Susceptibility Testing for Piperacillin-Tazobactam (JCM ed.)
Release Date: 04/08/2023
At-Home Collection and Testing for STIs
Editors in Conversation
So you want validated, at-home, self-collected swabs for STI testing… Here's what you need to know! Sexually transmitted infection rates continue to climb across the US and while testing for these diseases is widely available, for the most part it requires the patient to go to a local clinic to collect and submit their sample for testing. But, is that really necessary, especially from a test accuracy perspective? Today’s guests answer that exact question. And I’m sure that many, if not all of us would agree that the ability for patients to collect samples outside of a clinical...
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High Level Meeting on AMR at the United Nations: A Debrief
Editors in Conversation
The second High-Level Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) took place in New York on 26 September 2024 as the principal official, health-focused event during the UN General Assembly high-level week. The intergovernmental negotiations for the declaration were co-facilitated by Malta and Barbados. A political declaration for the meeting was produced highlighting the fact that AMR will cause even more global suffering, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. In this episode we will debrief and analyze the possible impact of these meetings and consequences for the future of AMR...
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The Launch of ASM Case Reports Journal
Editors in Conversation
The American Society for Microbiology is launching a new journal, ASM Case Reports. The journal is already accepting submissions and will begin publishing in January of 2025. We discuss ASM Case Reports and what you can expect from this new journal. Watch this episode: Some of the questions we will discuss include: What is the scope of ASM Case Reports? What makes a case report or case series interesting and important? Why should people publish in ASM Case Reports? Guests: (twitter/𝕏) Learn more about ASM Case Reports Journal: Links: for up to 50% off the publication fees when...
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Heteroresistance: Mechanisms, Diagnosis and Clinical Implications
Editors in Conversation
Heteroresistance is a phenomenon that has been well characterized for many years. However, we are only now starting to understand its mechanistic basis. Indeed, the manner how bacteria respond to antibiotics is complex and phenomena such as persistance, tolerance may be overlapping with heteroresistance. Furthermore, heteroresistance seems to be common in real clinical scenarios and understanding its basis is likely to open new avenues on how we deploy antibacterials in clinical practice., Today, we have experts in the field to discuss this important topic. Watch this episode at...
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Microbiology in the Headlines: H5N1 in Dairy Cattle, The Plague, Measles, Neosporin and more!
Editors in Conversation
Join Dr. Ben Pinsky and Dr. Greg Berry as they dissect recent news stories, including the USDA's testing for H5N1 in ground beef and a surprising bubonic plague case in Oregon. They also tackle the resurgence of measles in the U.S., the local reappearance of malaria, and a curious study on Neosporin's potential to prevent viral infections. Overview: H5N1 Influenza Virus: Dr. Ben Pinsky provides an update on recent cases of H5N1 in humans and animals, including concerns about dairy cattle infections and the potential for human transmission. Bubonic Plague: Dr. Greg Berry discusses a recent...
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The Global Preclinical Antibacterial Pipeline
Editors in Conversation
The pipeline of antibiotic discovery is a major necessity due to the continuous evolution of resistance to currently used antimicrobials. This pipeline faces important challenges due to the lack of investment on antimicrobial research in the private sector and an economic model that discourages investment. In the last few years, however, encouraging signs are occurring but major gaps still remain. The World Health Organization has regularly assessed the preclinical and clinical antibacterial development pipeline and the latest report is now available in the journal, lets discuss it! Watch this...
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Turning the Output of the Microbiology Laboratory Into Gold
Editors in Conversation
The European alchemists of the 12th century sought to find the philosopher’s stone, a substance that would transmute base metals, such as lead, into precious metals, such as silver and gold. Today, we discuss whether data analysis, including machine learning, can transmute base laboratory data into precious clinical tools. We will use antimicrobial susceptibility testing as a case-study for new applications of data analysis. Some of the questions we will address include: How can relatively simple data analyses be used to build upon current methods of verification of antimicrobial...
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Training in Antimicrobial Resistance: Gaps and Opportunities
Editors in Conversation
Antimicrobial resistance is a priority public health problem with complex roots and connotations. However, due to a lack of focus on this topic, research training programs, specifically those focused on AMR are limited. Additionally, scientific meetings that particularly highlight the science of antimicrobial resistance are scarce. We recently published a commentary that evaluates the state-of-the-art of the training programs in AMR in the US. We discuss this topic with the leading author and discussed the issue with leaders in the field. Topics discussed: The challenges that training in AMR...
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10 Years of Rhodococcus: Clinical Trends and Susceptibility Profiles
Editors in Conversation
Rhodococcus infections are uncommon, however they can cause serious disease in certain patients. There are a number of challenges though when dealing with Rhodococcus infections, including the fact that much of what we know around their susceptibility profiles and the clinical management of infected individuals actually comes from a number case series and in some situations, from the veterinary literature. So today, our two guests are going to tell us about their experiences with Rhodococcus over a 10-year period and bring us up-to-speed on things like: Which species of...
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Why Phage Therapy May Fail
Editors in Conversation
Phage therapy has gained a lot of traction but the challenges created by this approach have not been properly assessed at a big scale. We often read about therapy successes on isolated cases but, rarely, we read or hear about failures. AAC recently published a case series of patients who failed phage therapy. Today, we will discuss this topic with the principal investigator on the research. Topics discussed: Phage therapy as an approach for MDR bacteria. The challenges of phage therapies. Issues that can influence the success of phage therapy Guest: . Director, Solid Organ Transplant...
info_outlineSusceptibility testing for piperacillin-tazobactam has undergone rapid evolution, largely driven by some surprising results from the MERINO trial, which compared the efficacy of piperacillin-tazobactam and meropenem for treatment of patients with ceftriaxone-resistant E. coli or Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteremia. We discuss how the results of the MERINO trial led to reconsideration of breakpoints for pipercillin-tazobactam at the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute, or CLSI, how the breakpoints were changed, and how well commercial platforms perform piperacillin-tazobactam testing using FDA or CLSI breakpoints. Spoiler alert: the news isn’t great.
If you are interested in beta-lactam/beta lactamase combinations, you should check out the previous episode of this podcast, hosted by our friend Dr. Cesar Arias, the Editor-in-Chief of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. Cesar and the guests did a great review of recent developments in this fast-moving area.
Guests:
- Dr. Trish Simner - Director of the Medical Bacteriology and Infectious Disease Sequencing Laboratories, Johns Hopkins Hospital
- Dr. Romney Humphries - Director of the Division of Laboratory Medicine and the Medical Director of the Microbiology Laboratory at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.