Categories of Response to Therapy for an Infection of a Ventricular Assist Device

A patient with infection of a ventricular assist device (VAD) may respond in a number of ways to treatment.

Clinical Response	Features
complete clinical resolution (cure)	complete resolution of all clinical features of the infection
partial clinical response	partial but not complete resolution of clinical features
clinical progression	increased severity of clinical features (bacteremia, shock, etc)
clinical relapse	progression of clinical features after a period of improvement
clinical recurrence	reappearance of clinical findings with growth of the same organism with the same suspeptibility pattern at any time following complete resolution

Microbiological Response	Features
complete microbiological resolution (cure)	negative cultures for pathogen
partial microbiological response	reduced colony counts but not negative
microbiological relapse	increased colony counts after a period of improvement
microbiological recurrence	growth of the same organism with the same suspeptibility pattern at any time following complete resolution

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