High levels of anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide autoantibodies are associated with co-occurrence of pulmonary diseases with rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: To investigate whether levels of anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies (anti-CCP2) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are associated with the co-occurrence of lung diseases.

Methods: A total of 252 RA patients were included in a cross-sectional study. Pulmonary disease was confirmed by high-resolution chest computed tomography scan.

Prevalence of autoantibodies in SAPHO syndrome: a single-center study of 90 patients.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of the most often tested autoantibodies in synovitis, acne, pustulosis, hyperostosis, and osteitis (SAPHO) syndrome.

Methods: We identified 90 patients seen in our unit between June 2002 and June 2009, and diagnosed according to the proposed criteria for SAPHO syndrome. Demographic and clinical data were collected as well as immunological results, including antinuclear, antithyroid peroxydase (TPO), antithyroid globulin (Tg), antigastric parietal cell, antismooth muscle, antimitochondria, and anti-liver-kidney microsome (LKM) antibodies.

Corynebacterium hansenii sp. nov., an alpha-glucosidase-negative bacterium related to Corynebacterium xerosis.

A novel strain, C-138(T), belonging to the genus Corynebacterium was isolated from a severe thigh liposarcoma infection and its differentiation from Corynebacterium xerosis and Corynebacterium freneyi is described. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences, rpoB sequences and the PCR profile of the 16S-23S spacer regions was not conclusive enough to differentiate strain C-138(T) from C. xerosis and C.

Identification of an OprD homologue in Acinetobacter baumannii.

With the increased number of resistant Acinetobacter baumannii strains, it is urgently required to decipher the molecular bases of outer membrane permeability. The analyses of the outer membrane from different A. baumannii strains indicated a modification in the expression of two proteins of 29 and 43 kDa, respectively.

Successive emergence of Enterobacter aerogenes strains resistant to imipenem and colistin in a patient.

Enterobacter aerogenes is an agent of hospital-acquired infection that exhibits a remarkable resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics during therapy. Five successive isolates of E. aerogenes infecting a patient and exhibiting a multiresistance phenotype to beta-lactam antibiotics and fluoroquinolones were investigated.