New Perspectives for Prosthetic Valve Endocarditis: Impact of Molecular Imaging by FISHseq Diagnostics.

Background: The microbial etiology of prosthetic valve infective endocarditis (PVE) can be difficult to identify. Our aim was to investigate the benefit of molecular imaging technique fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) combined with 16S rRNA-gene polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequencing (FISHseq) for the analysis of infected prosthetic heart valves.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the diagnostic outcome of 113 prosthetic valves from 105 patients with suspected PVE, treated in 2003-2013 in the Department of Cardiac Surgery, Charité University Medicine Berlin.

Aerococcus urinae - A potent biofilm builder in endocarditis.

The diagnosis of infective endocarditis (IE) remains a challenge. One of the rare bacterial species recently associated with biofilms and negative cultures in infective endocarditis is Aerococcus urinae. Whether the low number of reported cases might be due to lack of awareness and misidentification, mainly as streptococci, is currently being discussed.

[The impact of premature rupture of membranes (PROM) on neonatal outcome].

Objective: The aim of the following study was to evaluate the impact of premature rupture of membranes (PROM) on neonatal outcome, particularly on the incidence of intrauterine infections (IUI).

Material And Methods: The study included 428 newborns, born after PROM and hospitalized in the Department of Neonatology at Poznan University of Medical Sciences in 2006. The influence of selected variables on the development of IUI and other complications was analyzed.