Search

Background: For the empiric therapy of urinary tract infections (UTI) in the extra-hospital setting the susceptibility patterns of potential pathogens, among some other factors, should be considered. Thus, the evolution in susceptibility, mainly influenced by the previous consume of antibiotic, can be observed when comparing with susceptibility patterns in the previous years., Material and Methods: All isolates obtained from patients with bacteriuria from 4 Health Areas in Madrid for a 3-week period were collected. The susceptibility to 4 quinolones and other 9 antibiotics was determined by the agar dilution method. The chi square test was used to compare the results obtained with Escherrichia coli isolates with those obtained with the same method in 1992., Results: A total of 945 isolates were recovered. E. coli accounted for 71.4% of isolates; other gram-negative bacilli for 20.2% and gram-positive cocci for 8.4%. The percentages of E. coli isolates susceptible to ampicillin, cotrimoxazole, norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin, phosphomycin, cefuroxime, and cefuroxime-axetil were 40.5, 74.7, 91.6, 97.8, 98.1 and 75.9, respectively. Isolates with cefotaxime MIC higher than 0.5 mg/l were not detected. Significant differences were observed (p < 0.01) for susceptibilities recorded in 1992 and 1995 for amoxycillin/clavulanic acid, cefazolin, and the four quinolones. The antibiotics with the best in vitro activity against the remaining gram-negative bacilli were norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin (98% of susceptible isolates), gentamicin (97%) and cefotaxime (95%)., Conclusions: Changes in susceptibility results for E. coli between 1992 and 1995 have been observed. By 1995, there are commercially available antibiotics with good in vitro activity against pathogens with the potential of causing extra-hospital UTI in our setting.

The first articles trying to link the effects of ethyl alcohol with those of opiates appeared in 1970. The first case of reversion from ethylic coma due to naloxone was described in 1978. Since then, many authors have reported different results related to the effectiveness of opiate antagonists in this clinical situation, without any of the studies showing a beneficial effect from its use. The purpose of the present study is to perform a double-blinded clinical trial with placebo to evaluate naloxone's clinical effectiveness in severe ethylic intoxication, using the Glasgow test (GT) to measure the level of consciousness. Treatment was randomly assigned to 38 patients of whom 18 received 2 mg of naloxone and 20 a placebo. Among the results, it was found that the best approximation of the level of alcoholemia responsible for ethylic coma, without the involvement of other toxic psychotropes, was made using the Glasgow test, especially in patients who are occasional drinkers. It was shown that naloxone indeed lacks effectiveness in ethylic coma, raising the level of consciousness only one or two points in the Glasgow test for the 15 to 45 minutes after its administration and primarily in the group of patients with the lowest levels of consciousness.

A revision of tetanus points of entry in 229 tetanic patients who were cared for at the Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, between 1970 and 1983, i carried out in order to determine in which kind of patients a adequate prophylaxis is not performed. It is found that 83% of point of entry are wounds which are not medically assisted. At the same time points of entry are classified in four main groups: a first group consisting of wounds localized in head and extremities (46.8%), second group to contaminated intramuscular injections (21.8%) a third group related to surgical and obstetric procedures (15.3%) an a fourth group which includes other points of entry not included in the previous groups (16.2%). This classification permits the detection of epidemiological characteristics of each group and the observation of the possible influence of point of entry on the evolution and prognosis of tetanus highlighting that the most severe situations are due to intramuscular injections and surgical and obstetric procedures. With this study we can conclude that an adequate antitetanic prophylaxis must not be restricted to high risk patients, but should be extended to the whole population.

We have retrospectively analyzed 9 cases of nocardiosis that were studied in our hospital over the past 10 years. 66% of the patients had an associated disease and half of them were on steroid treatment. The clinical manifestations of the infection were pulmonary and cutaneous and in 44% of cases, it disseminated to the central nervous system. The diagnosis was made in all cases isolating the microorganism from pulmonary secretions, puss, spinal fluid and blood. Nocardia asteroides was isolated in 8 cases, and nocardia caviae in one case. There was a 55% mortality rate. The different clinical presentation and evolution are reviewed, as well as prognostic factors and antimicrobial treatment of nocardiosis.