Researchers define 'skip phenomenon' in patients with S. aureus bacteremia

For older men being treated for Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia who have received immunosuppressive agents, a single negative blood culture may be insufficient to demonstrate clearance, based on findings presented at IDWeek 2016.

Justin Fíala, MD, of the internal medicine department at the Mayo Clinic, described a period of fluctuating blood culture positivity in which there is a recurrence of S. aureus bacteremia infection following a negative blood culture, despite the patients receiving appropriate antibiotic therapy. This discrete finding, which he termed the "skip phenomenon," had not previously been described in the literature, he said.

Fiala and colleagues retrospectively reviewed a cohort of adult inpatients with 3 or more days of S. aureus bacteremia at the Mayo Clinic from a previous trial conducted between July 2006 and June...