Sepsis News and Research

Latest Sepsis News and Research

Communication problems between clinicians and mothers of critically ill newborns

Research from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center suggests that common language may also be the divide standing between mothers of critically ill newborns and the clinicians who care for them.

17 Aug 2012

Vancomycin may not always be the best choice for treatment of bloodstream infections

The antibiotic most commonly prescribed to treat bloodstream infections in dialysis patients may not always be the best choice, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

17 Aug 2012

Johns Hopkins undergraduates invent disposable suturing tool

After a surgeon stitches up a patient's abdomen, costly complications -- some life-threatening -- can occur. To cut down on these postoperative problems, Johns Hopkins undergraduates have invented a disposable suturing tool to guide the placement of stitches and guard against the accidental puncture of internal organs.

17 Aug 2012

Special device provides evidence of how bloodstream infections begin

New research may help explain why hundreds of thousands of Americans a year get sick - and tens of thousands die - after bacteria get into their blood. It also suggests why some of those bloodstream infections resist treatment with even the most powerful antibiotics.

16 Aug 2012

U of U researchers receive NIH grant to study cellular and molecular causes of blood clots

University of Utah Department of Medicine researchers have received $16 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to set up a translational research center to study the cellular and molecular causes of blood clots, a serious threat to millions of people who have diabetes, are obese or have other metabolic disorders.

15 Aug 2012

Low platelet count not associated with patent ductus arteriosus

Thrombocytopenia in the first 24 hours after birth is not linked to patent ductus arteriosus in low birthweight infants, research shows.

13 Aug 2012

Clinical trials to test safety of 3K3A-APC in patients with ischemic stroke

Clinical trials start this week for a stroke drug initially created by a team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and the University of Southern California (USC), and further developed by biotech company ZZ Biotech.

9 Aug 2012

Giving antibiotics just before cesarean section prevents infections

Giving antibiotics before cesarean section surgery rather than just after the newborn's umbilical cord is clamped cuts the infection rate at the surgical site in half, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

3 Aug 2012

Scientists decipher molecular causes of life-threatening candida fungal infections

With infectious diseases, it is often not the pathogen itself, but rather an excessive inflammatory immune responses death, for instance as a result of organ damage. On intensive care units, sepsis is the second-most common cause of death worldwide. In patients with a severely compromised immune system specially, life-threatening candida fungal infections represent a high risk of sepsis.

30 Jul 2012

Findings cast doubt on sepsis drug withdrawal

A meta-analysis of clinical trial and real-world data suggests that drotrecogin alfa may in fact reduce mortality in patients with severe sepsis.

24 Jul 2012

IMDx HSV-1/2 for Abbott m2000 assay receives CE-marking

IntelligentMDx (IMDx) announced today that it has obtained CE-marking for its fourth automated, high-throughput molecular test designed and developed for the Abbott m2000 System.

20 Jul 2012

Researchers discover potential drug targets that might reduce ventilator-induced lung inflammation

When hospital patients need assistance breathing and are placed on a mechanical ventilator for days at a time, their lungs react to the pressure generated by the ventilator with an out-of-control immune response that can lead to excessive inflammation, new research suggests.

19 Jul 2012

Study gauges depression among spouses of severe-sepsis survivors

Severe sepsis, a body's dangerous defensive response against an infection, not only diminishes the quality of life for patients - it puts their spouses at a greater risk of depression, a joint University of Michigan Health System and University of Washington School of Medicine study shows.

19 Jul 2012

Hypomagnesemia signals nonrecovery of renal function in AKI

Researchers have identified hypomagnesemia as a risk factor for nonrecovery of renal function among critically ill patients with acute kidney injury.

17 Jul 2012

Caution advised with succinylcholine in critically ill

The risk for hyperkalemia after succinylcholine use for urgent tracheal intubation increases the longer patients remain in the intensive care unit, research shows.

13 Jul 2012

Cubist initiates CB-315 Phase 3 trial for Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea

Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the initiation of its pivotal Phase 3 studies evaluating the efficacy and safety of CB-315 in patients with Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea, or CDAD, with enrollment of a patient in the first of two planned identical global trials.

13 Jul 2012

Smokers at risk for recurrent hepatitis post-liver transplantation

Transplant recipients who smoke or have smoked increase their risk of viral hepatitis reinfection following liver transplantation according to new research available in the July issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal published by Wiley on behalf of American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

12 Jul 2012

SLU professor to study how antithrombin might prevent premature death from heart disease

Alireza "Ray" Rezaie, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, has received a $1.52 million NIH grant to study how the key blood clotting inhibitor antithrombin might be exploited to prevent premature death from heart disease.

12 Jul 2012

PCR assay ‘superior’ to culture for neonatal sepsis, meningitis

In neonates with probable sepsis or meningitis, a realtime polymerase chain reaction assay specific for a virulence gene in Streptococcus agalactiae is superior to standard bacterial culture identification, results of a pathology study show.

11 Jul 2012