Margaret, Hammerschlag

Margaret, Hammerschlag

Biography

Dr. Margaret R. Hammerschlag graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. She completed her pediatric training at the University of Washington Seattle Children’s Hospital and her Infectious Disease training at the Channing Laboratory, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship in Epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health, Seattle, Washington. She is board certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Dr. Hammerschlag is Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine and Director of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Training Program at the State University of New York, Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, NY. She has served on the FDA Advisory Panels on Anti-infectives and Devices, Microbiology Section and has been an expert consultant to the CDC for the STI Treatment Guidelines since 1989. At Downstate, she established the Chlamydia Research Laboratory. Dr. Hammerschlag has served on the editorial boards of several journals including Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Journal of Clinical Microbiology, and the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. She is currently on the editorial board of Expert Reviews of Anti-Infective Therapy. Her research has been focused on chlamydia infections, especially the epidemiology, treatment and prevention of perinatal C. trachomatis infections and epidemiology, immunology, diagnosis and treatment of C. pneumoniae infections.

Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 89

Open Access
Microbiological efficacy of levofloxacin for treatment of community-acquired pneumonia due to Chlamydia pneumoniae.
(2000-05) Hammerschlag, M R; Roblin, P M
Open Access
Clinical efficacy and safety of cefmenoxime in children.
(1985-10) Tansino, G F; Hammerschlag, M R; Congeni, B L; Cox, P A; Doraiswamy, B; duBouchet, L
Cefmenoxime, an investigational semisynthetic cephalosporin, was evaluated in 18 pediatric patients with a variety of infections. There were seven patients with urinary tract infections, two with wound infections, two with osteomyelitis, two with abscess infections, one with cervical adenitis, one with hidradenitis, one with pneumonia and sepsis, one with periorbital cellulitis, and one with ventriculitis. A total of 16 (88%) patients had a satisfactory clinical response demonstrated by improvement in clinical signs and symptoms. A total of 12 (67%) patients demonstrated eradication of their infecting organisms. Of the pathogens isolated in these patients, 16 isolates were susceptible to cefmenoxime. One patient developed a generalized urticarial rash that resolved within 24 h after cessation of cefmenoxime therapy. Mean peak level in serum after intravenous infusion was 55 micrograms/ml.
Open Access
Comparison of enzyme immunoassay and culture for diagnosis of chlamydial conjunctivitis and respiratory infections in infants.
(1987-12) Hammerschlag, M R; Roblin, P M; Cummings, C; Williams, T H; Worku, M; Howard, L V
The efficacy of Chlamydiazyme (Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, Ill.) in detecting neonatal conjunctival and respiratory infections caused by Chlamydia trachomatis was determined by comparison of this enzyme immunoassay (EIA) with the method of isolation of chlamydiae in tissue culture. The sensitivity and specificity of Chlamydiazyme for detecting C. trachomatis in conjunctival specimens from infants with conjunctivitis were 98 and 94%, respectively. For nasopharyngeal infection in infants with conjunctivitis, the sensitivity and specificity were 87 and 92%, respectively. There were nine nasopharyngeal specimens that were Chlamydiazyme positive and culture negative. All of these specimens demonstrated the presence of typical fluorescing chlamydial elementary bodies when pellets of the original specimens were examined with a fluorescein-conjugated monoclonal antibody. When the EIA was performed on nasopharyngeal specimens from infants with suspected chlamydial pneumonia, 6 culture-positive and 10 culture-negative specimens were correctly identified.
Open Access
In vitro activities of gemifloxacin (SB 265805, LB20304) against recent clinical isolates of Chlamydia pneumoniae.
(1999-11) Roblin, P M; Reznik, T; Kutlin, A; Hammerschlag, M R
We compared the in vitro activity of gemifloxacin, a new quinolone antibiotic, to the activities of levofloxacin, moxifloxacin, trovafloxacin, erythromycin, and doxycycline against 20 isolates of Chlamydia pneumoniae. Gemifloxacin was the most active quinolone tested, with a MIC at which 90% of the isolates are inhibited and a minimal bactericidal concentration at which 90% of strains tested are killed of 0.25 microg/ml, but this activity was less than those of doxycycline and erythromycin.
Open Access
Chlamydia trachomatis respiratory infection in Dutch infants.
(2009-04-23) Rours, G I J G; Hammerschlag, M R; Van Doornum, G J J; Hop, W C J; de Groot, R; Willemse, H F M; Verbrugh, H A; Verkooyen, R P
Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common bacterial pathogen causing sexually transmitted infections in Dutch adults. As prenatal screening for C trachomatis and treatment of pregnant women is not routine practice in The Netherlands, perinatal transmission of C trachomatis may therefore occur. The presence of C trachomatis in infants less than 6 months of age who presented with respiratory complaints to the Erasmus MC-Sophia hospital was evaluated. Respiratory specimens, primarily nasopharyngeal swabs, were tested for C trachomatis, respiratory viruses and Mycoplasma pneumoniae using PCR, viral isolation in cell cultures and direct immunofluorescence. C trachomatis respiratory tract infection was confirmed to be relatively common with detection in 10 of 148 (7%) infants tested. C trachomatis had not been tested for by the attending physicians, but was the second most frequently detected respiratory pathogen after human Respiratory Syncitial Virus, which was found in 41 (28%) infants.
Open Access
In Vitro Activity of Levonadifloxacin (WCK 771) against Chlamydia pneumoniae
(2019-07-25) Kohlhoff, Stephan; Huerta, Natalia; Hammerschlag, Margaret R
Open Access
Is Chlamydia pneumoniae present in brain lesions of patients with multiple sclerosis?
(2000-11) Hammerschlag, M R; Ke, Z; Lu, F; Roblin, P; Boman, J; Kalman, B
We investigated the presence of Chlamydia pneumoniae in 81 normal and pathological specimens obtained from postmortem brain tissues of patients with multiple sclerosis and with other neurological or nonneurological diseases. The assays used included PCR amplification of all DNA samples in the initial study. Culture and a second PCR amplification of the organism in a subset of 19 brain specimens were also performed in two separate laboratories. All results were negative. Thus, this study on a large number of brain tissues suggests that C. pneumoniae is not involved in inflammatory demyelination.
Open Access
In vitro activity of nemonoxacin, a novel nonfluorinated quinolone antibiotic, against Chlamydia trachomatis and Chlamydia pneumoniae.
(2014-12) Chotikanatis, Kobkul; Kohlhoff, Stephan A; Hammerschlag, Margaret R
The in vitro activities of nemonoxacin, levofloxacin, azithromycin, and doxycycline were tested against 10 isolates each of Chlamydia trachomatis and Chlamydia pneumoniae. The MICs at which 90% of the isolates of both C. trachomatis and C. pneumoniae were inhibited (MIC90s) were 0.06 μg/ml (range, 0.03 to 0.13 μg/ml). The minimal bactericidal concentrations at which 90% of the isolates were killed by nemonoxacin (MBC90s) were 0.06 μg/ml for C. trachomatis (range, 0.03 to 0.125 μg/ml) and 0.25 for C. pneumoniae (range, 0.015 to 0.5 μg/ml).
Open Access
Emergence of resistance to rifampin and rifalazil in Chlamydophila pneumoniae and Chlamydia trachomatis.
(2005-03) Kutlin, Andrei; Kohlhoff, Stephan; Roblin, Patricia; Hammerschlag, Margaret R; Riska, Paul
Although rifamycins have excellent activity against Chlamydophila pneumoniae and Chlamydia trachomatis in vitro, concerns about the possible development of resistance during therapy have discouraged their use for treatment of chlamydial infections. Rifalazil, a new semisynthetic rifamycin with a long half-life, is the most active antimicrobial against C. pneumoniae and C. trachomatis in vitro, indicating its potential for treatment of acute and chronic C. pneumoniae and C. trachomatis infections. We investigated the effect of serial passage of two C. pneumoniae isolates and two serotypes of C. trachomatis in subinhibitory concentrations of rifalazil and rifampin on the development of phenotypic and genotypic resistance. C. trachomatis developed resistance to both antimicrobials within six passages, with higher level resistance to rifampin (128 to 256 microg/ml) and lower level resistance to rifalazil (0.5 to 1 microg/ml). C. pneumoniae TW-183 developed only low-level resistance to rifampin (0.25 microg/ml) and rifalazil (0.016 microg/ml) after 12 passages. C. pneumoniae CWL-029 failed to develop resistance to either drug. Two unique mutations emerged in the rpoB gene of rifampin (L456I) and rifalazil (D461E)-resistant C. pneumoniae TW-183. A single mutation (H471Y) was detected in both rifampin- and rifalazil-resistant C. trachomatis UW-3/Cx/D, and a unique mutation (V136F) was found in rifalazil-resistant BU-434/L(2). No mutations were detected in the entire rpoB gene of rifampin-resistant BU-434/L(2). This is the first description of antibiotic resistance-associated mutations in C. pneumoniae and of rifampin resistance in C. trachomatis not associated with mutations in the rpoB gene.
Open Access
Chlamydia pneumoniae-induced tumour necrosis factor alpha responses are lower in children with asthma compared with non-asthma.
(2018-05-05) Smith-Norowitz, Tamar Anne; Chotikanatis, Kobkul; Weaver, Diana; Ditkowsky, Jared; Norowitz, Yitzchok Meir; Hammerschlag, Margaret R; Joks, Rauno; Kohlhoff, Stephan
respiratory tract infection has been implicated in the pathogenesis of reactive airway disease and asthma. Innate cytokine responses that are protective of infection with intracellular pathogens may be impaired in patients with asthma. Tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) is a cytokine related to functions of monocytes and may inhibit infection. We investigated TNF-α responses in -infected peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in patients with asthma and non-asthma, and whether ciprofloxacin, azithromycin or doxycycline affects TNF-α responses.