BACKGROUND Several clinical trials have demonstrated the efficacy of fluconazole as empiric antifungal therapy in cancer patients with fever and neutropenia. Our objective was to assess the frequency and resource utilization associated with treatment failure in cancer patients given empiric fluconazole antifungal therapy in routine inpatient care. METHODS We performed a retrospective cohort s...

Objective. To compare early empiric antifungal treatment with culture-directed treatment in critically ill patients with intra-abdominal sepsis. Methods. A prospective observational cohort study was conducted between August 2010 and July 2011, on SICU patients admitted after surgery for gastrointestinal perforation, bowel obstruction or ischemia, malignancy and anastomotic leakages. Patients wh...

UNLABELLED Analysis of the adequacy of the initial empiric antimicrobial treatment of patients with acute Chlamydia pneumoniae (CP) infection, admitted to the Infectious Diseases Clinic, Clinical Centre, Medical Faculty, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, for community-acquired pneumonia. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total number of 407 patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) hospitalized at t...

BACKGROUND Health-care providers often diagnose and empirically treat COPD without a confirmative pulmonary function test (PFT) or even despite a PFT that is not diagnostic of obstructive lung disease. We hypothesized that a portion of patients continue to carry a persistent empiric COPD diagnosis and receive treatment with bronchodilators and inhaled steroids after a PFT shows no obstruction. ...

OBJECTIVES We aimed to construct widely useable summary measures of the net impact of antibiotic resistance on empiric therapy. Summary measures are needed to communicate the importance of resistance, plan and evaluate interventions, and direct policy and investment. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS As an example, we retrospectively summarised the 2011 cumulative antibiogram from a Toronto ac...

BACKGROUND The extent and circumstances under which empiric tuberculosis (TB) treatment (treatment without microbiological confirmation at treatment initiation) is administered in primary health care settings in South Africa are not well described. METHODS We used data from a pragmatic evaluation of Xpert MTB/RIF in which persons undergoing TB investigations by PHC nurses were followed for si...

OBJECTIVE The goal was to determine the performance of low-risk criteria for serious bacterial illnesses (SBIs) in febrile infants in prospective studies in which empiric antibiotic treatment was withheld, compared with studies (prospective and retrospective) in which empiric antibiotic treatment was administered. METHODS A search of the English-language literature was undertaken by using a P...

Pharyngitis is the common disorder more in children than adults. Pharyngitis is common in the developing countries. In the United States pharyngitis is diagnosed in 11 million patients in emergency department and ambulatory setting annually. Viruses are frequently cause of viral pharyngitis, with adenovirus, rhinovirus, enterovirus, influenza A and B parainfluenza viruses. Streptococcus pyogene...