The rate of eradication of Helicobacter pylori with standard triple therapy using omeprazole, amoxicillin and clarithromycin (OAC) is unacceptable in populations with high rates of clarithromycin resistance (15-20%). The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of 10-day OAC therapy as the first-line treatment in patients diagnosed by culture with antimicrobial susceptibility or diagnosed by a (13) C-labelled urea breath test (UBT) without antimicrobial susceptibility in an area where the clarithromycin resistance rate was 15-20%. This was a retrospective cohort study of 266 patients, recruited consecutively throughout 2008. A total of 247 H. pylori-infected patients received antibiotic therapy (221 received the 10-day OAC therapy and 26 received other regimens) of which 134 patients were diagnosed by culture of gastric samples followed by antimicrobial susceptibility testing and 113 were diagnosed by UBT. In all patients, the eradication of H. pylori was checked by UBT. The cost of eradication by 10-day OAC treatment was assessed in each patient. The success rate of 10-day OAC therapy in patients diagnosed by culture and by UBT was 88% (103/117) and 49% (51/104), respectively (p <0.0005). The treatment was also more cost-effective in the former of these two groups (€571 versus €666). To perform culture and antimicrobial susceptibility of the H. pylori isolates was a more successful and cost effective strategy than empirical 10-day OAC treatment in populations with high rates of resistance to clarithromycin.

The eradication rate was significantly higher with clarithromycin-based triple therapy for patients with clarithromycin-susceptible HP isolates compared with those for whom no information on the corresponding susceptibility was available (ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT01486082).

The aim of the study was to describe the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of the central nervous system (CNS) infection by varicella zoster virus (VZV) in patients older than 65 years in a tertiary community hospital. We retrospectively analysed the results of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) testing in patients older than 65 years between 2007 and 2014 with clinically suspected VZV infection with CNS involvement. Patients whose CSF samples were positive for VZV DNA were included, as were those with negative results who simultaneously presented herpes zoster and CSF or magnetic resonance imaging findings suggestive of CNS infection, and in whom other possible aetiologies had been ruled out. The study included 280 patients. The disease was considered to be caused by a VZV infection in 32 patients (11.4%), of which 23 cases were virologically confirmed (detection of VZV DNA in CSF). The most frequent diagnosis of the patients with VZV CNS infection was encephalitis (83.3%), followed by meningitis (13.3%) and cerebellitis (3.3%). The mean annual incidence of VZV CNS infection was 3.0 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. VZV was the most common cause of encephalitis and viral meningitis, ahead of herpes simplex virus (n = 9). At the time of discharge, 12 (40%) patients showed neurological sequelae. Five patients (20%) died during hospitalization, all with encephalitis. Patients with a fatal outcome had significantly higher median age and longer delay before initiating acyclovir. In conclusion, VZV was the first cause of encephalitis in our elderly population. Despite acyclovir treatment, there was a high rate of case fatality and sequelae at discharge.

No abstract

Both the incidence and the number of cases of resistant tuberculosis showed oscillations over the eight years of the study. The fact that there is no homogeneous tendency makes it necessary to maintain active surveillance of this process. Global resistance to isoniacide was 8%, making it is convenient to carry out sensitivity studies in all the diagnosed cases. The cases of multiresistant tuberculosis (resistant to at least isoniacide and rifampicin), did not exceed 3%. The prognosis of the patients with resistant tuberculosis was bleak in cases of coinfection with HIV; however, when the immunological defences were conserved, and guidelines for treatment with active drugs were provided, the recovery of the majority of the patients was achieved. At present, sensitive and rapid procedures are available to us, making it recommendable to study the sensitivity of all the stocks of M. tuberculosis that are isolated; this is essential in the case of HIV positive or immigrant patients.