Invasive Infection in Patients With Bacterial Infective Endocarditis.

Over 21 months, 12 patients with invasive infections detected during the course of treatment of bacterial endocarditis, including 11 with candidemia, were identified. Invasive infections can occur as a complication of bacterial endocarditis and may occur more frequently in patients with injection drug use and broad-spectrum antibiotic exposure.

Neutrophils from Both Susceptible and Resistant Mice Efficiently Kill Opsonized Listeria monocytogenes.

Inbred mouse strains differ in their susceptibility to infection with the facultative intracellular bacterium , largely due to delayed or deficient innate immune responses. Previous antibody depletion studies suggested that neutrophils (polymorphonuclear leukocytes [PMN]) were particularly important for clearance in the liver, but the ability of PMN from susceptible and resistant mice to directly kill has not been examined. In this study, we showed that PMN infiltrated the livers of BALB/c/By/J (BALB/c) and C57BL/6 (B6) mice in similar numbers and that both cell types readily migrated toward leukotriene B4 in an chemotaxis assay.