RESUMO
We investigated the cases with Aeromonas bacteremia in terms of clinical and microbiological characteristics, underlying disease and mortality rates. Patients with positive blood cultures were included in this research. Aeromonas bacteremia was diagnosed as at least one positive blood culture for Aeromonas species. The bacteremia was defined as community origin if the onset was in the community or within 72 hours of hospital admission. The others were considered as nosocomial. All bacteria were defined as Aeromonas with conventional method. Species identification was verified by VITEK system. Antibiotic susceptibility tests were analyzed with the disc diffusion, E-test method or VITEK system. Thirty-three patients were diagnosed with bacteremia due to Aeromonas spp. Hematologic and solid tumors were the leading underlying conditions, followed by cirrhosis. Two patients (6%) had community-acquired infections. Aeromonas hydrophila was the most common isolated bacterium. The crude mortality rate was 36%. 12 patients died and 6 deaths and 4 deaths were detected in patients with bacteremia caused by A. hydrophila and Aeromonas sobria respectively. All strains were resistant to ampicillin and more than 90% of the strains were susceptible to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, fluoroquinolone, third generation cephalosporins, and carbapenems. Aeromonas sp. is not a frequent cause of bacteremia however, it may lead to high mortality rates, especially in the immunocompromised hosts and patients with liver cirrhosis. Nosocomial Aeromonas bacteremia is not uncommon in these populations. Broad-spectrum cephalosporins, piperacillin-tazobactam, fluoroquinolones, and carbapenems remain as effective antimicrobial agents for therapy of Aeromonas bacteremia.
RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Positron-emission tomography (PET)/computerized tomography (CT) with 18F-fludeoxyglucose (FDG) has been come into use for risk assessment of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) patients in recent years. The aim of our study is to evaluate the reliability of interim PET results according to Deauville score (DS), and also to compared PET findings with tumor reduction on CT. METHODS: Forty-two HL patients (median 39, range 19-75 y, 27 M, 15 F) were retrospectively evaluated with pre, interim and post-treatment PET/CT imaging. PET/CT imaging was obtained 60 min after the intravenous administration of 3.7-5.2 MBq/kg 18F-FDG. RESULTS: The negative predictive value of the interim PET was 89%. Four (10.5%) of the 38 interim PET-negative patients became post-treatment PET-positive. According to CT, 15 patients were in complete remission (CR), 27 (64.6%) patients were in partial remission (PR) or stable disease (SD). CONCLUSION: The negative predictive value of interim PET was not satisfactory considering the treatment rate of over 80% of HL. Additionally, high rate of interim PET-negative patients' conversion to PET-positive post-treatment state was considered as unexpected.
