Clinical Characteristics of Corynebacterium ulcerans Infection, Japan.

Corynebacterium ulcerans is a closely related bacterium to the diphtheria bacterium C. diphtheriae, and some C. ulcerans strains produce toxins that are similar to diphtheria toxin.

Limitations of Ribotyping as Genotyping Method for Corynebacterium ulcerans.

We conducted molecular typing of a Corynebacterium ulcerans isolate from a woman who died in Japan in 2016. Genomic DNA modification might have affected the isolate's ribotyping profile. Multilocus sequence typing results (sequence type 337) were more accurate.

Acquisition of genetic mutations in Group A Streptococci at infection site and subsequent systemic dissemination of the mutants with lethal mutations in a streptococcal toxic shock syndrome mouse model.

Streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS) is caused mainly by Streptococcus pyogenes (Group A Streptococci, GAS), and it has a fatality rate of 25%. Mutations in CsrRS and RopB, which suppress the transcription of many virulence factors, were recently found in clinical isolates from STSS patients, but it is not fully understood when and where GAS acquires the mutations in the host. To resolve this question, we used our mouse model of human STSS to recover GAS strains from injections sites, spleens and blood of moribund mice with STSS-like symptoms, and analyzed the sequence of the covR/covS genes and ropB gene that encode CsrRS and RopB.

Dynamics of microbiota during mechanical ventilation in aspiration pneumonia.

Background: The emergence of multi-drug resistant pathogens is an urgent health-related problem, and the appropriate use of antibiotics is imperative. It is often difficult to identify the causative bacteria in patients with aspiration pneumonia because tracheal aspirate contains contaminants of oral bacteria. We investigated the dynamics of microbiota in mechanically ventilated patients with aspiration pneumonia to develop a treatment strategy.

Mutation and Diversity of Diphtheria Toxin in Corynebacterium ulcerans.

Corynebacterium ulcerans infection is emerging in humans. We conducted phylogenetic analyses of C. ulcerans and C.

Usefulness of Fibrinogen/Fibrin Degradation Products Value in Differential Diagnosis Between Acute Ischemic Stroke and Acute Aortic Dissection.

A post-marketing surveillance study reported fatalities following tissue plasminogen activator administration in acute aortic dissection (AAD) with the symptoms of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients. Therefore, it is important to discriminate AAD from AIS. The present study aimed to investigate whether fibrinogen/fibrin degradation products (FDP) value can be useful in differential diagnosis between AAD and AIS.

A Case of Infectious Enterocolitis with Hyperammonemia.

Case reports of hyperammonemia due to urease-producing bacteria are found occasionally, but most of them are associated with urinary tract infections. We experienced a case of infectious enterocolitis with hyperammonemia in which the causative bacteria was speculated to be urease-producing bacteria. A Japanese woman in her 70s had been diagnosed with microscopic polyangiitis in a nearby hospital and was transferred to our hospital.

The first fatal case of infection in Japan.

() is a zoonotic pathogen that occasionally causes diphtheria-like symptoms in humans. Cases of infection have been increasing in recent years, and has been recognized as an emerging pathogen. Here we report a case of asphyxia death due to pseudomembrane caused by diphtheria toxin (DT)-producing This is, to our knowledge, the first fatal case of infection in Japan.

A rare case of myocardial infarction related to diagnostic intravascular ultrasound.

A 71-year-old man underwent intracoronary stent implantation for acute inferior myocardial infarction (MI). Immediately after diagnostic intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) at 8 months' follow-up, an acute occlusion of the sinus node (SN) artery appeared, which developed sinus arrest with junctional escape rhythm. The serum level of high-sensitivity troponin T (TpT) was markedly elevated on the day after the procedure (2.