Retail turkey, chicken, and pork meats were sampled from a single community, where clinical samples of blood and urine from human infections were contemporaneously screened for K. pneumoniae.
This array could be applied to the screening of vaginal swabs from small ruminants, screening of environmental samples e.g. on farms, for screening patients with infective endocarditis [ 38], or of blood donors in regions of high endemicity for Q fever, e.g. the German-Dutch border area, or in a diagnostic assay screening for atypical pneumonias [ 23].
A total of 1,615 patients with ICD-9 code for pneumonia were screened.
During the study period, charts of patients admitted for pneumonia were screened for comorbidities, predefined clinical, radiological, microbiological, laboratory data and therapeutic options.
NBLs may also be discovered incidentally during scanning for other reasons, e.g. antenatal ultrasound, chest radiograph for pneumonia or screening protocols.
NBLs can be discovered incidentally during scanning for other reasons, e.g. antenatal ultrasound, chest radiograph for pneumonia or screening protocols [ 4].
Patients hospitalized between January 2005 and October 2011 were screened by ICD-9 codes for pneumonia (481.X-486.X) and included if they were: 1) ≥18y, 2) diagnosed with pneumonia per CDC criteria [ 9] within 48 h of hospital admission, 3) had a respiratory culture taken, and 4) received ≥ 48 h of effective therapy.
Capsular serotyping PCR was performed following the protocol described by Jourdain, et al. to screen for 30 classical S. pneumoniae colonizing serotypes [ 7].
Mortality for individual medical conditions proved to be an even poorer screening tool (e.g. sensitivity for pneumonia was 10% and PPV 21%, implying that detection via mortality rates would miss 90% of poor-quality hospitals, whilst four out of five hospitals with high risk-adjusted mortality rates had acceptable quality).
Key exclusion criteria were: asthma/other respiratory disorders; hospitalisation for pneumonia within 12 weeks of screening; a documented history of ≥1 COPD exacerbation requiring oral corticosteroids, antibiotics and/or hospitalisation in the 12 months preceding screening.
