Rapid detection of laboratory cross-contamination with Mycobacterium tuberculosis using multispacer sequence typing.

Background: The ability to culture Mycobacterium tuberculosis from clinical specimens serves as the gold standard for the diagnosis of tuberculosis. However, a number of false-positive diagnoses may be due to cross-contamination of such specimens. We herein investigate such episode of cross-contamination by using a technique known as multispacer sequence typing (MST).

[Bronchial obstruction in asthmatic patients is underestimated by general practice physicians].

Introduction: Many asthmatics have few or no symptoms despite severe obstruction of the airways. Physicians confronted with this phenomenon may therefore underrate the severity of the asthma and treatment may be insufficient. We studied the capacity of a group of general practitioners to assess the bronchial obstruction of patients presenting with varying degrees of symptoms and obstruction.

Diagnosis and severity of asthma in the elderly: results of a large survey in 1,485 asthmatics recruited by lung specialists.

Background: Despite its high prevalence, epidemiological surveys on the diagnosis and severity of asthma in the elderly are seldom.

Objective: The objectives of our study were: (i) to describe the criteria, used by French lung physicians, for the diagnosis of asthma in the elderly (age > or = 65 years); (2) to investigate whether the age at the onset of asthma is related to the severity of asthma in the elderly.

Methods: 1,485 asthmatics (783 men and 702 women; mean age +/- SD = 73.