Are Quantitative Bacterial Wound Cultures Useful?

Are quantitative bacterial wound cultures useful?

Determining if a nonhealing wound is infected can be difficult. The surface of a wound is not sterile and can be colonized with numerous commensal, environmental, and potentially pathogenic microorganisms. Different types of wounds have various clinical presentations, with some signs and symptoms more likely to be present than others depending on the type and location of the wound. Clinicians o...

Are quantitative cultures useful in the diagnosis of hospital-acquired pneumonia?

Noninvasive and invasive tests have been developed and studied for their utility in diagnosing and guiding the treatment of hospital-acquired pneumonia, a condition with an inherently high mortality. Early empiric antibiotic treatment has been shown to reduce mortality, so delaying this treatment until test results are available is not justifiable. Furthermore, tailoring therapy based on result...

The quantitative determination of indole in bacterial cultures.

Are ‘Qualitative’ and ‘Quantitative’ Useful Terms for Describing Research?

We examine the concepts of quantitative research and qualitative research, and argue that this dichotomy has several dimensions which are often, erroneously, assumed to coincide. We analyse two of the important dimensions – statistical versus non-statistical, and hypothesis testing versus induction. The crude quantitative-qualitative dichotomy omits many potentially useful possibilities, such a...

Is bronchoalveolar lavage with quantitative cultures a useful tool for diagnosing ventilator-associated pneumonia?

The results of a recently published Canadian study suggest that bronchoalveolar lavage and endotracheal aspiration are associated with similar clinical outcomes and similar overall use of antibiotics in critically ill patients with suspected ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). The study, however, does not provide convincing information on the best strategy to diagnose VAP, to accurately choo...