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Biomedical subjects

S Eykyn

Publications and source records attributed to S Eykyn.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Rigors in tuberculosis.

Rigors are not a recognized characteristic of miliary tuberculosis. We report two patients presenting with persistent rigors, thought to be suggestive of acute pyogenic infection, who were subsequently found to have miliary tuberculosis. In both cases, there was significant diagnostic delay. Miliary tuberculosis should therefore be included in the differential diagnosis of any patient presenting with unexplained rigors.

Female

Epidemic multiresistant Escherichia coli infection in West Lambeth Health District.

A year-long outbreak of multiresistant Escherichia coli K52 H1, predominantly serogroup O15, is reported from south east London. Most patients had urinary tract infections, some with septicaemia; but some cases of septicaemia were associated with pneumonia, meningitis, and endocarditis--unusual infections for E coli. 3 of these patients died. The organism was acquired in the community, and its source is still being investigated.

Adolescent

Fever during treatment of infective endocarditis.

In 83 episodes of culture-positive infective endocarditis (IE) of a native valve, fever persisted or recurred in 42 (50%) despite appropriate bactericidal antibiotics. The commonest cause of fever was extensive infection of the valve ring and adjacent structures, even when the infecting organisms were viridans streptococci; urgent surgery was required. Less frequent causes were systemic and pulmonary emboli and drug hypersensitivity. Infected intravenous access sites were seldom responsible. In no case was fever due to antibiotic resistance of the infecting organism. In patients with a definite microbiological diagnosis who have been given appropriate antibiotics, the temptation to alter antibiotic therapy because of persistent or recurrent fever should be resisted unless there are features of drug hypersensitivity. When fever persists or recurs during treatment of IE, the opinions of a cardiologist and cardiac surgeon should be obtained as soon as possible; delay in valve replacement may prove fatal in patients with extensive infection.

Acute Disease

Candida endophthalmitis: a complication of prolonged intravenous therapy and antibiotic treatment.

Four patients with candida endophthalmitis are discussed; three had received prolonged intravenous therapy as well as multiple and varied courses of antibiotics for underlying gastro-intestinal disease; one was an intravenous drug abuser. The visual acuity improved dramatically in two of the five affected eyes but in the remaining three eyes remained at 6/60 or less. Visual prognosis is directly related to early diagnosis and treatment, which should include pars plana vitrectomy and systemic antifungal therapy.

Adult

Maternal and neonatal death due to pneumococcal infection.

A 27-year-old woman died from pneumococcal meningitis associated with pneumococcal endometritis two days after being delivered of a .1.75-kg infant. The infant also had pneumococcal septicemia and died six days after birth. The pneumococcus isolated from the mother and the baby was type 8. The membranes had ruptured 21 hours before delivery, and the mother had received a salbutamol infusion in an attempt to inhibit labor with injections of betamethasone to prevent neonatal respiratory distress. This case typified the dramatic onset and lethal nature of some pneumococcal infections.

Adult

Reduced sensitivity to beta-lactam antibiotics arising during ceftazidime treatment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from two patients with empyema and one with bronchopneumonia became less sensitive after treatment with ceftazidime, while Ps. aeruginosa persisted in a patient with an infected compound fracture of the tibia treated with ceftazidime but did not become less sensitive. The reduction in sensitivity to ceftazidime, which was small, was accompanied by resistance to azlocillin but there are little reduction in sensitivity to carbenicillin. The resistant strains produced increased amounts of the chromosomally-mediated cephalosporinase produced by most isolates of Ps. aeruginosa. Variants with reduced sensitivity to ceftazidime, which resembled those that developed in vivo, were selected in vitro from each of the initial ceftazidime-sensitive isolates.

Adult

Imported penicillinase producing Neisseria gonorrhoeae becomes endemic in London.

We review all cases of gonorrhoea caused by penicillinase producing Neisseria gonorrhoeae (PPNG) seen between 1976 and 1983 at the sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic of this hospital, which accounted for 11% of all such cases reported in that period in the United Kingdom. While the overall incidence of gonorrhoea remained relatively stable in this clinic, that of PPNG rose to 4.4% of all such cases by 1982. Until last year, 75% of these cases were imported, mainly from Nigeria and Ghana, but a marked change was seen in the second half of 1982, when 71% of cases were indigenous in origin. Casual partners and prostitutes in London were mentioned as the source of infection by 34% of patients, a much higher percentage than that seen previously. Such sources are notoriously difficult to trace and these figures show a very disturbing trend. Although rectal infection tends to be asymptomatic, PPNG was isolated in rectal cultures from two of five homosexuals and 19 of 26 women. There is therefore a risk that PPNG could spread rapidly through the homosexual population. We suggest that spectinomycin should no longer be the first drug of choice in the treatment of gonorrhoea caused by PPNG but should be replaced by the newer cephalosporins.

Africa, Western

Staphylococcal bacteraemia, fusidic acid, and jaundice.

Fusidic acid was used to treat 131 out of 250 patients with staphylococcal bacteraemia over 10 years. Other antimicrobial agents were given to the 119 remaining patients. Thirty-seven patients were already jaundiced before antibiotic treatment was started. Jaundice developed during treatment in 38 out of 112 patients given fusidic acid (34%) and in two out of 101 patients given other antimicrobials. The incidence of jaundice was higher in patients given fusidic acid intravenously (48%) rather than by mouth (13%). Jaundice appeared within 48 hours after the administration of fusidic acid in 93% of these cases. When the drug was stopped serum bilirubin concentrations fell to normal values within four days in those patients in whom they had been previously normal and who survived the bacteraemic episode. Fusidic acid was associated with increasing jaundice in 13 of 19 patients (68%) already jaundiced before it was given. In six out of 32 patients who developed jaundice while receiving intravenous fusidic acid serum alkaline phosphatase activity was raised suggestive of cholestatic jaundice. The mechanism in the remaining patients was unknown. Fusidic acid, particularly the intravenous preparation, in invaluable in treating severe staphylococcal infection but should be used with caution in patients with abnormal liver function. Patients receiving intravenous fusidic acid should be given the oral form of the drug as soon as their clinical condition permits.

Adolescent

The rapid laboratory diagnosis of anaerobic infection.

In order to assess the rapid laboratory diagnosis of anaerobic pyogenic infection, we compared the results of Gram stains, ultra-violet fluorescence and gas chromatography, all performed directly on pus, with those of anaerobic culture. Fluorescence was most rapid but there were many negatives unless Bacteroides melaninogenicus was present. Gas chromatography was rapid and sensitive but there were some false negatives, often in pure Bacteroides fragilis infection, and a few false positives. Gram-staining was also rapid, but only helpful on its own when there were large numbers of organisms of mixed or characteristic morphology. The three methods together almost always provided a reliable and rapid presumptive diagnosis of anaerobic pyogenic infection.

Anaerobiosis