AIM The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of piperacillin/tazobactam (P/T) and cefoperazone/sulbactam (C/S) in the empirical treatment of adult neutropenic fever. METHODS Data and outcomes of low-risk adult cases with neutropenic fever and treated with P/T (4.5 g q6h) or C/S (2 g q8h) between 2005 and 2011 June were extracted from our database. Risk evaluation was made according t...

BACKGROUND Bacterial infections are a major cause of illness and death in patients who are neutropenic after chemotherapy treatment for cancer. Trials have shown the efficacy of antibiotic prophylaxis in decreasing the incidence of bacterial infections but not in reducing mortality rates. PURPOSE To evaluate whether antibiotic prophylaxis in neutropenic patients reduces mortality and incidenc...

known origin (FUO) as persistent fever higher than 38.3°C (101°F) that lasts for 3 weeks with no established diagnosis despite 1 week of inpatient investigations. More recently, the definition of FUO has been updated to reflect developments in medicine and technology; FUO is now defined as persistent fever higher than 101°F for 3 weeks and failure to make a diagnosis with 3 outpatient visits or...

BACKGROUND A case of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)-pyomyositis in association with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is reported. MRSA-sepsis developed in a 51-year-old Japanese man with AML, during the neutropenic period after high-dose 1-beta-d-arabinofuranosylcytosine (Ara-C). Although the MRSA-sepsis initially improved with arbekacin sulfate (ABK) administration, a high ...

Purpose: To compare meropenem, a carbapenem antibiotic, with ceftazidime for the empirical treatment of patients with febrile neutropenia. Patients and Methods: A prospective, double-blind, randomized clinical trial was conducted at medical centers in North America and the Netherlands. A total of 411 cancer patients (196 treated with meropenem and 215 treated with ceftazidime), who had 471 epis...

BACKGROUND pediatric hematology/oncology patients are faced with an increased risk of nosocomial infections (NIs) that vary in different populations and different institutions with considerable morbidity and mortality. This study was undertaken to assess the frequency and patterns of NIs in 1564 pediatric patients and to determine the prevalence of causative organisms and their antimicrobial se...

BACKGROUND Invasive infections and sterile tissue damage can both give rise to systemic inflammation with fever and production of inflammatory mediators. This makes it difficult to diagnose infections in patients who are already inflamed, e.g. due to cell and tissue damage. For example, fever in patients with hematological malignancies may depend on infection, lysis of malignant cells, and/or c...

Hypocholesterolemia, which often accompanies infectious diseases has been suggested to serve as a prognostic marker in hospitalized patients. Even though patients with chemotherapy-induced leukopenia are at high risk of infection and mortality, only limited information is available on serum cholesterol levels in these patients. We therefore measured serum cholesterol levels in 17 patients with ...

Toll-like receptors play an important role in the host defense against microorganisms. Sepsis remains a common cause of mortality in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) treated with intensive induction chemotherapy. The expression of TLRs and their association with the development of sepsis in patients with acute myeloid leukemia remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the pattern of bacterial infections, isolate and identify the pathogenic bacteria and their sensitivity to different antibiotics during febrile episodes in paediatric patients with chemotherapy induced neutropenia from January to June 2000 at the Paediatric OncologyUunit of Combined Military Hospital, Rawalpindi (CMH RWP). PATIENTS AND METHODS The study material compris...