Cystitis: symptomatology in women with suspected uncomplicated urinary tract infection.

Background: Although cystitis in women is very common in general practice, its evolution in symptoms has not been clearly studied. Qualitative research has pointed to other than the classic symptomatology.

Methods: This was a prospective observational study of the symptomatology at presentation and the evolution of the symptoms in treated women with suspected uncomplicated urinary tract infection (UTI).

Destructive otomastoiditis by MRSA from porcine origin.

A 63-year-old female pig farmer was referred to our department with a protracted course of otomastoiditis with destruction of the tympanic roof and cerebrospinal fluid leakage. The patient underwent a cortical mastoidectomy with closure of a large dural defect. Cultures of the middle ear effusion yielded a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which upon further analysis was found to be from porcine origin.

Evolution of bacterial susceptibility pattern of Escherichia coli in uncomplicated urinary tract infections in a country with high antibiotic consumption: a comparison of two surveys with a 10 year interval.

Objectives: For the empirical treatment of cystitis, clinicians are often guided by susceptibility data taken from urinary samples that sent to regional microbiological laboratories, which are not representatives for uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTIs). To offer adequate recommendations, the distribution and susceptibility pattern of uropathogens in uncomplicated UTIs in women were compared with those obtained 10 years ago in our uropathogen surveillance in a primary healthcare setting.

Methods: Sixty-six general practitioners in the region of the city of Ghent were asked to inoculate a dipslide with midstream urine from every adult female patient with complaints suggestive for cystitis, during a period of 1 year.

Health implications of antimicrobial resistance for patients with acute kidney injury and bloodstream infection.

Studies have produced conflicting findings on outcomes for patients with antimicrobial-resistant infection. This study evaluated whether infection with an antimicrobial-resistant organism affects outcome in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury treated with renal replacement therapy and whose clinical course is complicated with a nosocomial bloodstream infection. We found that infection with an antimicrobial-resistant organism did not adversely affect clinical outcome in this specific cohort, which already has a high mortality rate.

Infection risk related to the use of medicinal leeches.

Objective: To assess the incidence of postoperative wound infections related to treatment with medicinal leeches at Ghent University Hospital.

Method: A 2-year retrospective analysis of bacteriologic culture results of soft tissue infections in patients treated with medicinal leeches.

Results: Cultures of suspected wound infections were taken and susceptibility testing of isolates was performed on 17 of 47 patients (36.

Combined use of Pastorex Staph-Plus and either of two new chromogenic agars, MRSA ID and CHROMagar MRSA, for detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

We describe the search toward a fast and reliable strategy to detect and confirm the presence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in screening samples. First, we evaluated the sensitivities and specificities of oxacillin resistance screening agar (ORSA) with enrichment (tryptic soy broth [TSB] and ORSA [TSB-ORSA]) and without enrichment (ORSA), MRSA ID (MRSA_ID) plates, and CHROMagar MRSA (C_MRSA) plates, all of which were inoculated with equal volumes of a suspension made by emulsifying screening swabs. Whereas the sensitivities after 48 h were similar for all media tested (77% for MRSA_ID and ORSA; 73% for C_MRSA and ORSA after enrichment [TSB-ORSA]), the specificities of MRSA_ID (98% after 24 h and 94% after 48 h) and C_MRSA (98% after 24 h and 90% after 48 h) were superior to the specificities of ORSAs (92% after 24 h and 83% after 48 h) and TSB-ORSA (86% after 24 h and 81% after 48 h).

Streptococcus cristatus isolated from a resected heart valve and blood cultures: case reports and application of phenotypic and genotypic techniques for identification.

Viridans streptococci are known as an important cause of endocarditis, but at present no cases of endocarditis caused by Streptococcus cristatus have been published, probably because phenotypic identification of viridans streptococci is tedious. Using tDNA-PCR, it is possible to identify to species level and to differentiate between species of the viridans group.

Outcome in bacteremia associated with nosocomial pneumonia and the impact of pathogen prediction by tracheal surveillance cultures.

Objective: To assess whether pathogen prediction in bacteremia associated with nosocomial pneumonia (NP) by tracheal surveillance cultures improves adequacy of early antibiotic therapy and impacts mortality.

Design And Setting: A retrospective observational study of a prospectively gathered cohort. This cohort included all adult patients admitted to the ICU of a tertiary care hospital from 1992 through 2001 and who developed bacteremia associated with NP.

Antibiotic susceptibility of Atopobium vaginae.

Background: Previous studies have indicated that a recently described anaerobic bacterium, Atopobium vaginae is associated with bacterial vaginosis (BV). Thus far the four isolates of this fastidious micro-organism were found to be highly resistant to metronidazole and susceptible for clindamycin, two antibiotics preferred for the treatment of BV.

Methods: Nine strains of Atopobium vaginae, four strains of Gardnerella vaginalis, two strains of Lactobacillus iners and one strain each of Bifidobacterium breve, B.

Antimicrobial resistance in nosocomial bloodstream infection associated with pneumonia and the value of systematic surveillance cultures in an adult intensive care unit.

Objective: To study the occurrence of multiple-drug-resistant pathogens in nosocomial bloodstream infection associated with pneumonia. To evaluate prediction of multiple drug resistance by systematic surveillance cultures.

Design: A retrospective study of a prospectively gathered cohort.

Comparison between Gram stain and culture for the characterization of vaginal microflora: definition of a distinct grade that resembles grade I microflora and revised categorization of grade I microflora.

Background: The microbiological diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis is usually made using Nugent's criteria, a useful but rather laborious scoring system based on counting bacterial cell types on Gram stained slides of vaginal smears. Ison and Hay have simplified the score system to three categories and added a fourth category for microflora with a predominance of the Streptococcus cell type. Because in the Nugent system several cell types are not taken into account for a final score, we carried out a detailed assessment of the composition of the vaginal microflora in relation to standard Gram stain in order the improve the diagnostic value of the Gram stain.

Colonization status and appropriate antibiotic therapy for nosocomial bacteremia caused by antibiotic-resistant gram-negative bacteria in an intensive care unit.

Objective: Timely initiation of antibiotic therapy is crucial for severe infection. Appropriate antibiotic therapy is often delayed for nosocomial infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The relationship between knowledge of colonization caused by antibiotic-resistant gram-negative bacteria (ABR-GNB) and rate of appropriate initial antibiotic therapy for subsequent bacteremia was evaluated.

Shared genotypes of Achromobacter xylosoxidans strains isolated from patients at a cystic fibrosis rehabilitation center.

During a study examining transmission of Pseudomonas aeruginosa among 76 cystic fibrosis patients in a rehabilitation center, where patients stay in close contact during prolonged periods, several clusters of patients carrying genotypically identical P. aeruginosa, as well as two clusters of 4 and 10 patients, respectively, colonized with genotypically identical Achromobacter xylosoxidans strains, were discovered.

Prevalence of Helicobacter pullorum among patients with gastrointestinal disease and clinically healthy persons.

Feces from 531 patients with gastroenteritis and from 100 clinically healthy individuals were tested for Helicobacter pullorum by use of PCR. Samples positive by PCR were qualified for isolation. H.

An interlaboratory comparison of ITS2-PCR for the identification of yeasts, using the ABI Prism 310 and CEQ8000 capillary electrophoresis systems.

Background: Currently, most laboratories identify yeasts routinely on the basis of morphology and biochemical reactivity. This approach has quite often limited discriminatory power and may require long incubation periods. Due to the increase of fungal infections and due to specific antifungal resistence patterns for different species, accurate and rapid identification has become more important.

Extended-Spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) producing Enterobacter aerogenes phenotypically misidentified as Klebsiella pneumoniae or K. terrigena.

Background: Enterobacter aerogenes and Klebsiella pneumoniae are common isolates in clinical microbiology and important as producers of extended spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL). The discrimination between both species, which is routinely based on biochemical characteristics, is generally accepted to be straightforward. Here we report that genotypically unrelated strains of E.

Bacteremic infection with Pantoea ananatis.

A 73-year-old man was hospitalized for dyspnea and bilateral ankle edema. During his hospital stay he presented anal hemorrhage and developed a high fever after colonoscopy. A set of aerobic and anaerobic blood culture bottles yielded a pure culture of gram-negative rods, susceptible to all antibiotics tested.

Antibiotic susceptibility of acute otitis media pathogens in otitis-prone Belgian children.

Unlabelled: A regional surveillance study was carried out in children with recurrent acute otitis media (AOM) to determine the antimicrobial susceptibility of three common AOM pathogens. Susceptibility to relevant antimicrobial agents was determined on 149 Streptococcus pneumoniae, 246 Haemophilus influenzae and 119 Moraxella catarrhalis strains isolated between January 1999 and January 2002, either from the nasopharynx or middle ear of 74 children with recurrent AOM, the majority (77%) being otitis-prone. Overall pneumococcal resistance to penicillin was 9.

Cloning of 16S rRNA genes amplified from normal and disturbed vaginal microflora suggests a strong association between Atopobium vaginae, Gardnerella vaginalis and bacterial vaginosis.

Background: The pathogenesis of bacterial vaginosis remains largely elusive, although some microorganisms, including Gardnerella vaginalis, are suspected of playing a role in the etiology of this disorder. Recently culture-independent analysis of microbial ecosystems has proven its efficacy in characterizing the diversity of bacterial populations. Here, we report on the results obtained by combining culture and PCR-based methods to characterize the normal and disturbed vaginal microflora.

Wautersia gen. nov., a novel genus accommodating the phylogenetic lineage including Ralstonia eutropha and related species, and proposal of Ralstonia [Pseudomonas] syzygii (Roberts et al. 1990) comb. nov.

Comparative 16S rDNA sequence analysis indicates that two distinct sublineages, with a sequence dissimilarity of >4 % (bootstrap value, 100 %), exist within the genus RALSTONIA: the Ralstonia eutropha lineage, which comprises Ralstonia basilensis, Ralstonia campinensis, R. eutropha, Ralstonia gilardii, Ralstonia metallidurans, Ralstonia oxalatica, Ralstonia paucula, Ralstonia respiraculi and Ralstonia taiwanensis; and the Ralstonia pickettii lineage, which comprises Ralstonia insidiosa, Ralstonia mannitolilytica, R. pickettii, Ralstonia solanacearum and Ralstonia syzygii comb.

Beta-casein-derived peptides, produced by bacteria, stimulate cancer cell invasion and motility.

In colon cancer, enteric bacteria and dietary factors are major determinants of the microenvironment but their effect on cellular invasion is not known. We therefore incubated human HCT-8/E11 colon cancer cells with bacteria or bacterial conditioned medium on top of collagen type I gels. Listeria monocytogenes stimulate cellular invasion through the formation of a soluble motility-promoting factor, identified as a 13mer beta-casein-derived peptide (HKEMPFPKYPVEP).

Comparison of five genotypic techniques for identification of optochin-resistant pneumococcus-like isolates.

Three PCR techniques (amplification of the psaA, ply, and lytA genes) and a commercial kit (AccuProbe [GenProbe, San Diego, Calif.], based on hybridization with the 16S rRNA gene), all four of which claimed to be specific for Streptococcus pneumoniae, were used to identify 49 alpha-hemolytic streptococcal isolates suspected of being pneumococci. The definite phenotypic identification of these organisms as S.

Isolation of Buttiauxella gaviniae from a spinal cord patient with urinary bladder pathology.

A gram-negative Buttiauxella gaviniae-like organism (LBV449) was isolated from a urine sample of a patient suffering from urine bladder pathology and neurological problems. The isolate was positive for adonitol fermentation and L-arginine dihydrolase and negative for melibiose and L-ornithine decarboxylase. The API 20E code was 3004113.

Identification of cultured isolates of clinically important yeast species using fluorescent fragment length analysis of the amplified internally transcribed rRNA spacer 2 region (ITS2).

Background: The number of patients candidate to yeast infection has increased during the last years. Also the variety of species of clinical importance has increased. Correct species identification is often important for efficient therapy, but is based on phenotypic features and is sometimes time-consuming and depends largely on the expertise of technicians.