Meningococcal disease and future drug targets.

Neisseria meningitidis (N. meningitidis) causes sepsis, epidemic meningitis, and sometimes also meningoencephalitis. Despite early antibiotic treatment, mortality and morbidity remain significant.

Leptotrichia buccalis: a rare cause of bacteraemia in non-neutropenic patients.

The anaerobic bacterium, Leptotrichia buccalis (Lb), belongs to the normal oral flora of humans and is seldom found in clinically significant specimens. However, on rare occasions, Lb has been isolated from blood cultures from patients with lesions of the oral mucosa, in particular from patients with neutropenia. Over a period of 6 months, Lb was isolated from blood cultures in our laboratory from 2 immunocompetent patients.

Performance of PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of the Helicobacter pylori ureB gene in differentiating gene variants.

Recently, PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) of the urease genes of Helicobacter pylori was evaluated in a meta-analysis; acceptable discriminatory indices of the ureAB and C genes were found. In the present investigation, we found a discriminatory index of 0.95 for 191 unrelated clinical H.

[Hygiene in general practice].

The purpose of this study was to examine how general practitioners handle infection control precautions. The study is based on interviews with 26 general practitioners. The following subjects were included: hand washing, skin disinfection of the patients before injections and minor surgery and disinfection and sterilisation procedures of the instruments.

Molecular methods for typing of Helicobacter pylori and their applications.

Microbial typing is a useful tool in clinical epidemiology for defining the source and route of infection, for studying the persistence and reinfection rates, clonal selection in the host and bacterial evolution. Phenotypic methods such as biotyping, serotyping and hemagglutinin typing have little discriminatory power compared to genotypic methods concerning the typing of Helicobacter pylori. Therefore great efforts have been made to establish useful molecular typing methods.

Treatment of children with secretory otitis media (SOM) with amoxicillin and clavulanic acid (Spektramox) or penicillin-V (Primcillin). Bacteriological findings in the nasopharynx before and after treatment.

A total of 386 children, aged 1-10, with secretory otitis media for at least 3 months were randomly allocated to 2 or 4 weeks' treatment with penicillin-V (Primcillin) or amoxicillin + clavulanic acid (Spektramox). Spektramox was superior (p < 0.01) to Primcillin in eradicating Haemophilus influenzae and Branhamella catarrhalis from the nasopharynx.

Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of 230 Helicobacter pylori strains: importance of medium, inoculum, and incubation time.

No standardized method of susceptibility testing for Helicobacter pylori is currently available, so before a large agar dilution study comprising 230 H. pylori strains belonging to more than 80 genetically different groups was initiated, we performed a relatively small preliminary study to determine the influences of medium, inoculum density, and incubation time. Seven media were investigated and were primarily evaluated on the basis of their abilities to support growth both semiquantitatively and qualitatively; Iso-Sensitest agar supplemented with 10% horse blood was found to be well suited for the purpose; this was closely followed by Mueller-Hinton agar with 10% horse blood, Mueller-Hinton with 10% sheep blood, and finally, 7% lysed horse blood agar.

Antibiotic treatment of children with secretory otitis media. Amoxicillin-clavulanate is superior to penicillin V in a double-blind randomized study.

Objective: To compare the effect of 2 different antimicrobial agents in the treatment of secretory otitis media (SOM).

Design: Prospective, double-blind, randomized study.

Patients: From a pool of 1450 children (aged 1-10 years) with SOM, defined by tympanometry as having type B or C2 tympanograms, 429 with SOM of at least 3 months' duration were included in the trial.

The antibacterial activity of a siderophore. 3. The activity of deferoxamine in vitro and its influence on the effect of antibiotics against Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis and coagulase-negative staphylococci.

The in vitro activity of deferoxamine (DFO) both per se and in combination with the reductant ascorbic acid (AA) was determined against 10 E. coli strains, 5 P. mirabilis strains, and 10 coagulase-negative staphylococci.

Changing patterns among the subgroups of strains of Staphylococcus aureus of phage group II in Danish hospitals from 1961-91.

During the period 1961-91 a total of 567,635 strains of Staphylococcus aureus from hospitalized patients in Denmark have been characterized according to their antibiotic resistance, site of isolation and phage type. Strains of phage group II (typed by the phages 3A, 3C, 55 and 71) have been analysed further. The occurrence of group II strains was relatively constant (approximately 16%) from 1961 until 1983.

The antibacterial activity of a siderophore. 2. The influence of deferoxamine alone and combined with ascorbic acid on the activity of antibiotics against Staphylococcus aureus.

The in vitro activity of deferoxamine (DFO) combined with cephalothin, gentamicin, cefotaxime, vancomycin, and fusidic acid, in the presence or absence of the reductant ascorbic acid (AA) was investigated against Staphylococcus aureus by a macrobroth dilution technique and killing curve kinetics. DFO and in particular DFO + AA lowered the MICs of cephalothin, gentamicin, cefotaxime, and fusidic acid for most of the strains and in some instances also the MICs of vancomycin. To characterize the interaction between DFO or DFO + AA and antimicrobials we applied the growth constants of logarithmic growth phase.

In vitro activity of vancomycin against enterococci.

The in vitro activity of vancomycin against 40 clinical isolates of enterococci was determined by a macro-tube dilution method and by quantitative killing curve procedures employing the standard medium of our department, i.e. a filtered ox broth.

Dicloxacillin concentrations in amputation.

We treated 18 patients undergoing major lower limb amputation due to ischemia by intravenous administration of 1 g dicloxacillin either 0, 3, or 6 hours before surgery followed by a similar dose 8 hours after the first dose. The administration immediately before the operation resulted in the highest peroperative antibiotic concentrations in the muscular and subcutaneous tissue at the amputation level, exceeding the MIC value of Staphylococcus aureus. Similarly, the concentrations in drain fluid were highest in these patients.

The antibacterial activity of a siderophore. 1. In vitro activity of deferoxamine alone and in combination with ascorbic acid on Staphylococcus aureus.

The in vitro antimicrobial activity of the siderophore, deferoxamine, alone and in combination with ascorbic acid, was investigated against 10 clinical isolates of S. aureus employing the broth dilution test and the time-kill method. By the broth dilution test neither activity of deferoxamine and ascorbic acid was demonstrated.

In vitro antibacterial activities of eleven antibiotics against S. faecalis.

The in vitro antibacterial activities of penicillin, ampicillin, piperacillin, azlocillin, vancomycin, erythromycin, clindamycin, gentamicin, streptomycin, cefotaxime, and ceftriaxone against 198 S. faecalis strains were investigated, employing an agar dilution technique. Results were generally in accord with those of other studies.

In vitro susceptibility of diarrhoea producing gram negative enteric bacteria to sulfasalazine, 5-aminosalicylic acid, sulfapyridine and four quinolones. Brief report.

The in vitro susceptibility of diarrhoea producing Gram negative enteric bacteria to sulfasalazine, 5-aminosalicylic acid, sulfapyridine and four quinolones was investigated using an agar dilution method. All strains were resistant to 1600 micrograms/ml of sulfasalazine and 5-aminosalicylic acid. MIC range of sulfapyridine for Y.

Influence of carbon-dioxide tension and medium buffer concentration on medium pH and MIC values of erythromycin for Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 in a micro-aerobic atmosphere.

The effect of an elevated carbon-dioxide tension on medium pH and MIC determination with erythromycin for Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923) and Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922) was investigated in a micro-aerobic atmosphere, using an agar dilution method. During 30 h of incubation in an atmosphere containing approximately 6% CO2, 5% O2 and 89% N2, pH of uninoculated, as well as of seeded, blood agar plates decreased from 7.4 to 6.

Thomsen-Friedenreich-related antigen in non-neoplastic ureter urothelium and transitional cell tumours of the urinary bladder. An immunohistochemical study employing the monoclonal antibody 49H.8.

This study, which is part of a larger immunohistochemical investigation of blood-group antigens in non-neoplastic urothelium and bladder cancer, reports our findings on the expression of an antigen related to the cryptic Thomsen-Friedenreich antigen (beta Gal 1-3 GalNAc) of erythrocytes. De-waxed sections of 19 ureters and of 93 transitional cell tumours, either untreated or pretreated with neuraminidase, were subjected to an indirect immunoperoxidase staining, employing the monoclonal antibody 49H.8.

Lewis a antigen in transitional cell tumors of the urinary bladder.

The failure of A,B,H antigens as prognostic parameters in noninvasive bladder cancer of blood group O individuals, who constitute 44% of the population, encouraged the evaluation of the closely related Lewis a antigen. Ninety-three tumors of the urinary bladder were stained employing the Tween 20 (Merck)-modified immunoperoxidase staining technique and serial dilution of monoclonal anti-Lewis a antibodies. On the basis of recent findings in non-neoplastic ureter urothelium of erythrocyte Lea+b-, Lea-b+, and Lea-b- individuals, alterations in tumors, except eight from Lea-b- individuals, were quantified on a scale from 0 (normal) to 3 (total loss).

Relationship between penicillinase production and the in-vitro activity of methicillin, oxacillin, cloxacillin, dicloxacillin, flucloxacillin, and cephalothin against strains of Staphylococcus aureus of different phage patterns and penicillinase activity.

A total of 157 strains of Staphylococcus aureus of different phage patterns and penicillinase production were investigated for their susceptibility to methicillin, oxacillin, cloxacillin, dicloxacillin, flucloxacillin and cephalothin by an agar dilution method. Only strains of the 52, 52A, 80, 81 complex had significantly higher IC-50 values than the rest of the strains. No correlation was found between penicillinase production and the IC-50 values.