Background: Bacterial biofilm formation (BBF) proves itself to be in the spotlight of microbiology research due to the wide variety of infections that it can be associated with, the involvement in food spoilage, industrial biofouling and perhaps sewage treatment. However, BBF remains difficult to study due to the lack of standardization of the existing methods and the expensive equipment needed. We aim to describe a new inexpensive and easy to reproduce protocol for a 3D-printed microfluidic device that can be used to study BBF in a dynamic manner.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCOVID-19 offers ideal premises for bacteria to develop antimicrobial resistance. In this study, we evaluated the presence of several antimicrobial resistance genes (ARG) in vancomycin-resistant (VRE) isolated from rectal swabs from patients at a hospital in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Rectal swabs were cultivated on CHROMID VRE (bioMérieux, Marcy-l' Étoile, France) and positive isolates were identified using MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry (Bruker Daltonics, Bremen, Germany) and further analyzed using the PCR technique for the presence of the following ARGs: , , , , , , , , , , , , , and .
View Article and Find Full Text PDF(1) Background: This paper aims to provide a description of non-faecalis non-faecium enterococci isolated from a tertiary care hospital in Romania and to briefly review the existing literature regarding the involvement of Enterococcus raffinosus, Enterococcus durans and Enterococcus avium in human infections and their antimicrobial resistance patterns; (2) Methods: We retrospectively analyzed all Enteroccocus species isolated from the “Prof. Dr. O.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has proved to be a significant risk addition for invasive infections with Even though there are plenty of data about the COVID-19-associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA), especially involving , recent studies are presenting cases of CAPA involving more than one species of . We report the first case of a SARS-CoV-2 patient associating co-infection with, most likely, section Fumigati and section Flavi from Romania, and we review the existing medical literature in order to shed light upon mixed etiology cases of CAPA. Since mortality remains high in these cases, there is an acute need for more information about the interaction between SARS-CoV-2 and spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFANCA+ associated vasculitis (AAV) is a group of rare diseases with potentially vision-threatening complications. Ocular and orbital complications of these diseases are caused by vasculitis of the small vessels of the eye or by granulomatous mass formation. ANCA (anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies) represent a key component of pathophysiological pathways as well as a diagnostic marker.
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