Increasing the adoption of home dialysis through improved advanced kidney care patient education: a call for action.

Background: Home dialysis modalities have several advantages yet remain underused in Europe. A minority of people with kidney failure opt for home dialysis, although many more could be suitable. To improve home dialysis uptake, advanced kidney care patient education is essential.

Quantifying cost savings from outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy programme: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: The outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) programme was introduced to reduce costs and enhance the quality of life for patients requiring prolonged treatment with parenteral antimicrobials. However, given the escalating inflation, the extent of current cost savings achieved through OPAT programmes remains unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis employ a cost-minimization analysis to quantify the cost savings from OPAT compared to inpatient treatment.

Genomic virulence markers are associated with severe outcomes in patients with Pseudomonas aeruginosa bloodstream infection.

Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) bloodstream infection (BSI) is a common healthcare-associated complication linked to antimicrobial resistance and high mortality. Ongoing clinical trials are exploring novel anti-virulence agents, yet studies on how bacterial virulence affects PA infection outcomes is conflicting and data from real-world clinical populations is limited.

Methods: We studied a multicentre cohort of 773 adult patients with PA BSI consecutively collected during 7-years from sites in Europe and Australia.

Protect peripheral intravenous catheters: a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial of a novel antimicrobial dressing for peripheral intravenous catheters (ProP trial).

Introduction: Peripheral intravenous catheters (PIVCs) are the most commonly used vascular access device in hospitalised patients. Yet PIVCs may be complicated by local or systemic infections leading to increased healthcare costs. Chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG)-impregnated dressings may help reduce PIVC-related infectious complications but have not yet been evaluated.

Keeping up with the pathogens: improved antimicrobial resistance detection and prediction from Pseudomonas aeruginosa genomes.

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an intensifying threat that requires urgent mitigation to avoid a post-antibiotic era. Pseudomonas aeruginosa represents one of the greatest AMR concerns due to increasing multi- and pan-drug resistance rates. Shotgun sequencing is gaining traction for in silico AMR profiling due to its unambiguity and transferability; however, accurate and comprehensive AMR prediction from P.

Antibody-Mediated Serum Resistance Protects Pseudomonas aeruginosa During Bloodstream Infections.

Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a frequent pathogen isolated from bacterial bloodstream infection (BSI) and is associated with high mortality. To survive in the blood, P aeruginosa must resist the bactericidal action of complement (ie, serum killing). Antibodies usually promote serum killing through the classical complement pathway; however, "cloaking antibodies" (cAbs) have been described, which paradoxically protect bacteria from serum killing.

Determining Colonisation from Infection Using PCR-Based Diagnostics in HIV-Negative Individuals.

Background: pneumonia is increasingly diagnosed with highly sensitive PCR diagnostics in immunocompromised, HIV-negative individuals. We assessed the performance of our in-house quantitative PCR with the aim to optimise interpretation.

Methods: Retrospective audit of all positive qPCRs on induced sputum or BAL fluid at a single centre from 2012 to 2023.

Healthcare professional education in shared decision making in the context of chronic kidney disease: a scoping review.

Rationale & Objective: Shared decision making (SDM) is a collaborative effort between healthcare professionals, individuals with CKD whereby clinical evidence, expected outcomes and potential side-effects are balanced with individual values and beliefs to provide the best mutually decided treatment option. Meaningful SDM is supported by effective training and education. We aimed to identify the available evidence on SDM training and education of healthcare professionals caring for people with chronic kidney disease.

Comparing the use of midline catheters versus peripherally inserted central catheters for patients requiring peripherally compatible therapies: A pilot randomised controlled trial (the compact trial).

Background: Midline catheter (MC) use has increased in acute-care settings, particularly for patients with difficult venous access or requiring peripherally compatible intravenous therapy for up-to 14 days. Our aim was to assess feasibility and generate clinical data comparing MCs with Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters (PICCs).

Methods: A two-arm parallel group pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT), comparing MCs with PICCs, was conducted in a large tertiary hospital in Queensland between September 2020 and January 2021.

State of the art: Intrapartum antibiotics in cesarean section, the infant microbiota and allergic diseases.

With increasing rates of cesarean section worldwide and international guidelines advising pre-incision antibiotics, neonatal exposure to pre-birth antibiotics is higher than ever before. Emerging evidence has raised concern regarding the impact of such antibiotics on the neonatal intestinal microbiota, immune system development and health conditions later in life. This narrative review investigates current protocols for intrapartum prophylactic antibiotics in cesarean section, how this and other factors may affect the neonatal intestinal microbiota and whether intrapartum antibiotics used for cesarean section are linked to the development of allergic disease.

A contemporary case series of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infective endocarditis.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa infective endocarditis (IE) is a rare disease associated with high mortality and complications. Here, we describe a contemporary set of patients aiming to improve the understanding of risk factors, clinical features, treatments, and outcomes. This retrospective case series reviewed cases from 3 tertiary metropolitan hospitals between January 1999 and January 2019.

COVID-19 (Omicron strain) hospital admissions from a virtual ward - who required further care?

Background: The COVID-19 virtual ward was created to provide care for people at home with COVID-19. Given this was a new model of care, little was known about the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients requiring admission to hospital from the virtual ward platform. The aims were to characterise hospital admission volume, patient epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and outcome from a virtual ward in the setting of an Omicron (BA.

Outcomes of octogenarians and nonagenarians with Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteremia: a multicenter retrospective study.

Background: P. aeruginosa bacteremia is a common and severe infection carrying high mortality in older adults. We aimed to evaluate outcomes of P.

Rapid fluoroquinolone resistance detection in using mismatch amplification mutation assay-based real-time PCR.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an ever-increasing global health concern. One crucial facet in tackling the AMR epidemic is earlier and more accurate AMR diagnosis, particularly in the dangerous and highly multi-drug-resistant ESKAPE pathogen, . We aimed to develop two SYBR Green-based mismatch amplification mutation assays (SYBR-MAMAs) targeting GyrA T83I (248) and GyrA D87N, D87Y and D87H (259).

Infection control behaviours, intra-household transmission and quarantine duration: a retrospective cohort analysis of COVID-19 cases.

Objectives: To study COVID-19 (Delta Variant) cases and close contacts co-located within households. Focusing on epidemiology of transmission of COVID-19, quarantine duration and utilisation of infection control behaviours under a telehealth model of care in an elimination setting.

Methods: A retrospective cohort analysis examined household spread of infection, duration of quarantine and change in PCR CT value during illness.

Availability of assisted peritoneal dialysis in Europe: call for increased and equal access.

Background: Availability of assisted PD (asPD) increases access to dialysis at home, particularly for the increasing numbers of older and frail people with advanced kidney disease. Although asPD has been widely used in some European countries for many years, it remains unavailable or poorly utilized in others. A group of leading European nephrologists have therefore formed a group to drive increased availability of asPD in Europe and in their own countries.

A Quality Improvement Process to Increase and Sustain a Peritoneal Dialysis Programme in the United Kingdom.

Introduction: Peritoneal dialysis (PD) remains underutilised in the West. The proportion of patients in the UK starting renal replacement therapy (RRT) with PD fell from 7.2% in 2011 to 6.

Evaluating Mono- and Combination Therapy of Meropenem and Amikacin against Pseudomonas aeruginosa Bacteremia in the Hollow-Fiber Infection Model.

Debate continues as to the role of combination antibiotic therapy for the management of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections. We studied the extent of bacterial killing by and the emergence of resistance to meropenem and amikacin as monotherapies and as a combination therapy against susceptible and resistant P. aeruginosa isolates from bacteremic patients using the dynamic hollow-fiber infection model.

Adherence to self-administered biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs across health-system specialty pharmacies.

Purpose: Adherence to self-administered biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) is necessary for therapeutic benefit. Health-system specialty pharmacies (HSSPs) have reported high adherence rates across several disease states; however, adherence outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) populations have not yet been established.

Methods: We performed a multisite retrospective cohort study including patients with RA and 3 or more documented dispenses of bDMARDs from January through December 2018.