Association between COVID-19 vaccines and the menstrual cycle in young Japanese women.

Introduction: Although several studies have investigated the association between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines and the menstrual cycle, available data are limited. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of COVID-19 vaccines on the menstrual cycle and the effect of the menstrual cycle phase on the vaccine side effects during vaccine administration in Japan.

Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on the date of vaccination; type of vaccine; type, grade, and duration of the side effects; regularity of menstruation; normal length of the menstrual cycle; and the day one date of menstruation around vaccination.

Clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales infections in Japan.

Objectives: The dissemination of difficult-to-treat carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) is of great concern. We clarified the risk factors underlying CRE infection mortality in Japan.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective, multicentre, observational cohort study of patients with CRE infections at 28 university hospitals from September 2014 to December 2016, using the Japanese National Surveillance criteria.

Oral and Intestinal Bacterial Substances Associated with Disease Activities in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Cross-Sectional Clinical Study.

Intestinal bacterial compositions of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients have been reported to be different from those of healthy people. Dysbiosis, imbalance of the microbiota, is widely known to cause gut barrier damage, resulting in an influx of bacteria and their substances into host bloodstreams in animal studies. However, few studies have investigated the effect of bacterial substances on the pathophysiology of RA.

Clinical impact of monitoring frequency per day as a prospective audit and feedback strategy for patients receiving antimicrobial agents by injection.

Background: Implementation of antimicrobial stewardship programmes improve antimicrobial therapies and thus result in better patient outcomes and safety. The impact of prospective audit and feedback (PAF) is likely dependent on how frequently it is conducted, and how quickly after antibiotic prescription it is initiated. To our knowledge, however, no report has yet investigated the impact of an increase in monitoring frequency per day on PAF strategy.

Evaluation of presumptive identification of Enterobacterales using CHROMagar Orientation medium and rapid biochemical tests.

Background: The use of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry is gradually spreading among large-scale laboratories; however, this method is impractical for small-scale laboratories. In laboratories without access to these rapid identification methods, problems related to them remain unsolved. In this study, we aimed to develop a rapid and inexpensive method to presumptively identify Enterobacterales using CHROMagar Orientation medium.

Clinical impact of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry combined with antimicrobial stewardship interventions in patients with bloodstream infections in a Japanese tertiary hospital.

Background: Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has the potential to permit early organism identification and optimization of antibiotic therapy. However, MALDI-TOF MS combined with antimicrobial stewardship is available at only a limited number of institutions. Here, we evaluated the clinical impact of implementing MALDI-TOF MS combined with antimicrobial stewardship intervention in patients with bloodstream infections.

The impact of implementing an antifungal stewardship with monitoring of 1-3, β-D-glucan values on antifungal consumption and clinical outcomes.

What Is Known And Objective: Implementation of an antifungal stewardship programme is a recognized need. However, there is insufficient information to confirm the impact of antifungal stewardship interventions. Further, few studies have evaluated the clinical effects of an antifungal stewardship intervention using 1-3, β-D-glucan (βDG) testing.

Antimicrobial stewardship intervention for the clinical pathways improves antimicrobial prophylaxis in surgical or non-surgical invasive therapies.

Background: The standard duration of administration of antimicrobial prophylaxis in surgery and non-surgical invasive therapy was shortened according to the promotion of appropriate use. Here, we conducted an intervention to optimise antimicrobial prophylaxis by revising all relevant clinical pathways based on the most recent guidelines.

Methods: We conducted a single-centre, prospective cohort study in patients who received antimicrobial prophylaxis to evaluate outcomes following revision of the clinical pathways for antimicrobial prophylaxis.

Factors affecting bacterial culture positivity in specimens from bronchoscopy in patients with suspected lung cancer.

Background: Bronchoscopy is important to diagnose lung cancer. However, some patients who undergo bronchoscopic procedures develop respiratory tract infections. Little is known about the proportion of pathogen-positive results in bacterial cultures from diagnostic bronchoscopy samples in patients with suspected lung cancer.

Clinical impact of a prospective audit with intervention and feedback without carbapenem restriction in patients receiving carbapenem injection.

Background: Antimicrobial stewardship is required to ensure the appropriate use of antimicrobials. However, few reports have shown the impact of antimicrobial stewardship on clinical outcomes.

Methods: To evaluate the clinical outcomes of implementing a prospective audit with intervention and feedback without carbapenem pre-authorisation, we conducted a single-centre, prospective cohort study in patients who received carbapenem injection.

[Points of revision of the guideline JSLM 2012].

The revised version of the guideline JSLM 2012 was published in December 2012 by the Japanese Society of Laboratory Medicine. This version included new sections, such as blood gas analysis, sleep apnea syndrome, interstitial lung disease, liver and pancreas cancer, chronic kidney disease, acute kidney disease, gout and hyperuricemia, bone metabolism abnormality, malignant lymphoma, and rheumatoid arthritis. The guideline committee was composed of specialists in each field of internal medicine, who were responsible for selecting and requesting the authors and also in promoting and proofreading the manuscripts.

Effect of incubation atmosphere on the production and composition of staphylococcal biofilms.

Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis are pathogenic bacteria that often cause invasive infections in humans. In this study, we characterized the composition and growth characteristics of staphylococcal biofilms under various incubation atmospheres. We assessed the effect of incubation atmosphere (aerobic, 5% CO2, anaerobic, and microaerobic) on the biofilm production capabilities of S.

Inhibition of radiographic joint damage in rheumatoid arthritis patients in DAS28 remission using single- or combined with methotrexate non biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drug therapy in routine clinical practice.

Objective: We retrospectively investigated the inhibitory effect on radiographic joint damage (RJD) for non-biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (non-bioDMARD) monotherapy or methotrexate (MTX) combination therapy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the disease activity score with 28 joint counts with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28) remission.

Methods: Eighty-four patients (55 cases of monotherapy, 29 cases of MTX-combination therapy) in DAS28 remission (DAS28 ≤ 2.6) were investigated from 538 RA patients newly registered between February 2007 and August 2010.

[Nationwide surveillance of parenteral antibiotics containing meropenem activities against clinically isolated strains in 2009].

The antibacterial activity of meropenem (MEPM) and other parenteral antibiotics against clinical isolates of 2655 strains including 810 strains of Gram-positive bacteria, 1635 strains of Gram-negative bacteria, and 210 strains of anaerobic bacteria obtained from 30 medical institutions during 2009 was examined. The results were as follows; (1) MEPM was more active than the other carbapenem antibiotics tested against Gram-negative bacteria, especially against enterobacteriaceae and Haemophilus influenzae. MEPM was also active against most of the species tested in Gram-positive and anaerobic bacteria, except for multidrug resistant strains including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

[Antimicrobial susceptibility of clinical isolates of aerobic Gram-negative bacteria in 2006].

We determined MICs of antibacterial agents against 1280 clinical strains of aerobic Gram-negative bacteria (19 genus or species) isolated at 16 Japanese facilities in 2006. MICs were determined using mostly broth microdilution method and antibacterial activity was assessed. Strains producing extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL) accounted for 3.

[Antimicrobial susceptibility of clinical isolates of aerobic Gram-positive cocci and anaerobic bacteria in 2006].

The activity of antibacterial agents against aerobic Gram-positive cocci (26 species, 1022 strains) and anaerobic bacteria (23 species, 184 strains) isolated from clinical specimens in 2006 at 16 clinical facilities in Japan were studied using either broth microdilution or agar dilution method. The ratio of methicillin-resistant strains among Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis was 53.0% and 65.

[In vitro susceptibilities to levofloxacin and various antibacterial agents of 12,919 clinical isolates obtained from 72 centers in 2007].

We have reported in this journal in vitro susceptibilities of clinical isolates to antibiotics every year since 1992. In this paper, we report the results of an analysis of in vitro susceptibilities of 12,919 clinical isolates from 72 centers in Japan to selected antibiotics in 2007 compared with the results from previous years. The common respiratory pathogens, Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Moraxella catarrhalis and Haemophilus influenzae maintained a high susceptibility to fluoroquinolones (FQs).

Usefulness of phage open-reading frame typing method in an epidemiological study of an outbreak of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections.

A novel genotyping method for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the phage open-reading frames typing (POT) method, was evaluated using 92 MRSA isolates collected from blood cultures between 1991 and 2003 at Nagoya University Hospital. These strains were divided into 64 distinct POT types, classified into 21 genotypes by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) using SmaI, and analyzed with the DICE coefficient of 80% in dendrogram analysis, with 48 subtypes analyzed with the DICE coefficient of 100%. The discriminatory indices of these three methods were 0.

Transmission of bacterial infections to healthcare workers during intubation and respiratory care of patients with severe pneumonia.

Exposure of healthcare workers to patients with rapidly fatal infections invariably raises concerns regarding the risk of occupational acquisition. We describe acquisition of Streptococcus pyogenes by 2 nurses from a patient with fatal pneumonia and review previously reported cases of transmission of bacterial pathogens from patients with pneumonia to healthcare workers.

Nationwide epidemiological study revealed the dissemination of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus carrying a specific set of virulence-associated genes in Japanese hospitals.

To study comprehensive toxin profiles and the chromosomal diversity of current Japanese hospital-associated meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (HA-MRSA) strains, we conducted PCR-based identification of 28 toxin genes, and staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) typing and PFGE analysis of 208 MRSA strains isolated from 100 hospitals throughout Japan. Of the tested HA-MRSA strains, 80.3 % were tst-positive.

First case of bloodstream infection caused by Rhodococcus erythropolis.

We describe the first case of bloodstream infection caused by Rhodococcus erythropolis. The identification was performed using 16S rRNA sequencing. This case illustrates that non-equi Rhodococcus infections may be underdiagnosed due to difficulties in identification in the routine clinical microbiology laboratory.