Microbial biofilm correlates with an increased antibiotic tolerance and poor therapeutic outcome in infective endocarditis.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Infective endocarditis (IE) is associated with high rates of mortality. Prolonged treatments with high-dose intravenous antibiotics often fail to eradicate the infection, frequently leading to high-risk surgical intervention. By providing a mechanism of antibiotic tolerance, which escapes conventional antibiotic susceptibility profiling, microbial biofilm represents a key diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for clinicians. This study aims at assessing a rapid biofilm identification assay and a targeted antimicrobial susceptibility profile of biofilm-growing bacteria in patients with IE, which were unresponsive to antibiotic therapy. RESULTS:Staphylococcus aureus was the most common isolate (50%), followed by Enterococcus faecalis (25%) and Streptococcus gallolyticus (25%). All

SUBMITTER: Di Domenico EG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6802308 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature