Publications by authors named "Isin Y Comba"

Background Context: Surgical site infections (SSIs) are a significant complication following spinal surgery. These infections contribute to increased morbidity, prolonged hospital stays, and substantial healthcare costs. Traditional statistical models have been widely used to predict SSI risk, but artificial intelligence (AI) and its machine learning (ML) methods have also been used for SSI prediction.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Alveolar echinococcus (AE) is a zoonosis caused by the parasitic tapeworm, associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Management of AE in pregnant people presents many challenges including the risk of disease progression due to the immunologic changes in pregnancy and potential teratogenicity of antihelminthic drugs. Currently, there is limited guidance on the perinatal management of AE.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Long COVID (LC), manifests in 10-30% of non-hospitalized individuals post-SARS-CoV-2 infection leading to significant morbidity. The predictive role of gut microbiome composition during acute infection in the development of LC is not well understood, partly due to the heterogeneous nature of disease. We conducted a longitudinal study of 799 outpatients tested for SARS-CoV-2 (380 positive, 419 negative) and found that individuals who later developed LC harbored distinct gut microbiome compositions during acute infection, compared with both SARS-CoV-2-positive individuals who did not develop LC and negative controls with similar symptomatology.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Recent advances in high-throughput approaches for estimating co-localization of microbes, such as SAMPL-seq, allow characterization of the biogeography of the gut microbiome longitudinally and at unprecedented scale. However, these high-dimensional data are complex and have unique noise properties. To address these challenges, we developed MCSPACE, a probabilistic AI method that infers from microbiome co-localization data spatially coherent assemblages of taxa, their dynamics over time, and their responses to perturbations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Understanding which viral variants evade neutralization is crucial for improving antibody-based treatments, especially with rapidly evolving viruses like SARS-CoV-2. Yet, conventional assays are labor intensive and cannot capture the full spectrum of variants. We present a deep learning approach to predict changes in neutralizing antibody activity of COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccine-elicited sera/plasma against emerging viral variants.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - The study examined the use of an infographic/icon within the Infectious Diseases Society of America's (IDSA) guidelines for COVID-19 to help healthcare providers quickly access critical information at the bedside.
  • - A survey with 289 healthcare professionals found no significant differences in comprehension when using the icon, although most participants (85%) felt it enhanced guideline readability.
  • - While the icons didn't show measurable benefits in usability, the study suggests that better design and testing of icons in clinical guidelines could improve user experience moving forward.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: We aimed to determine the factors associated with sequential blood culture time to positivity (STTP) and validate the previously defined time to positivity (TTP) ratio threshold of 1.5 in predicting adverse disease outcomes and mortality of bacteremia (SAB).

Methods: We conducted an observational study of adult patients with SAB.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on anaerobic, Gram-negative bacilli species that can cause serious bloodstream infections, particularly in immunocompromised patients, while noting the lack of data on their treatment and outcomes.
  • At the Mayo Clinic Rochester, researchers identified 224 isolates over 10 years, with L. trevisanii being the most common, and found that most isolates were resistant to moxifloxacin but showed high susceptibility to other antibiotics.
  • In patients analyzed, mainly neutropenic adults with gastrointestinal infection sources, treatment included metronidazole and piperacillin-tazobactam, with a 60-day mortality rate of 19%, indicating the need for careful consideration of antibiotic choices
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Despite evidence favoring perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis (ABP) use in patients undergoing craniotomy to reduce rates of surgical site infections (SSIs), standardized protocols are lacking. We describe demographic characteristics, risk factors, and ABP choice in patients with craniotomy complicated with SSI.

Design: Retrospective case series from January 1, 2017, through December 31, 2020.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To examine the clinical characteristics, risk of hospitalization, and mortality of patients diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) reinfection.

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all patients with SARS-CoV-2 reinfection at all Mayo Clinic sites between May 23, 2020, and June 30, 2021 (the period before the emergence of the Delta variant in the United States). The reinfection was defined as a positive SARS-CoV-2 test more than or equal to 90 days after initial infection or 45-89 days after with symptomatic second episode.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

species are Gram-negative bacilli that were most recently linked to a cluster of infections in the Midwestern United States from 2016 to 2017. Inappropriate empirical and directed antibiotic selection for this organism is common among providers and is an independent risk factor for mortality. Trends in antimicrobial susceptibility profiles of species from a referral laboratory over a 10-year period were reviewed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We provide an elaborate review of cases published between January 2005 and April 2021 on hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) in HIV patients. Seventy articles describing 81 adult patients (age ≥19 years) were included. The median age was 40 years, and 78% were males.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Abiotrophia, Granulicatella, and Gemella are gastrointestinal microbiota, gram-positive cocci that behave like viridans group streptococci. Despite the low incidence of bacteremia from these organisms, they can lead to infective endocarditis (IE) and other clinical syndromes. Due to scant data, we aim to describe detailed clinical features, management, and outcomes of patients with bacteremia from these organisms.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

is the most common species to result in severe malaria infection. Examination of blood sample with thick and thin smear is the gold standard diagnostic test and repeat peripheral smear monitoring every 12-24 h should be performed after initiation of treatment to ensure parasite clearance in severe infection. Treatment for severe infection should be initiated without delay, and if artemisinin products are not available, atovaquone-proguanil can be used as an alternative.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cardiovascular device infection due to rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) is rarely encountered in clinical practice. Due to the increasing number of indications and use of cardiovascular devices in an aging population, optimized management of these infections is of great importance. We report seven cases of RGM cardiovascular device infection.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Bloodstream infections (BSI) with rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) resulted in recent nosocomial outbreaks predominantly in immunocompromised patients. A little is known about the clinical implications of RGM BSI with different species.

Methods: We conducted a multicenter retrospective cohort study of patients with RGM BSI from November 2011 to December 2020.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy is a novel treatment for various types of hematologic malignancy. We presented a case of refractory diffuse large B cell lymphoma patient who developed acute invasive fungal rhinosinusitis (AIFR) from species after CAR-T therapy. Our photos illustrated the classic clinical, endoscopic, and histopathologic findings of AIFR.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To report the Mayo Clinic experience with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) related to patient outcomes.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of patients with COVID-19 diagnosed between March 1, 2020, and July 31, 2020, at any of the Mayo Clinic sites. We abstracted pertinent comorbid conditions such as age, sex, body mass index, Charlson Comorbidity Index variables, and treatments received.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Myelomatous pleural effusion (MPE) is an uncommon clinical entity and occurs in less than 1% of all patients with multiple myeloma. MPE indicates a progression of disease, therefore is associated with a poor prognosis and estimated median survival of <3 months. Treatment of MPE is challenging, and the data regarding the role of novel agents lack in the literature.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Epithelioid angiomyolipomas (EAMLs) are mesenchymal tumors that are part of the family of the perivascular epithelioid cell neoplasms (PEComas). These tumors portray a potential aggressive behavior with metastatic lesions found in around 30% of reported cases. EAMLs might present sporadically or in association with the tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The testicular seminomas are germ-cell tumors which account for approximately 50% of all testicular tumors. Most primary testicular germ cell tumors metastasize through a lymphatic system in a predictable pattern with the retroperitoneal lymph nodes being the most common initial metastatic site. Hematological metastasis to the distant organs is less common, and except for pulmonary metastasis, changes the classification from good to intermediate prognosis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Gastrointestinal (GI) involvement by multiple myeloma is a rare entity. Clinical manifestations depend on the site and extent of involvement. GI bleeding, obstruction, and perforation can complicate the disease course.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Blinatumomab and donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) combination is a promising cancer therapy, whereby blinatumomab might achieve an initial reduction in leukemic-cell burden using T cells, and after tumor clearance, DLI can potentially stimulate the donor immune system to achieve longer lasting remission. Here, we present a 51-year-old female with mixed phenotype acute leukemia who had a hematologic relapse 3 months after she received total body irradiation-based myeloablative allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation from an unrelated human leukocyte antigen matched (10/10) donor and achieved complete remission with minimal residual disease negativity by multi-parameter flow cytometry using the combination of blinatumomab and DLI. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to describe the use of blinatumomab and DLI combination therapy in the treatment of B/myeloid mixed phenotype acute leukemia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF