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Monday, 04/12/2010
Validation of the American Thoracic Society-Infectious Diseases Society of America Guidelines for Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia in the Intensive Care Unit
The study led by Dr. Miquel Ferrer, Senior Researcher of the group IAMR , was published last April the 1st
The 2005 guidelines of the American Thoracic Society–Infectious Diseases Society of America Guidelines for managing hospital-acquired pneumonia classified patients according to time of onset and risk factors for potentially drug-resistant microorganisms to select the empirical antimicrobial treatment. We assessed the microbial prediction and validated the adequacy of these guidelines for antibiotic strategy.
On the study led by Dr. Miquel Ferrer, Senior Researcher of the group IAMR, the accuracy of guidelines was determined to predict causative microorganisms and the influence of guidelines adherence in patients’ outcome. To do so, 276 patients with intensive care unit–acquired pneumonia were prospectively observed. Patients were classified into group 1 (early onset without risk factors for potentially drug-resistant microorganisms; 38 patients) and group 2 (late onset or risk factors for potentially drug-resistant microorganisms; 238 patients).
According to the results of the study, the microbial prediction was lower in group 1 than in group 2. Guidelinens adherence was higher in group 2, which resulted in more treatment adequacy than did nonadherence and a trend toward better response to empirical treatment in group 2 only, although it did not influence mortality. As a conclusion, the 2005 guidelines predict potentially drug-resistant microorganisms worse than the 1996 guidelines.
Clinical Infectious Diseases, one of the most cited journals when it comes to infectious diseases and microbiology (8.266 Impact Factor on 2008), releases articles on different topics related to infectious diseases which share the aim to focus on clinical practice.