Research Keyword: intensive care

Diagnostic Approaches to Invasive Candidiasis: Challenges and New Perspectives

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Invasive candidiasis is a serious fungal infection affecting critically ill patients in hospitals. Current testing methods like blood cultures are slow and sometimes miss the infection. Researchers are developing faster diagnostic tests using DNA detection and biomarkers that can identify infections within hours instead of days, allowing doctors to start treatment sooner and save more lives.

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COVID-19-associated Pulmonary Aspergillosis in Mechanically Ventilated Patients at 7 US Hospitals: Epidemiology and Estimated Likelihood of Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis—Results of the Prospective MSG-017 Study

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A fungal infection caused by Aspergillus commonly occurs in COVID-19 patients on ventilators, affecting about 7% of cases. The study found that having this infection was linked to high death rates, but it was unclear whether the fungal infection itself or the severe COVID-19 caused the deaths. Single positive test results for the fungus are not reliable for diagnosis, and antifungal drugs did not improve survival rates.

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Increasing incidence of mycotoxicosis in South-Eastern Germany: a comprehensive analysis of mushroom poisonings at a University Medical Center

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This study examined mushroom poisoning cases in a German hospital from 2005 to 2022 and found that poisonings have nearly doubled in recent years, likely due to more people foraging for wild mushrooms and changes in climate affecting mushroom distribution. The death cap mushroom (Amanita phalloides) caused the majority of serious cases, leading to liver and kidney failure. Researchers found that a blood-cleansing treatment called plasmapheresis could help stabilize patients with life-threatening bleeding complications while they recovered or waited for a liver transplant.

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Quality improvement project to reduce beta-D-glucan turnaround times in an NHS pathology network

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Hospitals were taking too long to get results for a fungal blood test (beta-D-glucan) that helps doctors decide whether patients with serious infections need antifungal medicines. A UK hospital pathology network improved this by bringing the test in-house instead of sending samples to a distant reference laboratory. After implementing the new system, they cut the average wait time from over 11 days to just 2.5 days while also saving money, allowing doctors to make faster treatment decisions for critically ill patients.

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