Genotype-Phenotype Relationships in Inheritable Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: A Greek National Cohort Study.

Background: Monogenic and polygenic inheritances are evidenced for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Pathogenic variations in surfactant protein-related genes, telomere-related genes (TRGs), and a single-nucleotide polymorphism in the promoter of MUC5B gene encoding mucin 5B (rs35705950 T risk allele) are reported. This French-Greek collaborative study, Gen-Phen-Re-GreekS in inheritable IPF (iIPF), aimed to investigate genetic components and patients' characteristics in the Greek national IPF cohort with suspected heritability.

Acute Respiratory Events in Connective Tissue Disorders.

Subacute-acute, hyperacute, or even catastrophic and fulminant respiratory events occur in almost all classic connective tissue disorders (CTDs); they may share systemic life-threatening manifestations, may precipitously lead to respiratory failure requiring ventilatory support as well as a combination of specific therapeutic measures, and in most affected patients constitute the devastating end-of-life event. In CTDs, acute respiratory events may be related to any respiratory compartment including the airways, lung parenchyma, alveolar capillaries, lung vessels, pleura, and ventilatory muscles. Acute respiratory events may also precipitate disease-specific extrapulmonary organ involvement such as aspiration pneumonia and lead to digestive tract involvement and heart-related respiratory events.

Investigation of Lung Involvement in Connective Tissue Disorders.

Lung involvement in connective tissue disorders (CTDs) may present as pleomorphic since any lung compartment may be involved such as airways, exocrine secretory and alveolar epithelia, interstitial lung structure, pulmonary vasculature and pleura as well as, in specific disorders, several tissues of the thoracoabdominal ventilator pump. Any combination of the above anatomic structures may be involved concomitantly although some specific combinations may include a determinant of rheumatic disorders. The diagnosis of a specific CTD requires the fulfilment of clearly defined clinical and laboratory criteria including in most cases positivity for autoantibodies, mostly specific serologic combinations.

A highly carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolate with a novel blaVIM-4/blaP1b integron overexpresses two efflux pumps and lacks OprD.

Objectives: A Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolate that exhibited high-level carbapenem resistance and produced metallo-beta-lactamase (MBL) was recovered from a Greek patient. This study was conducted to determine the underlying mechanisms that conferred the carbapenem resistance phenotype.

Methods: MICs were determined by Etest and Etest MBL.

Secular growth changes in the Hellenic population in the twentieth century.

Statural growth is dependent on hereditary and environmental factors, i.e disease, nutrition. The improvement of socioeconomic conditions that took place during the 20th century resulted in a secular trend towards greater height and earlier sexual maturation.

Evaluation of the fully automated Bactec MGIT 960 system for the susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to first-line drugs: a multicenter study.

The accuracy of the Bactec MGIT 960 system for susceptibility testing of 177 clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to first line drugs (isoniazid, rifampicin, ethambutol and streptomycin) was compared with the agar reference method. The sensitivity, the ability to detect resistance, of the MGIT system was 100%, while the specificity, the ability to detect susceptibility, ranged from 98.6% to 100% for all drugs tested.

Persistence of a clone of glycopeptide-resistant Enterococcus faecalis among patients in an intensive care unit of a Greek hospital.

Objectives: To investigate an outbreak of glycopeptide-resistant Enterococcus faecalis (GREF) in the intensive care unit (ICU) of 'G. Gennimatas' General Hospital, Athens, Greece.

Materials And Methods: Between August 2000 and November 2001, 20 highly GREF isolates were recovered from severe infections of separate patients in the ICU.

Multicenter evaluation of the fully automated Bactec MGIT 960 system for susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to pyrazinamide: comparison with the radiometric Bactec 460TB system.

One hundred and fifty clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis were tested for susceptibility to pyrazinamide using the fully automated Bactec MGIT 960 system and the radiometric Bactec 460TB system. The overall concordance rate between MGIT 960 and radiometric system was 100% and the mean turnaround times to report the susceptibility test results were almost identical (6.37 and 6.

Novel variant (bla(VIM-4)) of the metallo-beta-lactamase gene bla(VIM-1) in a clinical strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

A Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolate highly resistant to carbapenems was collected from a patient with postsurgical cerebrospinal infection in Greece. The isolate carried a class 1 integron that contained as a sole cassette the gene bla(VIM-4), a novel variant of bla(VIM-1), with one nucleotide difference resulting in a Ser-to-Arg change at amino acid position 175 of the VIM-1 enzyme. This is the first detection of a VIM-1 variant after its appearance in Italy.