Electrophoretic karyotypes of C. neoformans serotype A recovered from Thai patients with AIDS.

Thirty-seven clinical isolates of C. neoformans were recovered from AIDS patients and all were serotype A according to standard typing tests. They were further analyzed using RAPD, PCR fingerprinting, and PFGE along with 2 additional reference isolates ATCC 34871 (serotype A) and RV 45981 (serotype D).

Modified antimicrobial disc susceptibility testing for nutritionally-variant streptococci.

Streptococci that were dependent for their growth upon staphylococci were isolated from a patient with sub-acute bacterial endocarditis and subsequently identified as nutritionally-variant streptococci (NVS). Failure of the isolate to grow on agar media supplemented with pyridoxal hydrochloride or L-cysteine, the known supporting growth factors for NVS, made conventional antimicrobial disc diffusion assay impossible. We modified the assay by co-inoculating Staphylococcus aureus resistant to the drugs being tested as a helper to support the growth of the NVS.