Characterizing uncommon Burkholderia cepacia complex isolates from an outbreak in a haemodialysis unit.

An outbreak of bacteraemia in a haemodialysis unit where 65 episodes of infection involved 35 outpatients is reported. Burkholderia cepacia complex was the agent most frequently recovered from blood. Thirty-three environmental and clinical isolates of B.

Pseudo-outbreak of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Serratia marcescens related to bronchoscopes.

Objective: To investigate an apparent outbreak involving simultaneous isolation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Serratia marcescens from bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples.

Design: Retrospective and prospective cohort studies using chart review, environmental sampling, and ribotyping of all available isolates. Cleaning and disinfection procedures for the bronchoscopes were also evaluated.

The role of integrons in the dissemination of antibiotic resistance among clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from an intensive care unit in Brazil.

Eighty-five Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates resistant to various antibiotics were selected from the intensive care unit of a Brazilian hospital and analyzed for integron content by PCR. Fifty-four of them had class-1-related integrons, some of which were identical. Integron-positive isolates were statistically more resistant to aminoglicoside, quinolone and beta-lactam compounds.

Reliability of hsp65-RFLP analysis for identification of Mycobacterium species in cultured strains and clinical specimens.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability of an amplification restriction analysis based method (hsp65-RFLP) to detect and identify mycobacterial species in clinical samples and cultures with low number of bacilli. We examined 247 clinical specimens and 88 culture vials, comparing hsp65-RFLP results with conventional culture/biochemical tests. The analytical sensitivity of the method was assessed with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), broncho-alveolar lavage (BAL), sputum, water, and 12B medium containing defined amounts of mycobacterial chromosome.