Critical Steps in Shotgun Metagenomics-Based Diagnosis of Bloodstream Infections Using Nanopore Sequencing.

Shotgun metagenomics offers a broad detection of pathogens for rapid blood stream infection of pathogens but struggles with often low numbers of pathogens combined with high levels of human background DNA in clinical samples. This study aimed to develop a shotgun metagenomics protocol using blood spiked with various bacteria and to assess bacterial DNA extraction efficiency with human DNA depletion. The Blood Pathogen Kit (Molzym) was used to extract DNA from EDTA-whole blood (WB) and plasma samples, using contrived blood specimens spiked with bacteria for shotgun metagenomics diagnostics via Oxford Nanopore sequencing and PCR-based library preparation.

Early prediction of blood stream infection in a prospectively collected cohort.

Background: Blood stream infection (BSI) and sepsis are serious clinical conditions and identification of the disease-causing pathogen is important for patient management. The RISE (Rapid Identification of SEpsis) study was carried out to collect a cohort allowing high-quality studies on different aspects of BSI and sepsis. The aim of this study was to identify patients at high risk for BSI who might benefit most from new, faster, etiological testing using neutrophil to lymphocyte count ratio (NLCR) and Shapiro score.

Evaluation of the FilmArray™ Meningitis/Encephalitis panel with focus on bacteria and Cryptococcus spp.

Purpose: Molecular methods provide fast and accurate detection of both bacteria and viruses in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) causing infection in the central nervous system (CNS). In the present study we evaluated the bacterial detection performance of the fully automated FilmArray™ Meningitis/Encephalitis (ME) panel (bioMérieux) by comparing it with culture and multiplexed in-house PCR.

Methods: Three sample types were analysed; Contrived samples with known bacterial/fungal concentration (n = 29), clinical samples from patients with verified cause of CNS infection (n = 17) and external quality assessment (EQA) samples (n = 11).

Bacterial Endocarditis of the Pulmonic Valve in a Dog.

An 11 yr old female spayed golden retriever weighing 30.3 kg presented for evaluation of progressive lethargy, anorexia, tachypnea, stiff gait, and nonlocalized pain. On physical exam, the patient was febrile and tachycardic, and an arrhythmia with pulse deficits was noted.

Serum alkaline phosphatase activity in Scottish Terriers versus dogs of other breeds.

Objective: To determine whether Scottish Terriers have higher serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities and a higher prevalence of diseases commonly associated with high serum ALP activity than do dogs of other breeds.

Design: Retrospective case-control study.

Animals: 85 Scottish Terriers and 340 age-matched control dogs that were not Scottish Terriers.

Extrahepatic manifestations in hepatitis C virus infection.

The authors present a revision of the literature and also their own experience concerning extrahepatic manifestations in hepatitis C virus infection. A special attention receives the lymphotropism of HCV with mixed cryoglobulinemia and leukocytoclastic vasculitis, lichen planus and porphyria cutanea tarda.

Biochemical analysis of neoplastic versus nonneoplastic abdominal effusions in dogs.

This prospective study of 15 dogs evaluated biochemical parameters in abdominal effusions of neoplastic and nonneoplastic origin in an attempt to identify markers for malignant effusions. Dogs in the neoplastic group had statistically significant lower glucose concentrations (mean, 72.6 mg/dL versus 110.

Low back injuries among home health aides compared with hospital nursing aides.

Data were collected from all incident reports of low back injury during 1984-1986 among nursing aides at one hospital and home health aides at two agencies in the Baltimore-Washington area. Respective rates of injury were 5.9/100 FTE's and 15.

Elastosis in breast carcinoma.

Elastosis, the significant increase of elastic tissue, was identified by histochemical methods in 45 (53.5%) cases of an unselected series of breast cancers. They were all invasive ductal carcinomas with or without tubular differentiation.

Different behaviour of thymus in hosts bearing skin homografts or ehrlich ascites carcinoma.

Thymus behaviour in A2G male mice transplanted with skin homografts or Ehrlich ascites carcinoma was followed for a period of 28 days. In comparison with control mice of the same strain in which only a slowly physiological involution of the thymus was observed, a marked, irreversible involution was seen in the tumour-bearing mice in contrast with the transient, completely recovered involution in animals transplanted with skin homografts. Thymus behaviour appears as the major structural difference between a host developping a strongly efficient or an inefficient immune response.