%0 Journal Article %A Karin Armbruster %A Christian Niels Meyer %A Michael Kemp %A Trine Rolighed Thomsen %A Alice Friis-Moeller %A Ram Benny Dessau %T Clinical and bacterial characteristics in Danish adults with pleural empyema %D 2014 %J European Respiratory Journal %P P4931 %V 44 %N Suppl 58 %X Recent studies have focused on change in bacterial aetiology and concequences for treatment of pleural infection.Aims and objectivesOur aim was to supplement the microbiological data with further identification of species using molecular methods and with further information on clinical and therapeutic factors in patients with pleural infection.MethodsCases were identified by combining ICD-diagnosis DJ860-869 and results of microbiology from the laboratory information systems. Clinical, biochemical, and microbiology data are presented of the first 157 patients (out of 480 cases) with pleural infection, collected retrospectively from 8 Danish hospitals (2008-2011). In a subgroup of cases, frozen samples were collected prospectively for direct identification by molecular methods (sequencing combined with RipSeq analysis and the 16S rRNA gene cycle).ResultsAmong males (66%) and females (34%), age range was similar with a median of 64 years (range 22-97, IQR 54-73). Mortality was 10%. Risk factors (alcoholism, diabetes, rheumatic diseases, immune deficiencies, HIV, cancer, COPD, neurological diseases) were present in 64% of cases. Community acquired infections accounted for 82% of cases. Treatment included intra-pleural fibrinolysis in 35% of cases, and 13% were referred for thoracic surgery. Bacterial DNA was identified in 15 (of 72) samples of which 7 were also culture positive, and particularly anaerobic bacteria were frequent among the non-cultured bacterial species.ConclusionTreatment and outcome data, combined with microbiological and clinical characteristic among patients with pleural infection are described, and new data on microbiological identification using molecular methods are presented. %U