Christina Forstner, MD

Specialist in Internal Medicine

Department of Medicine I
Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine
Medical University of Vienna
Währinger Gürtel 18-20,1090 Vienna

Phone: +43 (0)1 40400 - 44400
FAX: +43 (0)1 40400 - 44180

E-mail: christina.a.forstner@meduniwien.ac.at
Homepage: http://www.meduniwien.ac.at/med1/infektiologie/index2.php?section=ma_forstner

Research Interests
Humoral and cell-mediated immune response to microbes; vaccination and infection in the immunocompromised host.

Abstract

The interests of our group are to study humoral and cellular immunity to pathogenic microbes and to assess vaccine efficacy and vaccine effectiveness in the immunocompromised host with focus on clinical and translational research projects.
Immunocompromised patients such as allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients, solid organ transplant recipients, splenectomized patients and others experience a prolonged period of dysfunctional immunity associated with an increased incidence of bacterial, viral and fungal infections.
Furthermore, they have a particularly high risk for severe manifestations of any type of infection.
Therefore, prevention of infectious diseases and optimization of vaccination strategies are of particular interest.

Project
Characterization of humoral and cellular immunity for tick-borne encephalitis vaccination in allogeneic blood and marrow graft recipients, ongoing

Selected Publications

C. Forstner, A. Lassnigg, S. Tobudic, A. Schiferer, H. Fischer, W. Graninger, B. Steinlechner, S. Frantal, E. Presterl. A prospective analysis of invasive candidiasis following cardiac surgery: Severity markers are predictive. Journal of Infection 2013;66: 528-535.

C. Forstner, C. Dungl, S. Tobudic, D. Mitteregger, H. Lagler, H. Burgmann. Predictors of clinical and microbiological treatment failure in patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteraemia: a retrospective cohort study in a region with low MRSA prevalence. Clinical Microbiology and Infection 2013; 19:E291-E297.

C. Forstner, S. Plefka, S. Tobudic, H. Winkler, K. Burgmann, H. Burgmann. Effectiveness and immunogenicity of pneumococcal vaccination in splenectomized and functionally asplenic patients. Vaccine 2012; 30: 5449-5452.