Does eccentric-concentric resistance training improve early functional outcomes compared to concentric resistance training after total knee arthroplasty?

Background: Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is the preferred surgical treatment of end stage osteoarthritis of the knee. However, up to 20% of patients are dissatisfied after TKA. Moreover, kinesiophobia is negatively correlated with functional outcomes.

Postoperative abdominal adhesions and bowel obstruction. A survey among Dutch general practitioners.

Background: There is increasing interest among specialists in the complications after abdominal surgery due to adhesions.

Objective: Exploration of experiences, attitudes and expectations of general practitioners concerning bowel obstruction and postoperative abdominal adhesions.

Methods: In October 2012 a postal questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 800 Dutch GPs.

In vitro activity of josamycin against Streptococcus pyogenes isolated from patients with upper respiratory tract infections in France.

Objectives: The primary objective of our study was to obtain susceptibility data for josamycin against Streptococcus pyogenes isolated from patients presenting with upper respiratory tract infections in France. The secondary objective was to characterize the molecular mechanism of resistance in macrolide-resistant isolates.

Patients And Methods: MICs of erythromycin, clarithromycin, azithromycin, josamycin, and clindamycin were determined by the broth microdilution method.

Unique blood culture for diagnosis of bloodstream infections in emergency departments: a prospective multicentre study.

Detection of microorganisms by blood cultures (BCs) is essential in managing patients with bacteraemia. Rather than the number of punctures, the volume of blood drawn is considered paramount in efficient and reliable detection of microorganisms. We performed a 1-year prospective multicentre study in adult emergency departments of three French university hospitals comparing two methods for BCs: a unique blood culture (UBC) collecting a large volume of blood (40 mL) and the standard method of multiple blood cultures (MBC).

Enhanced in vivo fitness of carbapenem-resistant oprD mutants of Pseudomonas aeruginosa revealed through high-throughput sequencing.

An important question regarding the biologic implications of antibiotic-resistant microbes is how resistance impacts the organism's overall fitness and virulence. Currently it is generally thought that antibiotic resistance carries a fitness cost and reduces virulence. For the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, treatment with carbapenem antibiotics is a mainstay of therapy that can lead to the emergence of resistance, often through the loss of the carbapenem entry channel OprD.

Outbreak in a haematology unit involving an unusual strain of glycopeptide-resistant Enterococcus faecium carrying both vanA and vanB genes.

Objectives: To report an outbreak due to an unusual strain of Enterococcus faecium containing both the vanA and vanB genes, in France, where the rate of glycopeptide-resistant enterococci (GRE) is below 1%.

Methods: Cases were patients infected or colonized with GRE on the haematology ward. Contact patients were screened by real-time PCR performed on rectal swabs.

Genetic basis for in vitro and in vivo resistance to lincosamides, streptogramins A, and pleuromutilins (LSAP phenotype) in Enterococcus faecium.

As opposed to Enterococcus faecalis, which is intrinsically resistant to lincosamides, streptogramins A, and pleuromutilins (LSAP phenotype) by production of the ABC protein Lsa(A), Enterococcus faecium is naturally susceptible. Since this phenotype may be selected for in vivo by quinupristin-dalfopristin (Q-D), the aim of this study was to investigate the molecular mechanism of acquired LSAP resistance in E. faecium.

The equine antimicrobial peptide eCATH1 is effective against the facultative intracellular pathogen Rhodococcus equi in mice.

Rhodococcus equi, the causal agent of rhodococcosis, is a major pathogen of foals and is also responsible for severe infections in immunocompromised humans. Of great concern, strains resistant to currently used antibiotics have emerged. As the number of drugs that are efficient in vivo is limited because of the intracellular localization of the bacterium inside macrophages, new active but cell-permeant drugs will be needed in the near future.

Lincosamide resistance mediated by lnu(C) (L phenotype) in a Streptococcus anginosus clinical isolate.

Objectives: Unique resistance to lincosamides (L phenotype) due to the production of nucleotidyltransferases (Lnu) is uncommon among Gram-positive bacteria. The aim of the study was to characterize the L phenotype in a clinical isolate of the Streptococcus milleri group.

Methods: The strain UCN93 was recovered from neonatal specimens and from the mother's vaginal swab.

Aspergillus vertebral osteomyelitis in immunocompetent subjects: case report and review of the literature.

Aspergillus spondylodiscitis (AS) is rare in immunocompetent (IC) patients. A 65-year-old diabetic IC male subject presented with cervical AS 18 months after otomycosis. Two serological tests, mastoidectomy and biopsy of the sphenoid bone, were negative.

Changes in enterococcal populations and related antibiotic resistance along a medical center-wastewater treatment plant-river continuum.

To determine if hospital effluent input has an ecological impact on downstream aquatic environment, antibiotic resistance in Enterococcus spp. along a medical center-retirement home-wastewater treatment plant-river continuum in France was determined using a culture-based method. Data on antibiotic consumption among hospitalized and general populations and levels of water contamination by antibiotics were collected.

Twenty-five years of shared life with vancomycin-resistant enterococci: is it time to divorce?

Twenty-five years ago, isolation of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREm) was reported both in the UK and in France. Since then, VREm has spread worldwide in hospitals. Hospital outbreaks appeared to be related to the evolution since the end of 1980s of a subpopulation of E.

Microbiological investigation and clinical significance of Corynebacterium spp. in respiratory specimens.

The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate the pathogenic role of Corynebacterium species in lower respiratory tract infections as well as their routine laboratory investigation. From April 2007 to August 2009, 27 clinical isolates were significantly recovered from respiratory specimens of 27 different patients clinically suspected of having lower respiratory tract infections. The average age of patients was 65 years, while 22 (81%) patients presented at least 1 predisposing condition.

AsrR is an oxidative stress sensing regulator modulating Enterococcus faecium opportunistic traits, antimicrobial resistance, and pathogenicity.

Oxidative stress serves as an important host/environmental signal that triggers a wide range of responses in microorganisms. Here, we identified an oxidative stress sensor and response regulator in the important multidrug-resistant nosocomial pathogen Enterococcus faecium belonging to the MarR family and called AsrR (antibiotic and stress response regulator). The AsrR regulator used cysteine oxidation to sense the hydrogen peroxide which results in its dissociation to promoter DNA.

Analysis of borderline oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (BORSA) strains isolated in Tunisia.

Twenty-three strains of Staphylococcus aureus with borderline resistance to oxacillin were studied. These strains were not detected by the cefoxitin test, tests for penicillin-binding protein 2a (PBP2a), mecA, and mecA(LGA251) were negative, and the strains were genetically unrelated. To detect all strains resistant to oxacillin, laboratories should routinely test for both cefoxitin and oxacillin.

Galleria mellonella as a model for studying Enterococcus faecium host persistence.

Enterococcus faecium is an opportunistic pathogen responsible for numerous outbreaks worldwide. The basis for the colonization capacities, host persistence and environmental stress response of the hospital-adapted clones emerging from E. faecium are poorly understood.

Emergence of Staphylococcus aureus strains resistant to pristinamycin in Sfax (Tunisia).

Aim: We report the emergence of Staphylococcus aureus resistant to pristinamycin in Tunisia, and the characterization of the mechanisms of resistance to macrolides and streptogramins.

Methods And Results: Five strains of S. aureus resistant to pristinamycin were recovered from the department of dermatology in a Tunisian university hospital from skin samples after oral use of pristinamycin between 2004 and 2007.

In vitro potential of equine DEFA1 and eCATH1 as alternative antimicrobial drugs in rhodococcosis treatment.

Rhodococcus equi, the causal agent of rhodococcosis, is a severe pathogen of foals but also of immunodeficient humans, causing bronchopneumonia. The pathogen is often found together with Klebsiella pneumoniae or Streptococcus zooepidemicus in foals. Of great concern is the fact that some R.

EUCAST expert rules in antimicrobial susceptibility testing.

EUCAST expert rules have been developed to assist clinical microbiologists and describe actions to be taken in response to specific antimicrobial susceptibility test results. They include recommendations on reporting, such as inferring susceptibility to other agents from results with one, suppression of results that may be inappropriate, and editing of results from susceptible to intermediate or resistant or from intermediate to resistant on the basis of an inferred resistance mechanism. They are based on current clinical and/or microbiological evidence.

Dynamics of procalcitonin and bacteremia in neutropenic adults with acute myeloid leukemia.

Sensitive markers of infection are rare or of limited validity in neutropenic patients. Procalcitonin (PCT), a precursor protein of calcitonin, is a specific and sensitive marker of severe bacterial infections during short-term neutropenia. Because the value of PCT measurements among patients undergoing long periods of neutropenia remains uncertain and because several mechanisms, such as bacterial or fungal infections, reactions to drugs or blood products or tumor-associated events, can cause fever, we described the dynamics of PCT in 29 acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients with 39 instances of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia.

D-Ala-d-Ser VanN-type transferable vancomycin resistance in Enterococcus faecium.

Enterococcus faecium UCN71, isolated from a blood culture, was resistant to low levels of vancomycin (MIC, 16 μg/ml) but susceptible to teicoplanin (MIC, 0.5 μg/ml). No amplification was observed with primers specific for the previously described glycopeptide resistance ligase genes, but a PCR product corresponding to a gene called vanN was obtained using degenerate primers and was sequenced.

In vitro activity of new antimicrobial agents against glycopeptide-resistant Enterococcus faecium clinical isolates from France between 2006 and 2008.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the in vitro activity of six new antimicrobial agents against glycopeptide-resistant enterococci (GRE) strains from France.

Methods: Sixty epidemiologically unrelated clinical isolates of Enterococcus faecium (vanA or vanB), received at the National Reference Centre for Enterococci (CNR-Enc) between 2006 and 2008, were studied. The MICs of the following antibiotics were determined by broth microdilution according to Antibiogram Committee of the French Society for Microbiology (CA-SFM) guidelines: quinupristin-dalfopristin (Q-D), linezolid (LZD), daptomycin (DPT), tigecycline (TGC), ceftobiprole (CFT), and telavancin (TLV).

Hospital-wide modification of fluoroquinolone policy and meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus rates: a 10-year interrupted time-series analysis.

In our tertiary university hospital, fluoroquinolones were prohibited during 2001 leading to a 90% reduction in their use. Our objective was to examine the trends in meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) following the reintroduction of fluoroquinolones. We conducted a 10-year time-series analysis of monthly MRSA according to: (i) period of fluoroquinolone restriction (January 2001 to January 2002); (ii) period of fluoroquinolone increase up to pre-restriction levels (January 2002 to December 2004); and (iii) an observational period including the implementation of a hand hygiene campaign with alcohol-based hand rub (January 2005 to June 2009).

Rapid and efficient detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in respiratory and non-respiratory samples.

The detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis using a new commercial real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay (Xpert™ MTB/RIF) was evaluated on 91 respiratory and 89 non-respiratory samples recovered from 132 patients suspected of tuberculosis (TB). Overall, 31 (17.2%) of the 180 samples, including 17 respiratory and 14 non-respiratory (respectively 17 and 12 PCR-positive), yielded M.

Changing trends in vancomycin-resistant enterococci in French hospitals, 2001-08.

Objectives: Unprecedented outbreaks of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) have occurred in French hospitals since 2004. The aim of this study was to provide a picture of the spread and control of VRE in France and to characterize the isolates.

Methods: Notification of VRE cases to Institut de Veille Sanitaire has been mandatory since 2001.