Team Jonas Hedlund

Research focus
Respiratory infections
Lower respiratory tract diseases- microbiological diagnostics and use of biomarkers for severity assessment and optimization of antibiotic therapy and prognosis.

Jonas Hedlund

Adjunct senior lecturer
K2 Department of Medicine, Solna

Introduction

In order to curb the global rise of antibiotic resistance, the WHO and the European Commission have set up action plans that primarily focus on improving the use of antibiotics. A key part of these plans is to actively develop rapid microbiological methods, enabling targeted antibiotic therapy. Streptococcus pneumoniae is the most common microbiological cause of pneumonia. Our group has shown that pneumococcal pneumonia can be quickly diagnosed with urinary antigen test and PCR on airway secretions, blood and pleural fluid. The research group's main research area covers microbiological diagnosis in pneumonia, severity assessment and optimization of antibiotic therapy. The research area also includes studies of pleural infections with focus on etiology and diagnostics.

Major research focus –study aims

  • To gain access to clinically useful rapid microbiological methods for the detection of infectious agents, severity assessment tools and infection-specific monitoring for pneumonia.

  • To study the extent to which the national treatment recommendations in community-acquired pneumonia are followed and how this is correlated to the prognosis.

  • To study biomarkers, biomolecules and the etiologic spectrum in patients with pleural infections.

  • To study denditritic cells (DC) in nasopharynx aspirates and blood from patients with respiratory viral infection in collaboration with Anna Smed Sörensen.

  • To study whether it is possible to develop a prehospital decision support system for the emergency medical services for patients with severe infections – mainly respiratory tract infections - to an optimal level of healthcare.

Team members

Jonas Hedlund MD, PhD Associate professor, Team Leader

Carl Spindler, MD, Affiliated

Niclas Johansson   Affiliated

Key Publications

Quantitative detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae from sputum samples with real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction for etiologic diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia.
Johansson N, Kalin M, Giske CG, Hedlund J
Diagn. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. 2008 Mar;60(3):255-61

Effects of a large-scale introduction of the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine among elderly persons in Stockholm, Sweden.
Spindler C, Hedlund J, Jasir A, Normark BH, Ortqvist A
Vaccine 2008 Oct;26(43):5541-6

Etiology of community-acquired pneumonia: increased microbiological yield with new diagnostic methods.
Johansson N, Kalin M, Tiveljung-Lindell A, Giske CG, Hedlund J
Clin. Infect. Dis. 2010 Jan;50(2):202-9

Improvement of CRB-65 as a prognostic scoring system in adult patients with bacteraemic pneumococcal pneumonia.
Dwyer R, Hedlund J, Darenberg J, Henriques-Normark B, Naucler P, Runesdotter S, et al
Scand. J. Infect. Dis. 2011 Jul;43(6-7):448-55

Clinical impact of combined viral and bacterial infection in patients with community-acquired pneumonia.
Johansson N, Kalin M, Hedlund J
Scand. J. Infect. Dis. 2011 Aug;43(8):609-15

Improvement of CRB-65 as a prognostic tool in adult patients with community-acquired pneumonia.
Dwyer R, Hedlund J, Henriques-Normark B, Kalin M
BMJ Open Respir Res 2014 ;1(1):e000038

Procalcitonin levels in community-acquired pneumonia - correlation with aetiology and severity.
Johansson N, Kalin M, Backman-Johansson C, Larsson A, Nilsson K, Hedlund J
Scand. J. Infect. Dis. 2014 Nov;46(11):787-91

Clinical and Microbiological Factors Associated with High Nasopharyngeal Pneumococcal Density in Patients with Pneumococcal Pneumonia.
Alpkvist H, Athlin S, Nauclér P, Herrmann B, Abdeldaim G, Slotved HC, et al
PLoS ONE 2015 ;10(10):e0140112

The IRIDICA PCR/Electrospray Ionization-Mass Spectrometry Assay on Bronchoalveolar Lavage for Bacterial Etiology in Mechanically Ventilated Patients with Suspected Pneumonia.
Strålin K, Ehn F, Giske CG, Ullberg M, Hedlund J, Petersson J, et al
PLoS ONE 2016 ;11(7):e0159694

Narrow-spectrum ß-lactam monotherapy in hospital treatment of community-acquired pneumonia: a register-based cohort study.
Rhedin S, Galanis I, Granath F, Ternhag A, Hedlund J, Spindler C, et al
Clin. Microbiol. Infect. 2017 Apr;23(4):247-252

Management of community-acquired pneumonia in immunocompetent adults: updated Swedish guidelines 2017.
Athlin S, Lidman C, Lundqvist A, Naucler P, Nilsson AC, Spindler C, et al
Infect Dis (Lond) 2018 04;50(4):247-272