Lipoteichoic acid from Staphylococcus aureus was a potent inducer of procoagulant activity in isolated mononuclear cells but not in whole blood. In contrast, staphylococcal peptidoglycan showed equal levels of potency in isolated mononuclear cells and whole blood, suggesting that peptidoglycan is an important inducer of procoagulant activity in severe sepsis involving gram-positive bacteria.

A major obstacle to therapy in intensive care units is sepsis caused by severe infection. In recent years gram-positive (G+) bacteria, most commonly staphylococci, are thought to be the main pathogens. Micheliolide (MCL) was demonstrated to provide a therapeutic role in rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory intestinal disease, colitis-associated cancer, and lipopolysaccharide (LPS, the main compon...

In spite of its incidence decreasing to 1% nowadays, prosthesis-related infection remains a research, diagnostic, therapeutic and cost-related problem. It can be defined as a presence of bacteria in the artificial joint space, which is significantly associated with evident laboratory and/or tissue markers, and clinical signs of running infection. We believe that the more precise understanding o...

Sepsis remains one of the leading causes of death in burn patients who survive the initial insult of injury. Disruption of the intestinal epithelial barrier has been shown after burn injury; this can lead to the translocation of bacteria or their products (e.g., endotoxin) from the intestinal lumen to the circulation, thereby increasing the risk for sepsis in immunocompromised individuals. Sinc...

Infection-related mortality affects the overall survival rates of children who are receiving treatment for cancer. The leading cause of mortality is bacteremia and sepsis related to it in febrile neutropenic patients. All positive blood cultures of febrile neutropenic patients treated in the Department of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, Cerrahpasa Medical School, between January 1995 and January...

Objective: Sepsis accounts for a high rate of mortality with significant impact on health care across the world. Our objective was to determine clinical determinants of outcome of sepsis in a tertiary care setting. Design: Prospective, observational study. Place and Duration: A tertiary care University hospital catering to roughly 50,000 admissions per year with an intensive care unit [ICU] adm...

For many years it has been hypothesized that the gut has an important detrimental role in promoting systemic inflammation and infection in the critically ill. During stress and mucosal hypoxia, the mucosa is damaged and host defenses break down causing translocation of bacteria and bacterial toxins which are thought to contribute to the overwhelming inflammation associated with sepsis and multi...

Severe sepsis refers to the syndrome of fever, hypotension and organ dysfunction resulting from infection, commonly due to Gram-negative or Gram-positive bacteria with or without bacteraemia1. Occasionally, non-bacterial pathogens, including fungi, rickettsiae, protozoa and viruses, can cause a similar syndrome. The first line of defence against infecting organisms comprises highly conserved in...

Sepsis remains a difficult clinical challenge, since our understanding of its immunopathology is incomplete and no efficacious treatment currently exists. Its earlier stage results from an uncontrolled inflammatory response to bacteria while in the later stage disturbed immune response with immunodeficiency syndrome develops. More than a hundred of clinical trials have not provided an efficient...

Bacterial sepsis is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality among neonates. It is characterized as generalized bacterial infection indicated by positive blood culture in the first four weeks of life (Agarwal et al., 2001). The common causative agents for neonatal sepsis are Staphylococcus spp, Enterococci spp, E. coli, Klebsiella spp, Enterobacter spp, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acin...