Embryonic neural cell adhesion molecule in cerebrospinal fluid of younger children: age-dependent decrease during the first year.

Poly-alpha-2,8-N-acetylneuraminic acid (poly-alpha-2,8-NeuAc) is developmentally expressed in neural tissue of higher animals, where it is covalently attached to the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM), a large integral membrane glycoprotein mediating cell-cell adhesion during neuronal development. NCAM exists in several molecular forms, of which only embryonic NCAM carries lengthy chains (n greater than 5) of poly-alpha-2,8-NeuAc. Chemically identical poly-alpha-2,8-NeuAc of bacterial origin is an important virulence factor in infections caused by Neisseria meningitidis group B and Escherichia coli K1, the predominant pathogens of bacterial meningitis.

[Lyme borreliosis: underdiagnosed?--overtreated?].

Lyme borreliosis is a tick-borne mediated systemic inflammatory disorder caused by a newly recognized spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi. Its clinical hallmark is an early expanding skin lesion, erythema chronicum migrans (ECM) which may be followed weeks to months later by neurological, cardiac, or joint abnormalities. Symptoms may be associated with any of these systems alone or in combination.

[Antibody base titer against the yeast fungus of the Candida family in childhood].

Because of the omnipresence of yeasts belonging to the species Candida it is not easy to distinguish between contamination and infection in patients (e.g. swabs from skin or mucous membranes).

[Microbiology of streptococcal infections].

Since the discovery of streptococci by the surgeon of Vienna, Theodor Billroth, more than 100 years ago, they have proved to be a bacterial group of great medical and epidemiological importance. The classification in growth-characteristics on blood culture mediums (alpha-, beta- and gamma-hemolysis) has been detached by the evidence of group specific cell wall antigens. The antigene extraction described by Lancefield can distinguish at least 21 serogroups (A-T).