An immune dysfunction score for stratification of patients with acute infection based on whole-blood gene expression.

Dysregulated host responses to infection can lead to organ dysfunction and sepsis, causing millions of global deaths each year. To alleviate this burden, improved prognostication and biomarkers of response are urgently needed. We investigated the use of whole-blood transcriptomics for stratification of patients with severe infection by integrating data from 3149 samples from patients with sepsis due to community-acquired pneumonia or fecal peritonitis admitted to intensive care and healthy individuals into a gene expression reference map. We used this map to derive a quantitative sepsis response signature (SRSq) score reflective of immune dysfunction and predictive of clinical outcomes, which can be estimated using a 7- or 12-gene signature. Last, we built a machine learning framework, SepstratifieR, to deploy SRSq in adult and pediatric bacterial and viral sepsis, H1N1 influenza, and COVID-19, demonstrating clinically relevant stratification across diseases and revealing some of the physiological alterations linking immune dysregulation to mortality. Our method enables early identification of individuals with dysfunctional immune profiles, bringing us closer to precision medicine in infection.

Duration of Treatment for Pseudomonas aeruginosa Bacteremia: a Retrospective Study.

INTRODUCTION: There is no consensus regarding optimal duration of antibiotic therapy for Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteremia. We aimed to evaluate the impact of short antibiotic course. METHODS: We present a retrospective multicenter study including patients with P. aeruginosa bacteremia during 2009-2015. We evaluated outcomes of patients treated with short (6-10 days) versus long (11-15 days) antibiotic courses. The primary outcome was a composite of 30-day mortality or bacteremia recurrence and/or persistence. Univariate and inverse probability treatment-weighted (IPTW) adjusted multivariate analysis for the primary outcome was performed. To avoid immortal time bias, the landmark method was used. RESULTS: We included 657 patients; 273 received a short antibiotic course and 384 a long course. There was no significant difference in baseline characteristics of patients. The composite primary outcome occurred in 61/384 patients in the long-treatment group (16%) versus 32/273 in the short-treatment group (12%) (p = 0.131). Mortality accounted for 41/384 (11%) versus 25/273 (9%) of cases, respectively. Length of hospital stay was significantly shorter in the short group [median 13 days, interquartile range (IQR) 9-21 days, versus median 15 days, IQR 11-26 days, p = 0.002]. Ten patients in the long group discontinued antibiotic therapy owing to adverse events, compared with none in the short group. On univariate and multivariate analyses, duration of therapy was not associated with the primary outcome. CONCLUSIONS: In this retrospective study, 6-10 days of antibiotic course for P. aeruginosa bacteremia were as effective as longer courses in terms of survival and recurrence. Shorter therapy was associated with reduced length of stay and less drug discontinuation.

Combination versus monotherapy as definitive treatment for Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteraemia: a multicentre retrospective observational cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteraemia is a common and serious infection. No consensus exists regarding whether definitive combination therapy is superior to monotherapy. We aimed to evaluate the impact of combination therapy on mortality. METHODS: This was a multicentre retrospective study (nine countries, 25 centres), including 1277 patients with P. aeruginosa bacteraemia during 2009-15. We evaluated the association between ß-lactam plus aminoglycoside or quinolone combination therapy versus ß-lactam monotherapy and mortality. The primary outcome was 30 day all-cause mortality. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were conducted, introducing combination as a time-dependent variable. Propensity score was conducted to adjust for confounding for choosing combination therapy over monotherapy. RESULTS: Of 1119 patients included, 843 received definitive monotherapy and 276 received combination therapy (59% aminoglycoside and 41% quinolone). Mortality at 30 days was 16.9% (189/1119) and was similar between combination (45/276; 16.3%) and monotherapy (144/843; 17.1%) groups (P = 0.765). In multivariate Cox regression, combination therapy was not associated with reduced mortality (HR 0.98, 95% CI 0.64-1.53). No advantage in terms of clinical failure, microbiological failure or recurrent/persistent bacteraemia was demonstrated using combination therapy. Likewise, adverse events and resistance development were similar for the two regimens. CONCLUSIONS: In this retrospective cohort, no mortality advantage was demonstrated using combination therapy over monotherapy for P. aeruginosa bacteraemia. Combination therapy did not improve clinical or microbiological failure rates, nor affect adverse events or resistance development. Our finding of no benefit with combination therapy needs confirmation in well-designed randomized controlled trials.

Risk factors for hospital readmission following complicated urinary tract infection.

Hospital readmissions following severe infections are a major economic burden on the health care system and have a negative influence on patients' quality of life. Understanding the risk factors for readmission, particularly the extent to which they could be prevented, is of a great importance. In this study we evaluated potentially preventable risk factors for 60-day readmission in patients surviving hospitalization for complicated urinary tract infection (cUTI). This was a multinational, multicentre retrospective cohort study conducted in Europe and the Middle East. Our cohort included survivors of hospitalization due to cUTI during the years 2013-2014. The primary outcome was 60-day readmission following index hospitalization. Patient characteristics that could have influenced readmission: demographics, infection presentation and management, microbiological and clinical data; were collected via computerized medical records from infection onset up to 60 days after hospital discharge. Overall, 742 patients were included. The cohort median age was 68 years (interquartile range, (IQR) 55-80) and 43.3% (321/742) of patients were males. The all-cause 60-day readmission rate was 20.1% (149/742) and more than half were readmitted for infection [57.1%, (80/140)]. Recurrent cUTI was the most frequent cause for readmission [46.4% (65/140)]. Statistically significant risk factors associated with 60-day readmission in multivariable analysis were: older age (odds ratio (OR) 1.02 for an one-year increment, confidence interval (CI) 1.005-1.03), diabetes mellitus (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.04-2.55), cancer (OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.05-2.77), previous urinary tract infection (UTI) in the last year (OR 1.8, 95% CI: 1.14-2.83), insertion of an indwelling bladder catheter (OR 1.62, 95% CI 1.07-2.45) and insertion of percutaneous nephrostomy (OR 3.68, 95% CI 1.67-8.13). In conclusion, patients surviving hospitalization for cUTI are frequently re-hospitalized, mostly for recurrent urinary infections associated with a medical condition that necessitated urinary interventions. Interventions to avoid re-admissions should target these patients.

Risk factors for enterococcal urinary tract infections: a multinational, retrospective cohort study.

Complicated urinary tract infection (cUTI) is a frequent cause of morbidity. In this multinational retrospective cohort study, we aimed to demonstrate risk factors for enterococcal UTI. Univariate and multivariate analyses of risk factors for enterococcal infection were performed. Among 791 hospitalized patients with cUTI, enterococci accounted for approximately 10% of cases (78/791). Risk factors for enterococcal UTI in multivariable analysis were male gender, age range of 55-75 years, catheter-associated UTI, and urinary retention. This information may assist treating physicians in their decision-making on prescribing empiric anti-enterococcus treatment to hospitalized patients presenting with cUTI and thus improve clinical outcomes.

Ceftazidime, Carbapenems, or Piperacillin-tazobactam as Single Definitive Therapy for Pseudomonas aeruginosa Bloodstream Infection: A Multisite Retrospective Study.

BACKGROUND: The optimal antibiotic regimen for Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteremia is controversial. Although ß-lactam monotherapy is common, data to guide the choice between antibiotics are scarce. We aimed to compare ceftazidime, carbapenems, and piperacillin-tazobactam as definitive monotherapy. METHODS: A multinational retrospective study (9 countries, 25 centers) including 767 hospitalized patients with P. aeruginosa bacteremia treated with ß-lactam monotherapy during 2009-2015. The primary outcome was 30-day all-cause mortality. Univariate and multivariate, including propensity-adjusted, analyses were conducted introducing monotherapy type as an independent variable. RESULTS: Thirty-day mortality was 37/213 (17.4%), 42/210 (20%), and 55/344 (16%) in the ceftazidime, carbapenem, and piperacillin-tazobactam groups, respectively. Type of monotherapy was not significantly associated with mortality in either univariate, multivariate, or propensity-adjusted analyses (odds ratio [OR], 1.14; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.52-2.46, for ceftazidime; OR, 1.3; 95% CI, 0.67-2.51, for piperacillin-tazobactam, with carbapenems as reference in propensity adjusted multivariate analysis; 542 patients). No significant difference between antibiotics was demonstrated for clinical failure, microbiological failure, or adverse events. Isolation of P. aeruginosa with new resistance to antipseudomonal drugs was significantly more frequent with carbapenems (36/206 [17.5%]) versus ceftazidime (25/201 [12.4%]) and piperacillin-tazobactam (28/332 [8.4%] (P = .007). CONCLUSIONS: No significant difference in mortality, clinical, and microbiological outcomes or adverse events was demonstrated between ceftazidime, carbapenems, and piperacillin-tazobactam as definitive treatment of P. aeruginosa bacteremia. Higher rates of resistant P. aeruginosa after patients were treated with carbapenems, along with the general preference for carbapenem-sparing regimens, suggests using ceftazidime or piperacillin-tazobactam for treating susceptible infection.

Risk factors for mortality among patients with Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteraemia: a retrospective multicentre study.

This study aimed to evaluate risk factors for 30-day mortality among hospitalised patients with Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteraemia, a highly fatal condition. A retrospective study was conducted between 1 January 2009 and 31 October 2015 in 25 centres (9 countries) including 2396 patients. Univariable and multivariable analyses of risk factors were conducted for the entire cohort and for patients surviving ≥48 h. A propensity score for predictors of appropriate empirical therapy was introduced into the analysis. Of the 2396 patients, 636 (26.5%) died within 30 days. Significant predictors (odds ratio and 95% confidence interval) of mortality in the multivariable analysis included patient-related factors: age (1.02, 1.01-1.03); female sex (1.34, 1.03-1.77); bedridden functional capacity (1.99, 1.24-3.21); recent hospitalisation (1.43, 1.07-1.92); concomitant corticosteroids (1.33, 1.02-1.73); and Charlson comorbidity index (1.05, 1.01-1.93). Infection-related factors were multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas (1.52, 1.15-2.1), non-urinary source (2.44, 1.54-3.85) and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score (1.27, 1.18-1.36). Inappropriate empirical therapy was not associated with increased mortality (0.81, 0.49-1.33). Among 2135 patients surviving ≥48 h, hospital-acquired infection (1.59, 1.21-2.09), baseline endotracheal tube (1.63, 1.13-2.36) and ICU admission (1.53, 1.02-2.28) were additional risk factors. Risk factors for mortality among patients with P. aeruginosa were mostly irreversible. Early appropriate empirical therapy was not associated with reduced mortality. Further research should be conducted to explore subgroups that may not benefit from broad-spectrum antipseudomonal empirical therapy. Efforts should focus on prevention of infection, mainly hospital-acquired infection and multidrug-resistant pseudomonal infection.

Clinical outcomes of hospitalised patients with catheter-associated urinary tract infection in countries with a high rate of multidrug-resistance: the COMBACTE-MAGNET RESCUING study.

Background: Although catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CA-UTI) is a major healthcare-related problem worldwide, there is a scarcity of current data from countries with high antimicrobial resistance rates. We aimed to determine the clinical outcomes of patients with CA-UTI compared to those of patients with other sources of complicated urinary tract infection (cUTI), and to assess the impact of antimicrobial resistance. We also aimed to identify the factors influencing 30-day mortality among patients with CA-UTI. Methods: This was a multicentre, multinational retrospective cohort study including hospitalised adults with cUTI between January 2013 and December 2014 in twenty hospitals from eight countries from southern Europe, Turkey and Israel. The primary endpoint was 30-day mortality. The secondary endpoints were length of hospital stay, symptom improvement after 7 days' treatment, symptom recurrence at 30 days and readmission 60 days after hospital discharge. Results: Of the 807 cUTI episodes, 341 (42.2%) were CA-UTIs. The time from catheter insertion to cUTI diagnosis was less than 2 weeks in 44.6% of cases. Overall, 74.5% of cases had hospital or healthcare-acquired CA-UTI. Compared to patients with other cUTI aetiologies, those with CA-UTI had the following characteristics: they were more frequently males, older, admitted for a reason other than cUTI and admitted from a long-term care facility; had higher Charlson's comorbidity index; and more frequently had polymicrobial infections and multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (MDR-GNB). Patients with CA-UTI also had significantly higher 30-day mortality rates (15.2% vs 6%) and longer hospital stay (median 14 [interquartile range -IQR- 7-27] days vs 8 [IQR 5-14] days) than patients with cUTI of other sources. After adjusting for confounders, CA-UTI was not independently associated with an increased risk of mortality (odds ratio, 1.40; 95% confidence interval, 0.77-2.54), and neither was the presence of MDR-GNB. Conclusions: CA-UTI was the most frequent source of cUTI, affecting mainly frail patients. The mortality of patients with CA-UTI was high, though this was not directly related to the infection.

Challenges in the bioanalysis of tetracyclines: Epimerisation and chelation with metals.

Tetracyclines (TCs) are important broad spectrum antibiotics which are active against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. TCs readily form epimers, especially under weakly acidic conditions. The epimers are reported to have different antibacterial and toxicological properties and pose a significant challenge for selective bioanalysis, being isobaric with the parent drug and possessing very similar physicochemical properties. During the development, validation and use of bioanalytical methods for minocycline in plasma, urine and renal dialysate there were two unexpected findings. The first was that the analyte and the internal standard, tetracycline, were found to be unexpectedly stable and resistant towards epimerisation in the presence of the deproteinising agent, trichloroacetic acid (TCA). The second was that keeping minocycline spiked dialysate in a freezer led to significant losses which were worse for low concentrations at lower storage temperatures. Investigations into the stability of tetracycline, minocycline, omadacycline and tigecycline in aqueous acidic solutions, under typical analytical conditions, revealed that TCA acts as a stabiliser with respect to both epimerisation and other degradation pathways for these TCs. This gives the rarely used TCA a significant advantage over the commonly used deproteinising agents such as acetonitrile when analysing TCs. Studies of the recoveries of tetracycline and tigecycline from frozen renal dialysis buffer demonstrated similar losses to those for minocycline. These were assigned to deposition of insoluble Mg2+ or Ca2+ complexes on freezing, as pre-storage treatment of the samples by incubation in EDTA coated tubes at room temperature prevented the losses. Minocycline was stable in renal dialysis buffer samples when frozen, for up to ca. 3 months, when this treatment was employed. The TCs were analysed using LC-MS/MS based methods developed in-house using the assay that was originally developed for minocycline in plasma, urine and dialysate as a template.

Challenges and opportunities for involving patients and the public in acute antimicrobial medicine development research: an interview study.

OBJECTIVES: To explore what approaches to patient and public involvement (PPI) in antimicrobial medicines development are currently being used, what the impacts of PPI are on antimicrobial medicines development and what the barriers are to its implementation. DESIGN: Interview study. SETTING: Antimicrobial medicines development research. PARTICIPANTS: Principal investigators known to have led studies involving PPI or expressed an interest in PPI. RESULTS: There is very little published work on PPI in antimicrobial research. Individual interviewees expressed scepticism about the contribution that PPI could make to different stages of the medicines development life cycle but collectively identified a range of potential benefits of PPI covering most stages of the medicines development process. CONCLUSIONS: A major issue in developing PPI in antimicrobial medicines development research will be in overcoming the view that, at best, PPI has only a marginal contribution to make in this area of research. The findings from this study, although mixed, suggest that well-designed PPI has an untapped potential to enhance antimicrobial research.

Development, validation and application of a novel HPLC-MS/MS method for the measurement of minocycline in human plasma and urine.

New treatments are urgently required to treat infections caused by multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumanni,. To address this need, a new formulation of Minocin®, (minocycline for injection) has been developed that allows for higher doses of minocycline to be administered. Phase 1 clinical trials were conducted in healthy volunteers to assess the safety and pharmacokinetics (PK) of this new formulation at higher doses. In order to generate PK data, novel, selective and simple HPLC-MS/MS based assays were developed and validated for the determination of minocycline (MC) in human plasma and urine. The respective working ranges were 0.05 to 30 mg/L and 0.1 to 30 mg/L. Removal of endogenous proteins with trichloroacetic acid was used as a simple means of extracting MC from the samples. An analogue, tetracycline was used as the internal standard (IS). Chromatographic separation, including that of MC from its 4-epimer (4-EMC), was achieved on a Waters XBridge BEH C18 column (50 x 4.6 mm ID, 5 µm) with gradient elution. The mobile phases comprised water containing 5 mM ammonium formate at a pH of 2.5, and methanol containing 5 mM ammonium formate. The internal standard (IS) was tetracycline, a structural analogue of minocycline. The methods were fully validated and met regulatory acceptance criteria for intra-run and inter-run accuracy and precision, carryover, dilution integrity and matrix effects. Mean extraction recoveries ranged between 64.3% and 84.6% for MC and 64.3% for the IS. There was no significant ion suppression or enhancement for MC or the IS. The validated assays were successfully applied to 1423 plasma and 689 urine samples from a Phase 1 clinical study. There was no evidence of instability, or significant interconversion between MC and 4-EMC, in stored clinical samples, spiked plasma and urine samples, or their extracts, under various test conditions.

Risk Factors for Treatment Failure and Mortality Among Hospitalized Patients With Complicated Urinary Tract Infection: A Multicenter Retrospective Cohort Study (RESCUING Study Group).

Background: Complicated urinary tract infections (cUTIs) are responsible for a major share of all antibiotic consumption in hospitals. We aim to describe risk factors for treatment failure and mortality among patients with cUTIs. Methods: A multinational, multicentre retrospective cohort study, conducted in 20 countries in Europe and the Middle East. Data were collected from patients' files on hospitalised patients with a diagnosis of cUTI during 2013-2014. Primary outcome was treatment failure, secondary outcomes included 30 days all-cause mortality,among other outcomes. Multivariable analysis using a logistic model and the hospital as a random variable was performed to identify independent predictors for these outcomes. Results: A total of 981 patients with cUTI were included. Treatment failure was observed in 26.6% (261/981), all cause 30-day mortality rate was 8.7% (85/976), most of these in patients with catheter related UTI (CaUTI). Risk factors for treatment failure in multivariable analysis were ICU admission (OR 5.07, 95% CI 3.18-8.07), septic shock (OR 1.92, 95% CI 0.93-3.98), corticosteroid treatment (OR 1.92, 95% CI 1.12-3.54), bedridden (OR 2.11, 95%CI 1.4-3.18), older age (OR 1.02, 95% CI 1.0071.03-), metastatic cancer (OR 2.89, 95% CI 1.46-5.73) and CaUTI (OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.04-2.11). Management variables, such as inappropriate empirical antibiotic treatment or days to starting antibiotics were not associated with treatment failure or 30-day mortality. More patients with pyelonephritis were given appropriate empirical antibiotic therapy than other CaUTI [110/171; 64.3% vs. 116/270; 43%, p <0.005], nevertheless, this afforded no advantage in treatment failure rates nor mortality in these patients. Conclusions: In patients with cUTI we found no benefit of early appropriate empirical treatment on survival rates or other outcomes. Physicians might consider supportive treatment and watchful waiting in stable patients until the causative pathogen is defined.

Predictive factors for multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria among hospitalised patients with complicated urinary tract infections.

Background: Patients with complicated urinary tract infections (cUTIs) frequently receive broad-spectrum antibiotics. We aimed to determine the prevalence and predictive factors of multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria in patients with cUTI. Methods: This is a multicenter, retrospective cohort study in south and eastern Europe, Turkey and Israel including consecutive patients with cUTIs hospitalised between January 2013 and December 2014. Multidrug-resistance was defined as non-susceptibility to at least one agent in three or more antimicrobial categories. A mixed-effects logistic regression model was used to determine predictive factors of multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria cUTI. Results: From 948 patients and 1074 microbiological isolates, Escherichia coli was the most frequent microorganism (559/1074), showing a 14.5% multidrug-resistance rate. Klebsiella pneumoniae was second (168/1074) and exhibited the highest multidrug-resistance rate (54.2%), followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (97/1074) with a 38.1% multidrug-resistance rate. Predictors of multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria were male gender (odds ratio [OR], 1.66; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.20-2.29), acquisition of cUTI in a medical care facility (OR, 2.59; 95%CI, 1.80-3.71), presence of indwelling urinary catheter (OR, 1.44; 95%CI, 0.99-2.10), having had urinary tract infection within the previous year (OR, 1.89; 95%CI, 1.28-2.79) and antibiotic treatment within the previous 30 days (OR, 1.68; 95%CI, 1.13-2.50). Conclusions: The current high rate of multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria infections among hospitalised patients with cUTIs in the studied area is alarming. Our predictive model could be useful to avoid inappropriate antibiotic treatment and implement antibiotic stewardship policies that enhance the use of carbapenem-sparing regimens in patients at low risk of multidrug-resistance.

Cost of hospitalised patients due to complicated urinary tract infections: a retrospective observational study in countries with high prevalence of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria: the COMBACTE-MAGNET, RESCUING study.

OBJECTIVE: Complicated urinary tract infections (cUTIs) impose a high burden on healthcare systems and are a frequent cause of hospitalisation. The aims of this paper are to estimate the cost per episode of patients hospitalised due to cUTI and to explore the factors associated with cUTI-related healthcare costs in eight countries with high prevalence of multidrug resistance (MDR). DESIGN: This is a multinational observational, retrospective study. The mean cost per episode was computed by multiplying the volume of healthcare use for each patient by the unit cost of each item of care and summing across all components. Costs were measured from the hospital perspective. Patient-level regression analyses were used to identify the factors explaining variation in cUTI-related costs. SETTING: The study was conducted in 20 hospitals in eight countries with high prevalence of multidrug resistant Gram-negative bacteria (Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Romania, Spain and Turkey). PARTICIPANTS: Data were obtained from 644 episodes of patients hospitalised due to cUTI. RESULTS: The mean cost per case was €5700, with considerable variation between countries (largest value €7740 in Turkey; lowest value €4028 in Israel), mainly due to differences in length of hospital stay. Factors associated with higher costs per patient were: type of admission, infection source, infection severity, the Charlson comorbidity index and presence of MDR. CONCLUSIONS: The mean cost per hospitalised case of cUTI was substantial and varied significantly between countries. A better knowledge of the reasons for variations in length of stays could facilitate a better standardised quality of care for patients with cUTI and allow a more efficient allocation of healthcare resources. Urgent admissions, infections due to an indwelling urinary catheterisation, resulting in septic shock or severe sepsis, in patients with comorbidities and presenting MDR were related to a higher cost.

Finding and engaging patients and the public to work collaboratively on an acute infection microbiology research public panel.

PLAIN ENGLISH SUMMARY: In 2015 a microbiology team in Bristol joined a European research project that aims to develop new antibiotics to fight drug resistant infections. The microbiology team were convinced of the benefits of patient and public involvement, but had found it difficult to find former patients to work with on earlier microbiology research. This paper describes how the team overcame this challenge to successfully recruit a PPI panel to develop PPI within the European project.The advice from people with experience in public involvement was to decide what criteria were desirable for panel membership, think about what the work of the panel might involve and how long the project will go on. The team decided that experience of suffering a serious acute infection would qualify people to comment on this project. Next, the team needed to identify ways of finding people to join the PPI panel.The microbiology research team tried different ways to approach potential panel members. These included distributing flyers at public research events, sending emails to potentially interested people, posting a message on the hospital Facebook page and approaching eligible people known to the team. A direct approach was the most successful method - either by email, mail or in person. Ultimately 16 people were selected to form the panel. Key factors for success were planning what the work of the panel might be, perseverance despite early lack of success, and one person having overall responsibility for setting up the panel, with the support of the whole team. ABSTRACT: Background In 2015 the microbiology research team became involved in a large European programme of research aiming to bring new antimicrobial drugs onto the market to combat the increasing problem of multi-drug resistant infection. With the purpose of developing patient and public involvement (PPI) in this project, the team decided to recruit a PPI panel to work with. The microbiology team had previously worked with a PPI panel on other research, but had found it difficult to recruit members. Methods Steps taken to recruit the panel were as follows:Advice was sought from people experienced in co-ordinating public involvement in research.One person in the team had overall responsibility but the whole research team was committed and met regularly.Two of the team undertook training in group facilitation and connecting with the public.Decisions were made about the criteria for inclusion into the panel, what tasks we envisaged for the panel, the length of and frequency of meetings.Advertising the involvement opportunity through flyers, social media, emails and direct contact with possible panel recruits known to the research team.Relevant documents such as a Role Profile and expression of interest form were drafted.An initial public meeting was planned for all who had shown interest in the panel.The expression of interest form was used for us to select as broad a group as possible.. Results Two out of three people who were approached directly and known by team members expressed interest in joining the panel (66%). Three out of seven members of a former panel were next (43%), then 10 out of 25 spinal infection clinic patients (40%), and finally 12 people responded to an email sent to 1261 foundation trust members (1%). No-one who was approached by indirect methods e.g. flyers or advertising on Facebook, expressed interest in the panel. Sixteen people were eventually selected for the panel. Conclusions It is possible to recruit a patient and public involvement panel for research in a discipline as challenging as microbiology. Good planning and the commitment of the research team were key to success.

Extent, quality and impact of patient and public involvement in antimicrobial drug development research: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Patient and public involvement (PPI) is increasingly recognized as bringing a range of benefits to clinical and health services research. Recent systematic reviews have identified and synthesized many benefits (eg higher recruitment rates) and some costs (eg extra time need). Much of the literature focuses on PPI in long-term conditions rather than more acute health care in which the majority of microbiological research is undertaken. OBJECTIVES: The aim was to identify the extent, quality and impact of PPI in antimicrobial drug development research. Objectives were to identify any relevant reporting of PPI in antimicrobial research; appraise the quality of reporting on PPI using recognized PPI reporting and critical appraisal tools; and extract and synthesize data on the impact of PPI. SEARCH STRATEGY: A systematic review was undertaken with a search strategy based on four word groups (PPI, patients, antimicrobial drug development and outcomes). Eight online databases were searched. INCLUSION CRITERIA: English language publication, publication between 1996 and 2016 and studies describing PPI in antimicrobial drug development research. MAIN RESULTS: No studies were found through online searching that met the search strategy and inclusion criteria. One relevant protocol paper with a brief mention of PPI was identified through expert recommendation. Commentary papers recommending PPI were identified through website searching and expert opinion. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Despite strong policy guidance encouraging PPI at the international and national levels, and anecdotal accounts of PPI taking place, evidence for the extent, quality and impact of PPI in antimicrobial drug development research has not yet appeared in the peer-reviewed literature.

Retrospective observational study to assess the clinical management and outcomes of hospitalised patients with complicated urinary tract infection in countries with high prevalence of multidrug resistant Gram-negative bacteria (RESCUING).

INTRODUCTION: The emergence of multidrug resistant (MDR) Gram-negative bacteria (GNB), including carbapenemase-producing strains, has become a major therapeutic challenge. These MDR isolates are often involved in complicated urinary tract infection (cUTI), and are associated with poor clinical outcomes. The study has been designed to gain insight into the epidemiology, clinical management, outcome and healthcare cost of patients with cUTI, especially in countries with high prevalence of MDR GNB. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This multinational and multicentre observational, retrospective study will identify cases from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2014 in order to collect data on patients with cUTI as a cause of hospital admission, and patients who develop cUTI during their hospital stay. The primary end point will be treatment failure defined as the presence of any of the following criteria: (1) signs or symptoms of cUTI present at diagnosis that have not improved by days 5-7 with appropriate antibiotic therapy, (2) new cUTI-related symptoms that have developed within 30 days of diagnosis, (3) urine culture taken within 30 days of diagnosis, either during or after completion of therapy, that grows ≥10(4) colony-forming unit/mL of the original pathogen and (4) death irrespective of cause within 30 days of the cUTI diagnosis. SAMPLE SIZE: 1000 patients afford a power of 0.83 (α=0.05) to detect an absolute difference of 10% in the treatment failure rate between MDR bacteria and other pathogens. This should allow for the introduction of about 20 independent risk factors (or their interaction) in a logistic regression model looking at risk factors for failure. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Approval will be sought from all relevant Research Ethics Committees. Publication of this study will be considered as a joint publication by the participating investigator leads, and will follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02641015; Pre-results.