Is the Improvement of CF Patients, Hospitalized for Pulmonary Exacerbation, Correlated to a Decrease in Bacterial Load?

Abstract

Improvement of the clinical status is accompanied with a decrease of the P. aeruginosa load, whereby both occur mainly during the first week of antibiotic treatment. However, for patients with a low lung function, no decrease of the P. aeruginosa load is observed. Comparison of detection techniques shows that a large amount of noncultivable or dead bacteria are present in the samples.