44 region. RESULTS: During childhood or adolescence, four family members developed different combinations of the following CAPS manifestations: deafness (3/4); arthritis (4/4) with joint destruction for two of them; nervous (cerebral demyelinization, 2/4), cutaneous (livedo and/or urticaria, 3/4) and eye lesions (episcleritis and/or papilloedema, 4/4); IgA hypergammaglobulinaemia (4/4) and inflammatory syndrome (3/4). Sequencing of six family members' CIAS1-gene exon 3 identified a heterozygous mutation, c.1043C > T. Pertinently, this CAPS is distinct from chronic infantile neurological cutaneous and arthritis syndrome/neonatal onset multisystemic inflammatory disease syndrome and Muckle-Wells syndrome (MWS), which also result from exon 3 mutations in this gene. Moreover, this family did not have the usual neurological manifestations, typical morphological features and frequent amyloidosis of MWS. CONCLUSIONS: We describe a previously unreported form of CAPS with atypical neurological signs, joint destruction and livedo. This observation extends the clinical spectrum associated with CIAS1 mutations. Anakinra, an interleukin-1-receptor antagonist, prescribed to two family members, was highly effective.

[Plasma lipids in reflex sympathetic dystrophy. A study apropos of 90 cases]. / Les lipides plasmatiques dans l'algodystrophie: étude à propos de 90 observations.

Plasma levels of cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL-cholesterol, and apolipoproteins A1 and B were assayed in ninety patients (sixty-four male and twenty-six female) with reflex sympathetic dystrophy and in ninety controls matched for age, sex, and body mass index (BMI). No significant differences were found between the two groups for the proportions of patients with increased plasma cholesterol levels (6.6% versus 4.4%) or increased plasma triglyceride levels (40% versus 30%), as defined by Turpin's age and sex-specific criteria, or for mean values of these parameters. In the 38 patients with reflex sympathetic dystrophy of less than 3.5 months duration, plasma triglyceride levels were significantly higher than in the 38 matched controls (1.24 + 0.57 g/l versus 1.02 +/- 0.91; p = 0.04). In patients (n = 52) with disease of more than four months duration (range 4-39), plasma triglyceride levels were similar in the two groups. Lipidemia was similar in patients and controls regardless of age, sex, topography of the disease, clinical manifestations, and whether or not the disease was due to an injury. This study, in contrast to previous reports, failed to disclose an association between reflex sympathetic dystrophy and hyperlipidemia. Transient hypertriglyceridemia may occur during the first 3 1/2 months of the disease as a result of initial immobilization.