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Introduction: At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, confinement measures were applied in many states around the world, producing changes in lifestyle and health habits, whose metabolic impact was different in different populations., Objectives: Describe the metabolic and anthropometric changes in office patients in the City of Córdoba during the confinement period and determine possible associated factors., Methods: Retrospective analytical observational study based on the review of the medical records of patients seen in an endocrinology clinic in Córdoba, Argentina. They were followed up during the 1-year period by evaluating metabolic and anthropometric characteristics., Results: 149 patients were included, of which 116 (77.9%) were female and the median:IQR age was 50:36.5-58 years. At the end of follow-up, a significant increase in alcohol consumption (18.1% vs 11.4%, p=0.001) was observed, as well as the number of diabetic patients (diagnosis of 20 new cases). 49.67% of patients increased their body weight, with a median of 3.1 kg (IQR 25-75%: 1.4-7.5 kg). Patients who had longer follow-up (3 or more controls during the year) decreased their Body Mass Index and increased physical activity., Conclusions: Although confinement was generally associated with an increase in obesity, diabetes and consumption of toxic substances, in patients who were monitored more frequently, better control of body weight and increased activity was observed. physical., (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba)

Introduction: Urinary tract infections (UTI) are the most frequent infection in kidney transplant (KT) patients. The main objective was to determine the clinical and microbiological characteristics of UTIs that occur during the first year after KT., Methods: Retrospective cohort study that included patients over 18 years of age who received KT between 2009-2020 in two hospitals in Córdoba city, Argentina. Patients were followed up during the first year after the transplant by recording them in the medical records, and those who presented at least one episode of UTI were analyzed., Results: During the study period, 568 KTs were performed, of which 207 (36.4%) had at least one episode of UTI. In total, there were 419 UTI episodes, 6 (1.4%) polymicrobial UTI episodes, so a total of 426 microorganisms were identified in the urine cultures. Of the total number of episodes, 206 (49.2%) occurred between 31 and 180 days post-transplant. The main etiological agent was E. coli with 225 isolates (52.8%) followed by Klebsiella sp. with 94 (22.1%). 52.1% of all episodes were caused by multi-resistant microorganisms (MRM). Among the E. coli isolates, 94 (41.8%) were MRM. In the multivariate analysis, the risk factors associated with UTI due to MRM were a history of recurrent UTI (Odds ratio 2.43; 95% CI: 1.37-4.30) and induction with basiliximab (Odds ratio 1.53; 95% CI: 1.029-2.29)., Main Conclusion: UTIs occurred in more than a third of kidney transplant patients, being slightly more than half caused by MOR., (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba)

Introduction: Acute monoarthritis (AM) represents a relevant cause of morbidity that requires prompt medical care. The study of synovial fluid becomes relevant to allow a rapid diagnostic approach. The main objective of the study was to determine the frequency and clinical-analytical characteristics of episodes of AM and acute bursitis evaluated in a hospital during a period of 6 years., Methods: Cross-sectional retrospective analytical study in a hospital at Córdoba, Argentina. All episodes of acute monoarthritis and bursitis that occurred in patients aged 18 years or older between 2012 and 2017 were included. AM in pregnant women and chronic monoarthritis were excluded., Results: One hundred and eighty episodes of AM and 12 of acute bursitis were included. Among the AM, 120 (66.7%) occurred in male patients and the average age was 62.1±16.9 years. The main cause of AM was septic, identifying 70 (36%) cases, followed by microcrystalline AM identify 54 (28%) cases, which corresponded to gout and calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate (CPPD) with 27 (14%) cases each one. Monosodium urate crystals were identified in 26 (14.3%) patients, CPPD in 28 (15.6%) and cholesterol in 1 (0.6%)., Discussion: The main cause of AM was septic arthritis, followed by microcrystalline AM (gout and secondary to CPPD). The main affected joint was the knee, followed by the shoulder. Synovial fluid analysis was a key element when making the differential diagnosis between the different causes of acute monoarthritis and bursitis.

Introduction: HyperCKemia is defined as the elevation of creatine phosphokinase (CK) levels greater than 1.5 times the upper limit (CK>285 U/L), being produced by multiple causes, which vary according different populations. The main objective of the study was to know the frequency of hyperCKemia in two hospitals in Córdoba and its main causes., Methods: Retrospective analytical study in two hospitals in Córdoba, Argentina, where all patients over 18 years of age who presented CK values ​​greater than 285 U/L on at least 2 occasions in a period between 1 and 4 weeks were identified, between the years 2015 and 2017., Results: 254 patients with hyperCKemia were identified, the majority were male (n=181, 71.3%) and their median age was 65 years (interquartile range 25-75%=50-73 years). The main causes of hyperCKemia were ischemic myopathy in 99 (39%) patients and drug-induced myopathies in 45 (17.7%), with statins being the most frequently involved drugs in 31 cases. In only 3.1% of the cases the final diagnosis was not reached. Drug-induced hyperCKemias, when compared to other causes, occurred more frequently in patients with a history of chronic kidney disease (9/45 [20%] vs 18/209 [8.6%], p = 0.025) and in non-smokers (41/45 [91.1%] vs. 157/209 [75.1%], p=0.019)., Main Conclusion: 254 cases of hyperCKemia were observed, the main causes being of ischemic origin and secondary to drug use, especially statins., (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba)

Introduction: COVID-19 disease shows a marked heterogeneity in its clinical course, with descriptions of some factors associated with a worse prognosis. Knowledge of the disease behavior in the local scenario is relevant to allow a better approach., Methods: Retrospective study in two hospitals in the city of Córdoba, Argentina, with patients aged 18 years or more, hospitalized for active SARS-CoV-2 infection, from March to October, 2020., Results: 448 patients were included, of which 95.75% corresponded to COVID-19 pneumonia. Most of the episodes occurred in men (63.6%), the median age was 63 years (IQR: 53-75), and the most frequent comorbidities were arterial hypertension (55.1%), obesity (31.7%) and diabetes mellitus (28.1%). 162 patients (36.2%) needed admission to the intensive care unit and 66 (14.7%) were placed on mechanical ventilation. 67 patients (15%) died within the first 30 days of follow-up. In the multivariate analysis, the only independent variable predictive of mortality at 30 days was age (adjusted Odds ratio [aOR] = 1.08, 95% CI = 1.04-1.11, p <0.001). The 4C-Score and CALL-Score prognostic scores showed good discrimination (Area under the curve [AUC] = 0.766, 95% CI = 0.72-0.80 and AUC = 0.785, 95% CI = 0.70-0.85 respectively) and the predicted percentages of mortality were quite close to what was observed in the present study., Conclusions: Most of the patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 infection presented comorbidities and were admitted with pneumonia, associated with high mortality. The prognostic scores with the best performance to predict complications were the 4C-score and the CALL-score., (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba)

Introduction: Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HHL), a severe hyperinflammatory syndrome caused by aberrant activation of macrophages and cytotoxic T cells, is clinically manifested as a febrile onset along with cytopenias, high ferritin serum level and splenomegaly. In adult patients, secondary causes of it should be looked for, such as autoimmune and infectious diseases and neoplasms. Prompt initiation of treatment is important due to the high mortality of this syndrome., Methods: A case of a 53-year-old patient diagnosed with HHL associated with T-cell lymphoma is presented as a sudden onset of several symptoms and signs of HHL, along with infectious complications., Results: Results: Once the diagnosis of HHL was made, treatment with Etoposide and Dexamethasone was started, and with the diagnosis of T-cell lymphoma established, chemotherapy treatment with a CHOEP scheme was started, with a favorable initial evolution., Main Conclusion: As HHL is a rare entity associated with high mortality, initial suspicion must be high when facing an acute onset of fever, cytopenia and splenomegaly. Nonetheless, diagnosing HHL is challenging and often appear superimposed on multiple infectious diseases. The early initiation of treatmbent is important given the high mortality of this pathology, (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba)

Bloodstream infections (BI) are relevant in neutropenic patients because they are associated with an increased number of complications and death. The objective was determinate the epidemiologic and microbiologic features of the BI in neutropenic patients with solid neoplasm (SN) and hematologic neoplasm (HN). Retrospective study in two third level hospitals between 2009 and 2016. They were included all the patients older than 18 years-old with active oncologic disease and neutropenia, who had BI. Patients with dermatologic cancer other than melanoma where excluded. A total of 143 BI in neutropenic were observed, of which 80.4% occurred in HN. Around 97.9% of the patients had a high-risk neutropenia without differences between both groups. The most frequent site of BI was primary bacteremia (46.9%) and catheter-associated infection (21%), without significant differences between the two groups. The gram negatives bacilli (GNB) predominated over the gram positive cocci (GPC) and they represented 74.1% of the isolated bacteria, being Escherichia coli the most frequent (32.8%). Among the gram positive cocci, Staphylococcus aureus (28.1%) was the most frequent isolated, followed by coagulase-negative Staphylococci (CNS). There were no differences in microbiological isolates between both groups. With regard to the antimicrobial susceptibility 67.5% of the CNS, 17.6% of the E. coli and 27.6% of the Klebsiella pneumoniae were multiresistant with no differences between both groups. Only 11.1% of S. aureus isolates were methicillin resistant. In conclusion BI of the neutropenic patients where most frequents within patients with HN, GNB were the main microbiological isolates. High mortality was observed in neutropenic patients with BI., (Copyright © 2020 Asociación Argentina de Microbiología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

The performance of available risk scores to predict cardiovascular risk (CVR) in the Argentinian population is unknown. Our aim was to compare the CVR predicted by several equations with the occurrence of cardiovascular events (CVE) in patients without known cardiovascular disease in an Argentinian hospital. Adults between 40 and 70 years were randomly selected, excluding those with prior history of major CVE, active cancer, lipid lowering treatment and absence of follow-up data. Framingham 2008, SCORE (low and high-risk populations), ATP III, World Health Organization- American B region (WHO-B) and Pooled Cohort equations (PC) risk scores were used to calculate 10-y CVR at time of enrollment. End of follow-up was 10 years ± 6 months, occurrence of fatal myocardial infarction or death from any cause. We used ROC curves to assess discrimination (AUC > 0.75 good discrimination), and Hosmer Lemeshow chi-square to evaluate calibration (Chi > 20 or p value < 0.05 poor calibration). We included 606 patients in our study, 336 women, average age 56.7 ± 8.4 year. Of those, 10 (1.7%) non-cardiovascular deaths, and 5 (0.8%) cardiovascular deaths were observed. 58 (9.8%) a non-fatal CVE were recorded. There was acceptable discrimination for Framingham, ATP-III, and both PC equations. The global calibration was only good with the ATP-III and PC equations. The observed frequency of CVE was low, and the CVR was overestimated by all equations. However, applying ATP-III or PC equations to assess CVR could be considered in our population.

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) represents a major health issue and ≈20% of the patients require in-hospital attention. The main objective of the study was to determine clinical-imaging features of CAP episodes requiring hospitalization. The secondary objectives were to determine the diagnostic yield of microbiological analyses and the medical complications. A retrospective analytical study was conducted on adults admitted due to CAP in a third-level hospital in the period 2017-2019. Pregnant women were excluded. A total of 340 CAP episodes were identified in 321 patients; the median age was 75 years old (interquartile range 57-85). The most frequent risk factors were immunocompromise 102 (30%), neurological disease 75 (22%), and chronic kidney disease 58 (17%). According to three prognostic scores, CURB65, qSOFA and PSI/PORT, 216 (63.5%), 290 (83.5%) and 130 (38%) patients were identified as low risk, respectively. A total of 49 (14.4%) episodes required admission at the critical care unit and 39 (11.5%) required mechanical ventilation; 30 patients (8.8%) died during hospitalization. The radiologic patterns most frequently found were consolidation in 134 (39.4%), interstitial-alveolar pattern in 98 (28.8%), and the combination of both patterns in 67 (19.7%) episodes. Identification of the causal agent was achieved in 79 (23.2%) episodes. The most frequently isolated microorganisms were influenza virus in 37 (10.9%) episodes and Streptococcus pneumoniae in 11 (3.2%). Most of the hospitalized CAP patients were elderly with consolidative radiological patterns. The causal agent could be identified in less than a quarter of the patients, with the influenza test being the method with the highest diagnostic yield.

Introduction: Uncomplicated urinary tract infections(UC-UTI) represent a frequent reason for consultation. Most cases are empirically treated, but the antimicrobial susceptibility of the causative microorganisms has changed over the past years. The objectives of this study where to determine UC-UTI causative microorganism and their antimicrobial susceptibility profiles in adult women., Methods: A prospective analytic study was conducted in two hospital in Córdoba, Argentina, between November/2016 and October/2017. From the identification of positive urine cultures, urinary tract infections (UTI) in women ≥18 years without risk factors for complicated UTIs were included, excluding asymptomatic bacteriurias., Results: A total of 610 UC-UTI were identified and 62.6% of them in patients younger than 50 years; 73.3% of cases were cystitis, being more frequent in older women. Escherichia coli was isolated in 89.2% of UTI and negative coagulase Staphylococcus in 4.2%. As regards Escherichia coli, its resistance against ciprofloxacin was 18.8%; 4.4% against ceftriaxone and 1.8% against nitrofurantoin. There was an elevated resistance against ampicillin, trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole and ampicillin–sulbactam., Main Conclusion: The most frequent isolated microorganism was Escherichia coli, consistent with global epidemiology. This microorganism showed less than 20% total resistance against ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone and nitrofurantoin., (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba)

Bloodstream infections (BI) are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in cancer patients. A retrospective study was performed in two hospitals aimed to evaluate characteristics of BI episodes occurred in adult patients with hematologic (HN) and solid (SN) neoplasia other than non-melanoma skin cancers in the period 2009-2016. A total of 467 episodes of bacteremia and 16 of fungemia were identified. A total of 200 (41.4%) bacteremias occurred in patients with HN and 283 (58.6%) in patients with SN. The most frequent SN and HN were colon cancer (18.7%) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (27%), respectively. The main risk factors for BI were a previous surgical procedure in SN and chemotherapy in the previous 30 days and use of central venous catheter in HN. Infections were mainly acquired in the hospital environment and the most frequent presentation was bacteremia without focus, mostly in HN (38% vs. 20.8%, p < 0.001). Gram negative bacilli (GNB) were isolated in 336 (69.5%) episodes and predominated over Gram positive cocci (GPC) in both groups. Escherichia coli was the most frequent GNB isolated in both SN (24.7%) and HN patients (20.5%). The most frequent GPC was Staphylococcus aureus. Multidrug-resistance was found in 15% of the isolates in SN and 18% in HN. The overall mortality was 40.5% in patients with HN and 37.5% in patients with SN, with the majority of deaths occurring in the first 30 days.

Background: Bloodstream infections (BI) are associated with high morbidity and mortality., Objective: To determine epidemiological, microbiological and clinical features of community (CA-BI) and nosocomial bloodstream infections (N-BI)., Methods: Bacteremia and fungemia events were retrospectively analyzed in two third-level hospitals between April 2009 and August 2013., Results: We identified 1150 events of bloodstream infections, 53.2% were CA-BI. Gram negative microorganisms were isolated in 61%. The most frequent pathogens were Escherichia coli in CA-BI and Klebsiella pneumoniae in N-BI. Staphylococcus aureus was the most frequent gram positive organism. The main comorbidities were renal disease (39%) and malignancy (38%). There were 26.8% of primary bloodstream infections, and the main infection foci included respiratory (17.04%) and urinary tract (16.86%). A high percentage of gram-negative bacteria of CA-BI and N-BI were resistance to ampicillin sulbactam (40.2% and 57.5%), cephalothin (36.7% and 46.8%), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole 32.8% vs 35.5%) and ciprofloxacin (24.6% and 35.3%). Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus were more frequently into ITS-IH (31.4% vs 11.8%, p = 0.007). Conclusions: Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of CA-BI and N-BI were similar to those reported by other Latin-American studies. We observed some differences in antimicrobial resistance profiles. We emphasize the importance of local epidemiological surveillance to choose appropriate empirical treatments., Conclusions: Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of CA-BI and N-BI were similar to those reported by other Latin-American studies. We observed some differences in antimicrobial resistance profiles. We emphasize the importance of local epidemiological surveillance to choose appropriate empirical treatments.

Background: The use of stress ulcer prophylaxis (SUP) has risen in recent years, even in patients without a clear indication for therapy., Aim: To evaluate the efficacy of an electronic medical record (EMR)-based alarm to improve appropriate SUP use in hospitalized patients., Methods: We conducted an uncontrolled before-after study comparing SUP prescription in intensive care unit (ICU) patients and non-ICU patients, before and after the implementation of an EMR-based alarm that provided the correct indications for SUP., Results: 1627 patients in the pre-intervention and 1513 patients in the post-intervention cohorts were included. The EMR-based alarm improved appropriate (49.6% vs. 66.6%, p<0.001) and reduced inappropriate SUP use (50.4% vs. 33.3%, p<0.001) in ICU patients only. These differences were related to the optimization of SUP in low risk patients. There was no difference in overt gastrointestinal bleeding between the two cohorts. Unjustified costs related to SUP were reduced by a third after EMR-based alarm use., Conclusions: The use of an EMR-based alarm improved appropriate and reduced inappropriate use of SUP in ICU patients. This benefit was limited to optimization in low risk patients and associated with a decrease in SUP costs., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB) is a rare genodermatosis characterized by abnormalities in the anchoring fibrils which attach the basal cell layer of the epidermis to the underlying structures. A characteristic feature of this disorder is the presence of recurrent blistering or erosions, the result of even minor traction to these tissues. Patients with RDEB frequently develop chronic renal failure, and require renal replacement therapy being a major cause of morbidity and mortality. The role of renal transplantation in these patients is scarcely known. We present the case of an end-stage renal disease patient with RDEB treated by renal transplantation and his follow-up during a period of 83 months after the transplant. In this period, there were very low frequency of serious infections as well as the absence of skin tumors. Renal transplantation could be an alternative to renal replacement therapy in epidermolysis bullosa patients with end-stage renal disease, reducing the comorbidities associated with this treatment.

Introduction: Nosocomially acquired urinary tract infections (NAUTI) represent an important public health issue, but its characteristics when they are not catheter associated (CA-UTI) or when they take place outside intensive care units (ICU) are poorly understood., Objectives: To determine the patients' characteristics, etiology and antimicrobial susceptibility of NAUTI, both CA-UTI and no CA-UTI, in general ward and ICU., Methods: We conducted a retrospective analytic cross-sectional study, between 2009 and 2013, in a third level universitary hospital. All NAUTI episodes were identified, classifying them as CA-UTI and no CA-UTI., Results: We included 253 episodes of NAUTI, being CA-UTI (60,9%) more frequent than no CA-UTI. A 37,4% of no CA-UTI and 59,7% of CA-UTI were identified in ICU. The most frequently isolated microorganisms were Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterococcus sp. A 19% of extended spectrum betalactamase producing gram negative bacilli were found, without differences between groups., Conclusion: Patients's comorbidities, microorganisms associated to NAUTI and its antimicrobial susceptibility were similar in CA-UTI and no CA-UTI, as in general ward and ICU.