Background. VRE is an endemic hospital-acquired organism in the US. There are no proven methods or means of decreasing or eliminating carriage of VRE which is a risk factor for invasive disease. Two small clinical studies showed reduction or elimination of VRE colonization using the probiotic LGG but neither study cultured stool for the presence of LGG, raising questions about whether effects o...

OBJECTIVE To determine the occurrence of co-colonization or co-infection with VRE and MRSA among medical patients requiring intensive care. DESIGN Prospective, single-center, observational study. SETTING A 19-bed medical ICU in an urban teaching hospital. PATIENTS Adult patients requiring at least 48 hours of intensive care and having at least one culture performed for microbiologic evalu...

BACKGROUND The use of infection control measures in the management of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) is hotly debated. A risk-managed approach to VRE control after the introduction of 2 horizontal infection prevention measures-an environmental cleaning (EC) and an antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) program-was assessed. METHODS Routine screening for VRE was discontinued 6 and 4 months af...

BACKGROUND Patient-specific risk factors for acquisition of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) among hospitalized patients are becoming well defined. However, few studies have reported data on the institutional risk factors, including rates of antimicrobial use, that predict rates of VRE. Identifying modifiable institutional factors can advance quality-improvement efforts to minimize hospit...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether eating Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) in the form of commercially available yoghurt improves clearance of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). DESIGN Double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial. SETTING Renal ward of Austin Health, a tertiary hospital, Feb-Oct 2005. PARTICIPANTS 27 VRE-positive patients, 14 receiving active treatment and 13 contr...

BACKGROUND Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus organisms (VRE) have emerged as common nosocomial pathogens, but few population-based data are available on the impact of invasive VRE infections. METHODS We assessed the incidence of invasive VRE infections and predictors of mortality among patients identified during prospective, population-based surveillance performed in the metropolitan statisti...

BACKGROUND In 2003, nosocomial infections caused by vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) occurred rarely in Taiwan. Between 2003 and 2010, however, the average prevalence of vancomycin resistance among enterococci spp. increased from 2% to 16% in community hospitals and from 3% to 21% in medical centers of Taiwan. We used molecular methods to investigate the epidemiology of VRE in a tertiary ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Little is known about the possible synergism of baicalein, a bioactive flavone of Scutellariae radix (a Chinese herb), when used in conjunction with other antimicrobial agents against vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE). This in vitro study examined the possible synergism of the combination of baicalein and gentamicin against VRE. METHODS Minimal inhibitory concentr...

The IB VRE project is a JISC funded project developing a large-scale Virtual Research Environment demonstrator to investigate the use of existing collaboration frameworks to support the entire research process of a large-scale, international research consortium, namely that of the Integrative Biology (IB) project. IB is a second-round EPSRC e-Science Pilot project developing a Grid infrastructu...

This work describes a Virtual Reality Environment (VRE), through which users are able to view and test ceramic tile s that allowed them to feel "engaged" with the products. Users could choose between different kinds of products and test them out in order to know how they would look in a real-world context. In the VRE several Mood-Induction Procedures for inducing relaxation were included. The V...