Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia in a secondary level Spanish hospital: clinical implications of high vancomycin MIC.

OBJECTIVE: One of the most controversial issues in recent years has been the clinical significance of high vancomycin MIC in Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia. The aim of this study was to elucidate the clinical implication that this parameter has in the staphylococcal bacteremia of a second level hospital. METHODS: Retrospective descriptive study between January 2014 and September 2016 with 138 records from the blood culture Severo Ochoa University Hospital registry. A total of 98 cases were finally analized. Microbiological analysis of vancomycin MIC was performed using micro dilution technique. RESULTS: The mean age was 71.4 ± 12.45 and 63.26% of the patients had a Charlson index ≥6. A 30.61% were carriers of a venous central catheter. The most frequent source was venous central catheter (26.53%). There were 14.24% metastatic events. Global mortality rate at 30 days was 25.51%. The 43.87% of strains had a vancomycin MIC ≥ 2 mg/L. High vancomycin MIC was significantly associated with persistent bacteremia (OR 3.12 [1.13-8.93]), maintaining this statistical significance in methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) group (p =0.001) but no in methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) group (p = 0.13). Persistent bacteremia was also significantly related with permanent catheter carriers (OR 4.18 [1.38-12.61]), peripheric catheter source (OR 5.18 [1.13-8.93]) and metastatic complications (OR 3.82 [1.03- 12.81]). There was no significant association between high vancomycin MIC and mortality. CONCLUSIONS: High vancomycin MIC may be useful in daily clinical practice as a marker of poor clearance of S. aureus bacteremia, specially when is due to MRSA strains.

[RECALMIN. Patient care in the internal medicine units of the Spanish national health system]. / RECALMIN. La atención al paciente en las unidades de Medicina Interna del Sistema Nacional de Salud.

OBJECTIVES: To perform a situation analysis of the care provided by internal medicine units (IMUs) in Spain and to develop, based on this analysis, proposals for improving the quality of care in these units. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A descriptive, cross-sectional study of the IMUs of general acute care hospitals of the Spanish National Health System (SNHS), with data referring to 2013. The study variables were collected via an ad hoc questionnaire. RESULTS: Of the total 260hospitals identified in the SNHS, 142responses were obtained from 139hospitals throughout Spain, which represents 53.5% of the IMUs in the SNHS. The mean number of internists per IMU was 14±8, with a mean rate of 7.2±3.3 internists per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2013, the average number of hospital discharges from the IMU was 2,987±2,066, and those discharged by internists was 232±107. Sixty-one percent of the IMUs had implemented an interconsultation unit, and 41% had implemented a systematic care program for complex chronic patients. Thirty-three percent of the IMUs conducted multidisciplinary rounds, and 60% of these IMUs planned the discharge. CONCLUSIONS: The 2013 RECALMIN survey revealed a number of important aspects of the organisation, structure and management of IMUs. The remarkable variability in the indicators of structure, activity and management probably reflect significant differences in efficiency and productivity, which therefore provide significant room for improvement.

Linfadenitis histiocítica necrotizante de Kikuchi / Kikuchi's histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis

La linfadenitis histiocítica necrotizante (LHN) o enfermedad de Kikuchi-Fujimoto es una entidad anatomoclínica poco frecuente; afecta preferentemente a mujeres jóvenes e individuos de razas orientales y se caracteriza por fiebre, adenopatías preferentemente cervicales, afectación sistémica y, ocasionalmente, extraganglionar.Se presentan dos casos de LHN en mujeres jóvenes con afectación cutánea y en uno de los casos con meningitis linfocitaria.Se discuten los aspectos etiológicos, la relación de la LHN con las enfermedades colágeno-vasculares (fundamentalmente el lupus eritematoso sistémico [LES]), los problemas del diagnóstico anatomopatológico y las posibilidades terapéuticas (AU)

[Kikuchi's histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis]. / Linfadenitis histiocítica necrotizante de Kikuchi.

Necrotizing histiocytic lymphadenitis (NHL) or Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease is an infrequent seen clinicopathologic entity that affects most frequently young women and individuals of eastern races, and that is characterized by fever and adenopathies (basically cervical) and systemic disease even though occasional patients present extranodal disease. We present two young women with NHL and cutaneous affectation, and with lymphocytic meningitis in one of the patients. We discuss the etiology of NHL, the relation of NHL with collagen-vascular diseases (basically systemic erythematous lupus) the problem of the pathologic diagnosis, and the therapeutic possibilities in these patients.

Aracnoiditis y lesión intramedular. Complicaciones de la meningitis tuberculosa en dos pacientes con infección por el virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana / Arachnoiditis and intraspinal lesion

Escanear (AU)

[Arachnoiditis and intraspinal lesion. Complications of tuberculous meningitis in 2 patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection]. / Aracnoiditis y lesión intramedular. Complicaciones de la meningitis tuberculosa en dos pacientes con infección por el virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana.

Radiculomyelitis (arachnoiditis) (RMA) is a severe complication of tuberculous meningitis (TM). Two patients with HIV infection and TM are here reported. These patients developed RMA. In Spain only four cases of RMA have previously been reported (only one of them was HIV-positive). Clinical manifestations (subacute paraplegia, radicular pain, sensitive level and neurogenic bladder) are reported. Cerebrospinal fluid had inflammatory features, wit predominance of mononuclear cells and remarkable increase in protein content. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the most suitable diagnostic method. The therapeutic possibilities of this complication are discussed.

Hipocalcemia sintomática en un adenocarcinoma de próstata con metástasis osteoblásticas / Symptomatic hypocalcemia in an adenocarcinoma of the prostate with osteoblastic metastases

No disponible

[Monoclonal IgG lambda paraprotein, Fanconi's syndrome of the adult, and osteomalacia (author's transl)]. / Paraproteína monoclonal IgG lambda, síndrome de Fanconi del adulto y osteomalacia.

The case here reported of 72 year-old female with osteomalacia in whom an adult's Fanconi's syndrome with distal tubular involvement and a monoclonal IgG-lambda paraprotein were discovered. There was urinary excretion of lambda light chains without evidence of myeloma or amyloidosis. Such apparently unrelated entities might be subject to an unitary pathophysiological approach: the nephrotoxicity of light chains could cause a Fanconi's syndrome, which in turn would give rise to osteomalacia through phosphate depletion. It is noteworthy that in this patient the urinary excretion of light chains was of the lambda type, in contrast to similar cases described in the literature which presented mostly kappa chains. The likelihood of this patient developing myeloma or amyloidosis at a later stage is discussed.