Publications by authors named "Giordana Mattana"

Due to the global spread of pan resistant organisms, colistin is actually considered as one of the last resort antibiotics against MDR and XDR bacterial infections. The emergence of colistin resistant strains has been observed worldwide in Gram-negative bacteria, such as and especially in in association with increased morbidity and mortality. This landscape implies the exploration of novel assays able to target colistin resistant strains rapidly.

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Children are prone to bloodstream infections (BSIs), the rapid and accurate diagnosis of which is an unmet clinical need. The T2MR technology is a direct molecular assay for identification of BSI pathogens, which can help to overcome the limits of blood culture (BC) such as diagnostic accuracy, blood volumes required, and turnaround time. We analyzed results obtained with the T2Bacteria (648) and T2Candida (106) panels in pediatric patients of the Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital between May 2018 and September 2020 in order to evaluate the performance of the T2Dx instrument with respect to BC.

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is a very rare opportunistic yeast causing fungal disease in humans, especially in immunocompromised hosts. Here, we describe a new case of isolated from the blood of a pyrexial pediatric patient with refractory acute B cell lymphoblastic leukemia and acute respiratory distress. Prompt diagnosis through early clinical suspicion and appropriate molecular microbiology analysis allowed the yeast to be accurately identified at species level.

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Respiratory tract infection is one of the most common diseases in human worldwide. Many viruses are implicated in these infections, including emerging viruses, such as the novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Identification of the causative viral pathogens of respiratory tract infections is important to select a correct management of patients, choose an appropriate treatment, and avoid unnecessary antibiotics use.

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Article Synopsis
  • Detecting tuberculosis (TB) in cases of extrapulmonary infection is challenging due to low levels of bacteria and limited availability of fresh samples for traditional culture testing.
  • A study evaluated homemade droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) assays using biopsies, comparing their effectiveness against culture methods on fresh and formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples.
  • Results showed that the IS6110 ddPCR assay had high sensitivity (98.5%) and accuracy (98.9%) for diagnosing TB compared to traditional methods, outperforming both the rpoB assay and other diagnostic techniques like Xpert and acid-fast bacilli smear microscopy.
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