Advances in the way of dealing with antibiotic exposure in studies assessing risk factors for drug-resistant pathogens.

摘要

We read with interest the article by Tsai et al. (2008) that assessed risk factors for colonization or infection by extensive drug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (EDRAB), The study importantly advanced in the analysis of the role of antibiotics in the acquisition of these drug-resistant organisms not only by assessing antibiotic exposure as a dichotomized variable, with antibiotic usage or not, but also through the evaluation of other antibiotic characteristics, that is, accumulated dosage, overall treatment duration, and average treatment potency.