Hospital antibiotic management in Hungary--results of the ABS maturity survey of the ABS International group.

BACKGROUND: The prudent use of antibiotics is considered a very important issue in hospitals throughout Europe. The project ABS International developed a questionnaire to survey antibiotic-related structures and services in the hospitals of participating countries. This article describes the situation in Hungary. METHODS: Questionnaires were sent to all the hospitals in Hungary, which numbered 182 at the time of the survey. A total of 68 hospitals, accounting for 37.4% of all hospitals, returned the answered questionnaires. These 68 hospitals accounted for 52.4% of the hospital beds available in Hungary at the time of the survey. The answers were stratified according to the function and position of the hospitals and analyzed by calculating means, medians and standard deviations of various parameters. MAIN FINDINGS: The cumulative maturity figure for Hungary was 3.42+/-0.55. The lowest cumulative figures were found in chronic-care hospitals and the highest in the university hospitals. Significant differences were found in the availability of diagnostic services. The level of control of antibiotic consumption was similar between hospitals. The availability of bedside microbiological tests, such as legionella antigen detection, was rated as poor. Resources dedicated for antibiotic officers were very minor. CONCLUSION: Antibiotic stewardship cannot be conducted without appropriate resources (time, financing) provided by hospital management or the authorities. The technical background (microbiology, organizations, etc.) on which to build is already available in Hungarian hospitals.

An assessment of the potential of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for the analysis of cesium in liquid samples of biological origin.

The present study describes the development of an analytical method for the determination of cesium in biological fluid samples (human urine and blood samples) by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The developed method is based on sample presentation by liquid-to-solid conversion, enhancing the emission signal by drying the liquid into small "pockets" created in a metal support (zinc plate), and allows the analysis to be carried out on as little as 1 µL of sample volume, in a closed sample cell. Absolute detection limits on the Cs I 852.1 nm spectral line were calculated by the IUPAC 3σ method to be 6 ng in the urine sample and 27 ng in the blood serum sample. It is estimated that LIBS may be used to detect highly elevated concentration levels of Cs in fluid samples taken from people potentially exposed to surges of Cs from non-natural sources.